WHO WE ARE
There is Nothing Like Us
Controlled by Lawyers, Driven by Talent
CTL Law is a new kind of law firm. We are proud disruptors dedicated to changing the face of debt collection in Canada as well as transforming the legal industry. By embracing a completely different economic business model and using state-of-the-art technology, we are not only reinventing the boundary between law firms and collection agencies, we are changing the way creditors receive legal collection services and how their debtors are treated along the way.
We believe in fairness.
Our innovative model provides our clients with cost-effective business solutions to their debts problems. We’re good at recovery, but we strive to do much more!
Disciplined
We lead with humility, we learn with enthusiasm and surround ourselves with the right talent.
Honest
We embrace a philosophy of transparency and interactivity with our clients.
Ahead of our Time
We are changing the way legal collection services are being provided to creditors and the way debtors are being treated along the way.
Business Driven
We provide our clients with real business solutions.
We’re Different
Describing ourselves using familiar references is something we couldn’t do even if we wanted to. We’re not your typical law firm (but ok… we’re admittedly the modern interpretation of one of them). We’re also not your typical collection agency. We’re something completely new and different in the field of debt collection, and we don’t mind. After all, we are not imposing changes to the legal and collection marketplace; instead we are the natural result of the converging forces currently reshaping and transforming it. There’s a reason for our emergence.
We were actually built on the following premises:
1. the traditional law firm model is too rigid and costly to address the increasing business needs of creditors (let’s face it, the traditional law firm model is broken); and
2. The collection agency structure is incomplete, unsafe for the clients and their debtors and seriously outdated.
We’re different, but we’re good.
That’s a bold statement, we know!
Try us.
Just one bite and we’re convinced you’ll like it.
Our Modern Interpretation of a Collection Law Firm
Our legal ecosystem has been purpose-built and balanced for the delivery of high quality legal collection services at an affordable price. We offer access to justice to creditors.
We believe we have found the right balance between lawyers’ supervision and control and rapid expert delivery, through technology, of non-legal low-risk services by non-lawyers. To quote Goldilocks in the children’s story “The Three Bears”:
This is just right!
With too many lawyers involved, our process would be heavy and unaffordable (believe us …we know), with too few its safety and quality would be compromised. But when you couple just the right amount of seasoned lawyers, used at vital points in the process, with smart, eager and highly trained negotiators and other legal and collection talents, such as paralegals and expert managers, you create a secure and balanced ecosystem where expertise meets affordability and where rapidity and interactivity are the new norm without ever compromising quality.
Workflow Management Methodologies
At CTL, routine non-legal work is being addressed by non-lawyers (even sometimes by our clients) through a system that minimizes costs while identifying aspects of the legal collection services that need additional careful attention by lawyers. We believe that negotiation is to be performed by trained negotiators, claim preparation and document review by clerks and paralegals; customer services by our operation team; etc. leaving only supervision, direction, control and good savvy lawyering to our lawyers… and even then, our lawyers are subject to professional management methodologies to ensure that their work is always performed with the highest level of efficiency.
In other words, we offer our clients the necessary infrastructure and resources to unbundle the non legal aspects of their legal collection operations. This allows for such aspects to be addressed with lower costs and often by more competent individuals, each with their specific responsibilities, then if all was done by lawyers operating in a traditional law firm environment. We’re proud to be original. Only the true lawyering part of our work is strictly traditional.
National Delivery Infrastructure
CTL’s integrated interprovincial and extra-territorial client delivery infrastructure consists of four brick and mortar offices across Canada. In most cases, through our highly trained employees working within our offices, we provide all the legal and non-legal services required by our clients.
In some instances, however, some of the required local services (specific legal opinions, personal service of a claim or a local court attendance would be examples) are being performed by our regional virtual partners as to ensure that we keep the process cost-efficient for our clients. However, rest assured that our virtual partners only complement our debt collection and litigation process, they do not drive the bus. All work they do is strictly done on our secured servers using our collection and litigation management platforms. They are also tightly managed by our professional project managers who ensure the continuous progress of our clients’ cases according to the strictest timelines and in the most cost-efficient way possible. We never delegate our pursuit of results. CTL’s model is to keep a very centralized approach to the delivery of its legal collection services while covering all corners of Canada. This provides better control and ultimately better results for our clients.
