McCarthy Tétrault has appointed legal tech veteran Sahil Zaman to lead a new division focused on automating and streamlining transactional legal work — a move that underscores the firm’s growing investment in artificial intelligence and operational innovation.
According to Zaman, the new group will merge legal work automation with business building, integrating AI tools, software platforms, and data-driven workflows to accelerate transactions while improving consistency and cost predictability.
Zaman brings extensive experience at the intersection of law and technology. Most recently, he served as Head of Legora Canada, helping expand the AI company’s presence in the legal sector. Prior to that, he led business and legal transaction management at iManage from 2020 to 2023, following iManage’s acquisition of Closing Folders, the legal transaction management startup he co-founded and led as CEO.
Before entering legal technology, Zaman spent more than two years with Baker McKenzie, where he handled domestic and cross-border corporate, commercial, and securities transactions.
“The goal is simple: make transactional legal work faster, more consistent, and more cost-predictable,” Zaman wrote on LinkedIn. “It’s a bit ironic to be joining a major law firm as a partner, considering I left the practice of law (forever, I said!) right after being called to the bar. Turns out, forever lasts just over a decade.”
“For me, this move brings together the two things I love most: automating legal work and building businesses. I’ve spent my career at the intersection of law and technology, and this is a rare chance to build something new inside one of Canada’s best firms.”
With Zaman at the helm, McCarthy Tétrault joins a growing number of Canadian law firms creating dedicated innovation teams to modernize transactional work through AI and workflow automation — signaling how quickly technology is reshaping the business of law.