How we picked this year’s Precedent Setter Award winners

Selecting the winners of our annual Precedent Setter Awards is a mighty undertaking. First, we ask the legal community to nominate lawyers in their first 10 years of practice who have a track record of legal excellence and community involvement. Next, we assemble a panel of four leading lawyers to serve as judges, a job that involves poring over the submissions and determining the winners. 

This year, Precedent’s editor, Daniel Fish, moderated the judges’ meeting over lunch at the University Club in Toronto. “In the previous two years, we held the meeting over Zoom,” says Fish. “But there’s nothing quite like getting together in person with a group of first-rate lawyers to talk about the next generation of legal leaders.” 

The judges—whom you can meet by heading over to our Precedent Setter Awards page—left the lunch with a similar feeling of optimism. “It was fascinating to me to watch how other lawyers have woven their individual legal journeys,” says Warda Shazadi Meighen, a partner at Landings LLP and one of this year’s judges. “I was inspired by the integrity of the lawyers in our profession.”