Our Business Model
We invented a completely new business model based on entirely different assumptions.
Our structure is designed to leverage legal supervision, control and expertise from lawyers, while maximizing the use of highly trained non-lawyers in the legal collection process, all on a national scale.
Our processes are created and managed by expert managers. Our Nucleus technology is built for efficiency, transparency, flexibility and interactivity.
CTL Law / Lawyers
Supervision & Control of All Operations
CTL Collection
Superior execution driven by:
a) strategic unbundling of non-legal low-right work; and
b) implementation of organic processes and policies ensuring timely progression of all accounts to resolution
CTL Nucleus
Creation and deployment of cutting-edge technology conducive to a cooperative work environment and seamless exchange of information between our team members and clients.
Our People
“At CTL, our people are not following us — they are part of us.”
Lawyers
At CTL, our lawyers range from early-career professionals eager to get their feet wet, to accomplished mid-career and seasoned lawyers ready to use their years of experience to provide more sophisticated legal services.
Some of our lawyers are part of our nucleus and work in-house in one of our four regional brick-and-mortar offices (Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver). Others are virtual partners who contribute to our operations by attending court on our behalf or by reviewing legal material or providing legal opinions, whenever required. Through the use of our technology, we provide a decentralized environment for our lawyers while maintaining a highly centralized control over the delivery of our legal collection services. All of our virtual partners are pre-approved through a very thorough reference check and audit process and the quality of their work is constantly audited to ensure they only deliver best-in-class savvy lawyering.
Our virtual partners complement our debt collection and litigation process, they do not drive the bus. All act under our strict control and supervision and must follow the timelines imposed by our highly centralized debt collection and litigation process. All must also strictly work on our secured servers using our collection and litigation management platforms. This greatly enhances our control over their activities, the security of our clients’ information, and facilitates the real-time exchange of information between the various members of our team and our clients.
Paralegals and Law Clerks
Our legal team include numerous non-lawyers with varying roles and responsibilities that range from paralegals to law clerks, negotiators and document specialists. These highly trained individuals are essential to supporting our legal collection activities and providing cost-effective results to our clients.
Negotiators
Our negotiators are highly trained to understand the nuances of contracts and work to educate debtors and creditors on understanding their agreements and to negotiate and finalize practical settlements. These individuals work under the direct supervision and control of our lawyers who oversee their negotiations through the use of our speech analytics technology and with the assistance of our project managers. Their work and successes are vital to the good functioning of our model and as such these individuals are regularly offered specialized training designed to improve their skills and knowledge and assist them in their activities.
Business Operations
Our Business Operations team is composed of individuals with responsibilities that range from finance and IT to administration, customer services and marketing. Thanks to their passion and unrelenting attention to detail, the rest of our company can perform at the unparalleled level of quality and efficiency for which we are known.
Professional Management
These are the experts developing, creating and overseeing our project management methodology. They have been trained in our ecosystem and they make it hum. They keep all the plates spinning.
Senior Leadership
François Sauvageau
President & CEO
With years of litigation and business experience as well as technical expertise at his fingertips, François leads the development of our innovative technology and processes to deliver affordable legal collection solutions to creditors with both speed and efficiency.
Whether he is flying his vintage airplane, travelling for business or spending time with his family, François is always on the lookout for new opportunities. He wants to get to the future first…
Click here for more information about François.
Daniel Bazan
Executive Vice-President
Daniel is the man in charge of all our day-to-day collection operations. Whatever type of debt portfolio you have, chances are that he managed it in the past in one way or another. Not kidding.
If you want to find Daniel on a Friday afternoon during the summer, no need to call the office. He’ll be golfing somewhere nice and chances are you won’t hear from him until the day is over. If you leave him a message though, be prepared to hear back from him in the middle of the night or on Sunday morning. He’s that type of guy.