National Post (National Edition)
The top corporate lawyers in Canada.
Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP has once again been named Canada’s Law Firm of the Year by influential legal publisher Chambers and Partners.
The results were announced with the publication of Chambers Global 2013, a popular directory that companies from all over the world use when they are looking for top-ranked business lawyers in a specific location or with a specific practice expertise. Blakes received similar recognition in 2012.
“This prominent national firm continues to attract market-leading work across all practice areas and sectors,” Chambers said in a release. “Blakes is well known for its high-end oil and gas transactions practice, as well as for its significant cross-border expertise.”
Blakes was one of five firms short-listed for the award. The others, in alphabetical order, were Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Fasken Martineau LLP, McCarthy Tétrault LLP and Stikeman Elliott LLP.
Blakes has 111 lawyers ranked in this year’s edition of the directory, the single highest number for a Canadian firm. The top 10 is rounded out by McCarthy Tétrault LLP (98 lawyers ranked), Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP (78), Torys LLP (66), Stikeman Elliott LLP (65), Bennett Jones LLP (61), Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP (59), Norton Rose Canada LLP (58), Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (57) and Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP (56).
Brock Gibson, chairman of Blakes, said the firm’s performance in the Chambers guide reflects its strategy of building its practice areas with direct expertise in the largest segments of the Canadian economy, such as financial services and resources, then adding to that expertise in practice areas that will most likely be needed to support the big companies working in those areas, such as employment or technology.
“We are very fortunate in Canada of having some world-class clients in financial services, energy, mining, power and infrastructure. So we are focused on serving them well,” Mr. Gibson says. “We don’t just target the parts that move. For example, when we do work for a large Canadian financial institution or a large energy company or mining company, we try to serve them in all the high-end areas that are important to them.”
This year, several Canadian firms got a boost, in that in addition to rankings for their Canadian expertise, some also received mention for their work in other jurisdictions.
The arbitrator manages the process from start to finish, and that wipes out a lot of the delays inherent in the public system.
The taxpayers pay for judges in the crown courts. This privilege comes with a different price, however. The parties don’t get to pick the judge, they lose control over the timeline, and their materials join the public record. Private arbitration resolves those problems, explains Mr. Cherniak, who is ranked in Band 1 by Chambers.
“The best part of arbitration is that the parties have a say in who is actually going to hear the case. The confidentiality is very important, and the speed with which an arbitration can be done is also key. Those are the principal advantages.”
Stanley Fisher, another Band 1 arbitrator, works with Arbitration Place in Toronto, which is a full-service centre that provides parties with private hearing rooms.
He was a litigator for 50 years but now works exclusively as an arbitrator. He says it’s an interesting job because he gets an inside look at human behavior. A lot of the cases he does are shareholder disputes involving family-owned businesses. He likes to compare what he hears in each case with his understanding of common sense.
“I think it takes patience and an interest in human behavior. Most of the things that we do as arbitrators are interpretations of contracts, listening to the parties describe their understanding of the relationship,” he says. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re right and one of the parties is wrong. It’s just simply that you’re trying to bring a common sense approach to it. I think common sense is the essential ingredient to being a good neutral.”
Barry Leon, a partner and head of the international arbitration practice at PerleyRobertson, Hill & McDougall LLP who is ranked in Band 2 by Chambers Global, likes working as a counsel in international arbitration cases because he enjoys being introduced to different legal systems. “Just because things are done a certain way in Ontario courts ... that isn’t necessarily the only way of doing it.”
All of this means big savings in time and costs
Counsel also appreciate how efficient cases can run. In arbitration, motions can be requested by email and handled within a day or two of the request, Mr. Leon says. A motion itself is far less formal than in the court setting. It can be done by a conference call rather than in person. Motion records tend to be much shorter than those used in court, since the tribunal is already familiar with the case and doesn’t need counsel to rehash the basic facts. “All of this means big savings in time and costs,” Mr. Leon says.
When it comes to the hearing on the merits, it’s unusual in international arbitration for there to be a case that sits for longer than a week, even in matters where the amount involved can range into the hundreds of millions of dollars, Mr. Leon adds.