Country report: Canada

It is with great pleasure that I am able to introduce to you a new feature of Managing Partner magazine: our international-focus country reports. We would also like to welcome Anna Head, who joins the Managing Partner team from In Brief, and will head up the country reports into 2006. By Caroline Poynton, editor, Managing Partner.

The magazine has always strived to produce up-to-the-minute informative guidance on strategic management in the legal profession. This is the first time, however, that Managing Partner has taken a truly global view of legal practice via in-depth reports on the leading law firms and dominant legislative issues facing specific countries.

Under Anna’s guidance, you will be seeing several more country reports during 2006 as Managing Partner embarks on its global travels, but we kick off our journey in Canada, a country whose legal profession might ironically be viewed as fairly conservative in the international arena. While competition is fierce among leading Canadian firms for a place in the top tier (currently made up of a small selection of firms called the ‘seven sisters’), many firms have deemed international expansion a risk too far, having witnessed the failure of several international joint ventures/overseas offices in the nineties. Indeed, of the firms writing in this report, only Blake Cassels & Graydon (Blakes) has more than one overseas office and, for a seven-sisters firm, its two overseas ventures plus two US offices look reserved compared to some other non-Canadian law firms on the international stage.

Having said that, there is nothing insular about the way these firms are approaching legal practice in Canada. Reflecting the multinational business environment facing law firms across the globe, the issues presented by the firms in this report are distinctly international. From internet/IT issues to cross-border spin-offs and fraud litigation, our contributors provide invaluable insights into the progression of Canadian law and how it fits into the bigger global-business picture.

As for the firms themselves, they reflect the range of legal businesses operating in Canada today. In the top tier, Blakes has the benefit of over 500 lawyers across nine offices to reinforce its position among the seven-sister firms in Canada. But competition is fierce, not only from rival tier-one firms, but also from tier-two firms wanting a slice of the increasingly limited top-end work. Ogilvy Renault and Bennett Jones both have a long history and have built up an impressive selection of offices across Canada, but Gowlings has demonstrated its ambition to compete with the biggest firms, with several mergers over the past few years making it one of the largest national firms in Canada today. At the other end of the spectrum is boutique practice Deeth Williams & Wall, which has opted for a specialised route to success, with particular expertise in intellectual-property and technology law.

The firms demonstrate trends that are not only happening in Canada but in law firms across the globe. The biggest firms can bring far weightier resources to bear across the most complex international transactions and top-end deals. Indeed, it looks likely that mergers and consolidation will be a key feature in the Canadian legal profession in coming years, as firms strive to further dominate the market and its available opportunities. But, as in other countries, there are many firms that will choose to specialise, divesting themselves of practices that are less profitable, to invest time and money in the practices and people that can truly differentiate them in a particular sphere of technical expertise.

Large, medium or small, however, firms in Canada are facing the competitive pressures of a modern business world, where clients are more demanding than ever and firms have to justify the cost of their services like never before.

In this environment, an ability to demonstrate an understanding of client needs in a fast-moving international environment will be crucial. For Canadian firms and their counterparts across the world, there may be challenges ahead, but for those that can keep up with the prevailing competitive spirit, there is plenty to look forward to.

Contents:

Competition and change: The Canadian legal landscape

Bennett Jones LLP - Fighting fraud across borders

Bennett Jones LLP - Putting partnerships first

Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP - Bank mergers

Deeth Williams Wall - Intellectual property laws

Deeth Williams Wall - Taming the internet

Gowlings - Lighting the way?

Ogilvy Renault - Cross-border spin-offs (Canadian tax implications)