Law Times

lAw Times • April 30, 2012 Health lawyer has seen the business from all sides Alan Belaiche recounts his career path as he goes solo for first time NEWS BY JULIUS MELNITZER For Law Times G iven that knowing the company' requirements clients have of their lawyers these days, those seeking health-law expertise might do well to look up Toronto-based Alan Belaiche. After almost 25 years in the ularly shows up as one of the most important s business reg- field, Belaiche has just opened his own law practice, Belaiche Law, with a focus on health law and the health-care industry. It' time he has attempted practising on his own. But then again, being a sole practitioner is essentially the only way of practising health law that he hasn't attempted given his previous stints at national and regional firms as well as working in government and as in-house counsel at a hospital. "I've always had an inter- s the first est in health law and took what- ever courses I could take at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, WeirFoulds LLP, Belaiche joined the firm as an associate. "That was a great formative experience," he says. "I got excel- " says Belaiche. After articling at Toronto's hand look at the structure and operation of large bureaucracies," he says. In 1997, government employ- "On a broad scale, I got a first- ment led to a secondment at the Ministry of Health where he discovered that the skills he had learned with respect to non-profit and public bodies applied equally well to hospitals. Belaiche' at the Ministry of Health gave him the opportunity to sit across the table from the Ontario Medical Association during negotiations on the family health network agree- ment and to work on the extensive hospital restructuring mandated by the government in the late 1990s. Again, the experience was s four-year secondment good, but Belaiche would soon be ready to move on. "I've heard it said that working in the public service strips you of passion, initiative, and common sense, while, you're chomping at the bit to have a voice and be heard, but the large bureaucracy makes you just a cog in a big machine. " he says. "So after a Reports led him to an interview with Miller Thomson LLP' regarded health-law practice. "I relearned the value of law- lent exposure to bigger corporate deals, commercial law, the vaga- ries of private law practice, and the intricacies of firm politics and hierarchy. law to keep Belaiche stimulated for more than a year. When a posting at what was then But there wasn't enough health " known as the Ministry of Culture, Communications, Tourism, Recreation, and Citizenship came up with the provincial government in 1989, he saw an opportunity. "The ministry had such a broad In 2001, an ad in Ontario s well- " yers' time and the discipline of time management," he says. "The experience also fit in well with my strong client service orientation and gave me a chance to build cli- ent relationships in the context of collaboration with other lawyers and support from firm resources." Three years into his stint at Miller Thomson, Belaiche heard about an opportunity at St. Michael' general counsel in 2004. "In-house was one place I hadn't mandate that people used to call it the ministry of miscellaneous mat- ters," he says. "I got terrific exposure to commercial law from the pub- lic side, learned about intellec- tual property while advising the McMichael gallery, and dealt with licensing and copyright at the Ontario Science Centre. Belaiche gained experience in " the non-share sector and to the broader public sector where I learned how Crown agencies are managed and operated. been and I thought it was a good opportunity to see the insides of an academic health science centre, which some people have called the most complex organization in the world, tiple competing accountabilities for hospital employees, university involvement for medical staff, and figuring out how the disparate orga- nization actually functioned. The learning curve was at least two years. "I learned a lot of new skills, The complexities included mul- " says Belaiche. including how to manage exter- nal counsel, how to assess risk tolerance, what the business of a s Hospital. He joined as hospital really was, and how to navigate insti- tutional dynamics and politics," says Belaiche. A continuing prob- lem was what Belaiche, now fully versed in hos- pital lingo, calls "triaging the work" in the sense of managing the expecta- tion that he could be all things to all people at the hospital despite a lack of internal legal support. By the time he left the hospital earlier this year, however, Belaiche had built a law department comprised of yers and a paralegal. "The upshot was that four law- we could now deal with the hospital' hand in redeveloping the hospi- tal' he learned about how medical and other professional staff are man- aged and governed. He worked on compliance projects, particular ly in the areas of privacy and pro- curement, and also on the medi- cal advisory committee that dealt with credentialing and privileges. One might think that at age Belaiche had an important s bylaws. Through that work, " he says. 52, Belaiche had found his spot. Think again. " myself waiting to retire at the hos- pital as I felt that there was more to my professional career to come, he says. After discussions with various " After 7 1/2 years, I couldn't see After 25 years in the field, Alan Belaiche is launching a new career as a sole practitioner. ly in-house instead of relying on patchwork advice from external counsel, s legal needs efficient- law firms and watching the grow- ing phenomenon of niche bou- tiques, Belaiche thought the time was ripe to strike out on his own. " health care, I can pin- point issues and options to a high degree of accu- racy without running them through a 60-page memorandum. technology has lev- elled the playing field between sole practitio- ners and big firms. So far, things are Belaiche also believes " going well. "The health industry cluded that I didn't need the brand that established firms offered, says. "On the other hand, after 25 years of practice, I had been exposed to a lot of things, had acquired specialized knowledge about hospitals, health care, and health-care professionals, and I knew a lot of people. understood his prospective cli- ents' needs. "I also appreciated the impor- tance of meeting those needs directly and without a lot of bag- gage and overhead, model is perhaps broken, and I think that with my knowledge of "Arguably, the big law firm " he says. Above all, Belaiche knew he " At the end of the day, I con- " he has attracted so far includes con- tract review, risk management analysis, non-litigious dispute resolution, governance matters, and practice plan development for groups of physicians. He' Belaiche notes. Still, the work Belaiche ting together a guide on how to integrate a group of health profes- sionals into a public hospital. "My familiarity with internal s also put- is huge, but the matters that have been referred to me are generally speaking of a corporate nature and to a large extent revolve around PAGE 3 governance," dynamics should result in a user- friendly roadmap for hospitals going through the process," he says. But is his own practice the wan- dering lawyer's last stop? ever to go elsewhere, it would likely be as general counsel to another organization," he says. "A big law firm is an even more remote possibility considering the mandatory retire- ment issues that are arising and the way that these firms are set up to transition to younger lawyers." LT "Never say never, but if I were CHOOSE FROM CANADA'S TOP MEDIATORS AND ARBITRATORS We are pleased to announce that Frank Zaid, has joined ADR Chambers, and is available to conduct mediations and arbitrations. Frank will serve as the Chair of the Franchising Expert Panel. Frank Zaid B.A.Sc. (Chem. Eng.), LL.B (Hons.) adrchambers.com | adr@adrchambers.com 416.362.8555 | 800.856.5154 His extensive experience in franchising includes being involved with over 300 franchise systems, and participating as an owner/investor as both franchisor and franchisee in several franchised businesses. Frank has 40 years of experience in business law with an emphasis on franchising, licensing, intellectual property, marketing and distribution law. He has been consistently nominated by his peers as the most frequently recommended franchise lawyer in Canada and one of the most frequently recommended franchise lawyers in the world. Untitled-1 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 12-04-19 8:23 AM

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