‘Prairie attitude’ underpins merger of regional law firms
New firm of MLT Aikins offers shared vision, roots in the West
Bigger does not always mean national.
Aikins MacAulay & Thorvaldson LLP, a firm with deep roots in Manitoba, is about to tie the knot with Saskatchewan-based MacPherson Leslie & Tyerman LLP to create Western Canada’s largest regional law firm.
At the heart of the merger, which takes effect Jan. 1, is a belief that both firms have a shared culture that will serve as the glue that will bind MLT’s 140 lawyers and Aikins’ 100 lawyers into a unified team.
The firm will have offices in Winnipeg, in a building that overlooks the city’s legendary — and yes, windy — intersection of Portage Avenue and Main Street, and stretching westward with offices in Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.
“We looked at our similar, longstanding histories and roots in both of our communities. We both have a Prairie attitude,” said David Filmon of Aikins, who will chair the new firm MLT Aikins. “We’re able to look each other in the eye, and we both decided that together we’d be a lot stronger than apart.”
“We knew them, they knew us. We’re both ranked as top firms by Chambers for our particular offices. We just figured out that our vision and their vision matched,” added Don Wilson of MLT, who will be managing partner of the new firm.
Just what is that Prairie attitude? Filmon said it’s about the long-term view the firm has of the business world and the close relationships it has developed with its clients.
Wilson adds that it’s about making sure clients are represented by the whole firm, and not individual lawyers. “No one here said, ‘my client.’ Everything is, ‘our client,’ ” he said. “We share from the same pot. No one fights over clients here.”
MLT, which was founded in Regina in 1920, has grown rapidly under Wilson, who has been managing partner since 2002. The firm opened an office in Saskatoon in the early 1980s to serve the several uranium and resource companies that were operating in Saskatchewan’s north. The firm moved into Calgary 13 years ago and Edmonton 10 years ago, and it did so by opening “greenfield” offices from scratch. It expanded into B.C. two years ago by taking over the Vancouver office of Goodmans LLP.
Why the rapid expansion? The 1990s saw the rise of the national Canadian business law firm as Toronto’s Bay Street stalwarts merged or opened offices across the country.
This posed a challenge for regional firms that worked out of only one or two Canadian cities.
Wilson said MLT recognized that practising in Saskatchewan alone would pose challenges. Regina and Saskatoon have a shorter list of corporate head offices than, say, Calgary or Vancouver. These local head offices can quickly disappear following a merger or a takeover, and when they go, their corporate legal needs can disappear as well.
Rather than join an expanding national firm, MLT decided to control its own destiny by undertaking its own regional expansion.
Operating out of several western Canadian cities would reduce the risk posed by those head office losses. Spearheading its own growth would protect its own culture.
“We’ve passed on a lot of opportunities to merge with folks because we were concerned we would lose this culture,” Wilson said. “No one calls anyone Mr. or Mrs. We’re all first name. Even the 19-year-old backup receptionist knows you’d better call me Don and not Mr. Wilson or you’ll be on the blacklist.”
Manitoba was the missing piece of the puzzle, and Wilson said the Winnipeg market can be tough to crack. MLT’s usual method of opening a greenfield office just wouldn’t work there, Wilson said.
“It’s a highly competitive and somewhat insular market. It became evident to us very quickly that if we were going to become a factor there, it would have to be with someone that was already established there.”
Fortunately, MLT lawyers over the years have developed a good relationship with Aikins, a Winnipeg firm that has been present in the city for 130 years.
And as it turns out, Aikins was itself looking for ways to respond to changes in the legal market.
“We were definitely on each other’s radar screens,” Filmon said.
“We had lots of mutual referral work together. We’re the largest firm in Manitoba, they’re the largest firm in Saskatchewan. So there have been relationships formed. There’s definitely a mutual respect.”
Change is the word. The challenges aren’t just coming from the big Bay Street firms that have gone national. Some Canadian law firms have even gone international by merging with global legal giants.
The status quo is not an option. For the firm that wants to maintain small, local ties, one solution is to broaden its regional footprint.
“We looked at this as a defensive and an offensive move,” Filmon said. “We’re now going to have one of the largest teams of lawyers in Western Canada. So we have a better geographic reach. We’ll have a one-stop shop with a much larger network of legal experts in Western Canada.”
We’ve passed on a lot of opportunities to merge with folks because we were concerned we would lose this culture.