Juggling startup life, law practice and fatherhood - January review
Quite the week last week, one of the more hectic ones, where a lot of business and personal stuff picked up and collided.
But hey, it definitely wasn’t boring.
On the Visto side (for those newer to the substack, Visto.ai is the immigration platform I cofounded that helps immigration firms work faster), last week was packed with demos. My best guess is because everyone got back from the holidays, spent the first week or two of January playing catch up, and now lots of firms are looking to implement more AI and tech for 2025.
So it was a mix of giving demos, training sessions to our new firms and checking in with our longtime users. And as always, I get to do testing on all of the new AI features our developers are working on.
That’s the real fun stuff, especially because it helps me keep tabs on how powerful AI really is and where I think it could take the legal industry.
Which brings me to topic #2, my law firm.
As I mentioned in one of my earlier emails of 2025, I’ve been getting really bored and frustrated with Canadian immigration application work. A lot of it is very repetitive and now the government is slower than ever and refusing things for no good reason, so I’ve decided to shift some of my focus over to barrister work.
For the non-legal crowd on this list, barrister work is about representing clients in court, as compared to soliticor work that is more transactional and non-litigation focused (think real estate, corporate, wills, etc.).
So far it’s meant a few immigration judicial review files (this is basically an appeal, where your immigration application is refused so you take it to court to be reversed) and also digging into family law too. I’m still newer to family law but have had some great conversations with experienced family lawyers over the last few weeks to get their advice, and I’m likely going to sink my teeth into a few legal aid files here in the GTA to get a taste.
Stay tuned, as I’ll definitely be sharing more on all of the above as it progresses.
On the personal side, still getting used to this “being a dad” thing. Not the tasks themselves, because we’ve gotten into a good routine and I’m loving every minute of it, moreso on the side of 1) having way less free time than I used to and 2) getting less sleep.
I’ve quickly realized how important prioritizing is going to be, and also just making the most of every minute I have on the work side. Working way more efficiently to squeeze as much out of the time I do have for work is going to be critical this year, while I also make sure to enjoy the time away from it.
It’s one of the main reasons I’m using and testing so many AI tools, and also one of the reasons I only coach up to 3 people at a time, 1-on-1, to help them build their personal brand/businesses on the coaching side. If you’re looking to grow your following/business in 2025, hit “reply” and let me know to get more details.
Have a great day,
- Josh Schachnow
Canadian lawyer, CEO at Visto.ai