Sultan Lawyers is a Toronto-based employment and immigration law firm that represents both employers and employees. An award-winning firm, they represent clients across Canada and beyond.
As the firm’s manager for nearly eight years, Majella Lahert oversees HR, operations, and marketing. And before Rise, she was still tracking every vacation day, sick day, and approval the way many firms still do: across spreadsheets, email chains, and manual entries. For a firm that prides itself on precision, it was the last corner still running on manual work.
That changed when Majella began preparing for maternity leave. She needed a system her team could rely on without her at the centre of it. That search led her to Rise’s all-in-one HR and payroll platform. What she found didn’t just cover her leave. It changed how the firm runs HR — permanently.
In this story
Before Rise
Keeping track of who was off and when fell to Majella — and to a growing stack of spreadsheets and email threads. The team had been using a different HRIS software alongside separate Excel trackers for vacation, sick leave, and every other kind of time off. The systems were disconnected. Majella describes what that looked like day-to-day:
“The process was manual and fragmented. Multiple spreadsheets, email chains, possibly missed entries. And approvals were time-consuming, because we had to manually update every request and every balance.”
Across nine people and a full year of vacation and sick days, the manual work piled up: an entry to log here, a balance to update there, an approval waiting on someone to get to it.
And all of it ran through Majella. As long as she was there to keep it moving, the firm managed. But she was about to go on maternity leave — and before she did, she needed to know the whole system could keep running smoothly without her at the centre of it.
Why Majella chose Rise
When Majella was about to go on maternity leave, she needed an HR software solution that could support the firm while she was away.
“We needed a clear system in place for the main lawyer and the team so that they could easily manage in my absence,” Majella tells us. “The overall goal was to reduce any administrative burden and increase accuracy, and give leadership a simple way to review and approve requests without extra data entry.”
So she took her time and looked closely before committing. Majella reviewed a long list of HR products across Canada and the U.S., weighing each one against what a growing firm like hers actually needed.
A few features mattered more than the rest. The system had to bring HR, time off, and payroll into one place, instead of the scattered tools she was replacing. It had to be simple enough that lawyers and staff could use it without heavy training. And it had to be Canadian, aligned with local employment standards, with the bonus of supporting another Canadian tech firm.
Rise was the platform that checked every box. For Majella, it came down to a few things:
“We reviewed countless HR products in Canada and in the U.S., and we felt that Rise offered the most value for a growing Canadian firm. HR, payroll, and time off in one system, with clear approval flows.”
What Sultan Lawyers needed from an HR platform
- One system for HR, time off, and payroll — not separate spreadsheets and trackers
- An interface lawyers and staff could use without heavy training
- A Canadian platform aligned with local employment standards and holidays
- A simple way for the lead lawyer to review and approve requests in Majella's absence
- Clear approval flows that didn't depend on one person being at their desk
Everything in its place: How Rise helped build a reliable HR workflow
Majella emphasizes how easy it was to get started with Rise. After initial help from Rise’s onboarding team, Majella invited the firm’s employees to the platform, and the transition was seamless.
Employees got a simpler view than the admin side she managed. Enough to see who was off that day, that week, or that month, and to check their own vacation and sick balances without asking anyone. Everything they needed sat on one dashboard: time off, calendars, even past pay stubs.
While Majella was away, the firm's founding lawyer stepped in to handle approvals.
“No one had to message him, which was nice for employees, not having to message your boss asking for time off. They'd put it in the software, and he'd just look at the dates and approve, approve, approve,” Majella told us.
And when Majella returned to the office, she picked up right where the team had left off. Everything was already in place.
What Sultan Lawyers gained with Rise
- One dashboard for time off, calendars, balances, and pay stubs
- Self-serve access, so employees stopped asking where things stood
- Time-off requests the lead lawyer could approve in a click
- HR that kept running accurately while Majella was on leave
- A return with no backlog and no surprises
Peace of mind and time saved with Rise
What Majella values most about Rise isn’t one specific feature. It’s peace of mind. With a modern HR platform, the firm no longer has to worry about the possible errors from manual reporting, like missed entries and out-of-date balances.
“Rise has helped us modernize our HR operations and remove the risk that comes with manual tracking,” Majella tells us. “For the industry we're in, and as a law firm, that's important. It's an easy, trustworthy system to manage time off and approvals.”
And the transition to a digital system, she explains, made sense for the long-term direction of the firm to save time.
“We're heavy users of tech, so this was the last piece of the puzzle to get us off manual work. Rise is game-changing software.”
On top of trust and time savings, Rise also fits into Sultan Lawyers’ culture and mission. And if anyone in the legal industry is considering HR and payroll software, Majella emphasizes how aligned Rise is with their firm’s culture.
“The platform supports our culture of being organized, compliant, and people-focused, which is important for an employment and immigration firm. I would most certainly recommend the software for anyone in the industry.”
Ready to modernize your HR? See what Rise can do for law firms and book a demo with our team today!
