# About page — copy (sourced only) Everything here comes from the firm's own published words in this build. The source is named after each block. Nothing requires a client answer before it can go on the page. Items that needed confirming were removed — they are listed at the bottom, and the reasoning is kept in `about-page-copy-draft.md`. --- ## Hero **Tagline:** Not one lawyer. A league. *Source: the organising idea of the rebuild, already used in the homepage prototype.* --- ## Opening > League & Williams is a Victoria law firm built on a simple idea: a client is better > served by a team than by a lawyer working alone. > > Established in August 2014, we act for clients across British Columbia in injury > claims, estate disputes and planning, marine and transportation law, real estate and > business law — from six offices: Victoria, Nanaimo, Duncan, Campbell River, Vancouver > and Kelowna. *Sources: "Established in August 2014, Victoria, BC based League and Williams (LaW)…" (post 4355); the six location pages; the site's own practice-area structure.* --- ## How we work > Our cornerstone philosophy is that clients should have the best recovery possible, and > that fair and just settlements come from working collaboratively with the client and > their care providers as a team. > > So we staff matters as teams, not as individual files. A client works with the lawyer > who fits their issue, and the rest of the bench stands behind that lawyer — litigators, > solicitors, and the assistants who keep a file moving while a client is getting better. **How we work, in practice** — a numbered list of four, beside the intro: > **01 · We listen first.** We get to know each client and their issues, so the solution we > find actually suits them. > > **02 · Clients decide.** We explain the options at every step. The client makes the call, > and we act as their voice. > > **03 · Ready for trial.** Most clients would rather not go to court. Being ready for trial is > what makes a fair settlement possible. > > **04 · Always informed.** We answer quickly and keep clients up to date on their file, > wherever they are in BC. *Sources: post 4366 ("Quality Legal Services are a Function of Firm Values") for all four; the Injury Claims page (14676) for "the options at each step"; post 4359 ("League and Williams Makes Westside Village, Victoria, BC Home") for the electronic file system and video conferencing.* *Deliberately left out, though the same post says them: "our trial record is second to none" and "the largest marine law practice on Vancouver Island". Both are superlative or comparative claims, which the Law Society of BC's marketing rules restrict unless they can be substantiated — use them only if the firm approves the wording. The second is also the source of the "largest marine practice on the Island" line in the homepage prototype.* **Lead-in to the team page** — sits directly above a "Meet the team" button → `/lawyers/`: > Behind every lawyer here is a bench of litigators, solicitors and assistants working the > same file. Meet the team a client gets when they call. *Source: post 4355 ("The LaW Team") and post 4366 ("Quality Legal Services are a Function of Firm Values"). The lead-in adds no new facts — it rewords the "How we work" copy to introduce the team, and leaves that paragraph as written.* --- ## What clients can expect **Section intro** (under the heading, above the value cards): > When clients work with League & Williams, they get a firm that is holistic, effective, > competent, compassionate and responsive — quality legal services and trusted advice from > lawyers who care about them. *Source: post 4366, nearly verbatim — "When clients work with League & Williams they get a firm that is holistic, effective, competent, compassionate, and responsive. Our clients get quality legal services and trusted advice from lawyers who care about them." It also names all five values, which squares the "Five values" heading with the three cards below it.* **Value cards:** > **Effective.** Lawyers are only effective if they have the skill and experience to > represent a client properly — in a settlement negotiation and at trial. > > **Competent, compassionate, responsive.** We answer. We explain what happens next. We > treat the people on the other end of a file as people. > > **Holistic.** A legal problem rarely arrives alone. We look at the whole situation a > client is in, not only the part that fits a claim. *Source: the five values named and explained in post 4366 — holistic, effective, competent, compassionate, responsive.* --- ## Recognition > Victoria News readers have voted League & Williams the best law firm in Victoria in the > Best of the City Awards seven times — in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025. *Source: public listings of the Best of the City results; the firm's own bio copy says "for several years" without naming them. Worth a one-line check with the firm before publishing, including the gap in 2024.* --- ## Timeline block **Section intro** (under the "Twelve years, so far" heading, above the timeline): > League & Williams opened its doors at Westside Village in August 2014. Today the firm works > from downtown Victoria, with six offices across British Columbia. These are the milestones in > between. *Sources: post 4359 ("League and Williams Makes Westside Village, Victoria, BC Home") for August 2014 at Westside Village; the firm's LinkedIn page for the 2026 move to downtown Victoria; the six location pages.* Rows marked **Year XXX** are real milestones with no date I could source — the firm supplies the year and the line goes in as it stands. | Year | Heading | Line | |---|---|---| | 2014 | The firm opens | League & Williams is established in August 2014 and opens its doors at Westside Village on Wilson Street, a short drive from downtown Victoria. | | **Year XXX** | The name | Where "League" comes from. | | 2017 | Before the Supreme Court of Canada | Darren Williams argues *Cowper-Smith v. Morgan* before the Supreme Court of Canada. The court rules unanimously in his client's favour. | | 2018 | Room to grow | The Wilson Street office is expanded — and Victoria News readers name League & Williams the best law firm in Victoria for the first time. | | **Year XXX** | Beyond Victoria | The Nanaimo, Duncan, Campbell River, Vancouver and Kelowna offices open, putting a League & Williams lawyer within reach of most of the province. | | 2018–2025 | Seven times Victoria's best | Readers vote the firm Victoria's best law firm seven times over eight years. | | 2021–2026 | The bench fills out | Litigators and articling students join and stay: five lawyers called to the BC Bar or hired in five years. | | 2026 | Downtown | After twelve years in Victoria West, the firm moves to 850 Courtney Street in downtown Victoria. | | Today | A league of twelve | Twelve lawyers, six offices across BC, five areas of law. | *Sources: the firm's own posts for 2014 (post 4359, "League and Williams Makes Westside Village, Victoria, BC Home", and post 4355); public reporting for the 2017 Supreme Court of Canada decision, the 2018 expansion and the award years; the firm's LinkedIn page for the 2026 move to 850 Courtney Street; the lawyer bios and location pages for the rest.* --- ## Photography — November shoot 1. **The bench, together.** All twelve lawyers in one frame, equal size, standing close. The page's hero image and the visual proof of the tagline. 16:9 master. 2. **Two or three working groups**, 3–4 people mid-conversation over a file, not posed at a boardroom table. Sits beside "How we work". 3. **The Victoria office**, exterior and entrance, in daylight. 4. **Candid portraits of assistants and staff**, not only lawyers — the copy says the whole team moves a file, so the photography should show more than lawyers. 5. **The branded car**, which already appears in the homepage filmstrip and ties the two pages together. Colour, 16:9 masters with room to crop, and every placeholder labelled until the real files land. --- ## Removed from this version The "over 160 years of experience" line and the origin of the name "League" — neither can be stated from any source I could find. They remain as questions in `about-page-copy-draft.md`. **Two lines to check with the firm before publishing:** the list of award years (public listings show 2018–2023 and 2025, with a gap in 2024), and the firm's own role in *Cowper-Smith v. Morgan* — public reporting says Darren Williams argued it, and the firm's LaW Facts refer to a unanimous Supreme Court win, but the SCC's own counsel listing was not reachable to confirm the wording.