THE $8 MILLION MAN
Windsor class-action specialist could be Canada’s best-paid lawyer
Canada’s highest-paid lawyer in 2010 earned more than $8 million, according to government data that for the first time revealed the confidential earnings of some 20,000 self-employed lawyers across the country.
The Canada Revenue data, included in a report commissioned by the Department of Justice to gauge judicial compensation rates, listed lawyers’ annual incomes, but not their names.
But the report did note that the top lawyer earned $8,072,545, was at least 64 years old and lived outside a major metropolitan area.
Canada’s legal community instantly settled on one name Friday: Windsor lawyer Harvey Strosberg.
“It’s the country’s worst-kept secret,” said Warren Bongard, president of legal headhunting firm ZSA Legal.
A Goliath in the realm of class-action lawsuits, Strosberg’s name is attached to some of Canada’s most high-profile cases, including the infamous hepatitis C class-action lawsuit in the early 1990s, in which he recovered more than $1 billion for his clients.
Strosberg, now 67, has become the foremost class-action lawyer in the country, his pockets well-padded along the way.
Strosberg suffered a debilitating stroke in 2010, but rebounded and has since returned to his Windsorbased firm.
He was out of the country Friday and could not be reached for comment. A partner at his firm, Sutts, Strosberg LLP, refused comment.
If he was Canada’s top earner two years ago, Strosberg stood out in his field. According to the Canada Revenue data, which included self-employed lawyers (equity partners in firms and sole practitioners) between the ages of 36 and 69, a majority of the country’s best-paid lawyers were based in Toronto, followed by other major cities.
“It’s truly based on economics and demand,” said Bongard, noting that Toronto has been the legal epicentre for decades.
But it may soon be eclipsed by Calgary, where a booming oil and gas market has opened the floodgates to firms with high-paying, competitive positions.
Canada’s second best-paid lawyer in 2010, with earnings of $6,663,873, was a Toronto lawyer between the age of 60 and 63.
Other top incomes in 2010 included a London lawyer with $4.1 million, a lawyer in Vancouver with $3.7 million, a lawyer in Montreal with $2.9 million and a Calgary lawyer with nearly $2 million.
But average earnings in 2010 tended to peak between the ages of 44 and 47, with lawyers in the 65th and 75th percentile of income, at $237,941 and $331,799, respectively.
And on average, lawyers in Toronto made more money.
According to Canada Revenue, Toronto lawyers in the 95th percentile made an average of $1.1 million in 2010 — compared to $659,260 in Vancouver, $907, 587 in Calgary, $607,409 in Ottawa-gatineau and $668,197 in Montreal.
The report did not specify each lawyer’s area of legal practice, but Bongard said most high-earning lawyers — such as Strosberg — make their money on contingency fee arrangements with clients.
Alawyer on a personal injury case, for example, would take a percentage of the amount the client is awarded.
Lawyer compensation levels have also surpassed inflation levels, according to Lawyers Weekly, which noted that a Toronto lawyer in the 50th percentile of income made more than $202,000 in 2010 — about 17 per cent more than a lawyer in the same percentile made in 2006. Beyond Canada’s top-dog lawyers, the compensation data included in the report offered a glimpse into the income disparities in the Canadian legal system. Montreal lawyers in the 25th percentile made about five per cent of what those in the 95th percentile made in 2010 ($36,375 compared to $668,197). Calgary saw a similar gap, with lawyers in the 25th percentile making just seven per cent of their counterparts in the 95th percentile. “Lawyers are certainly one of the highest-paid professions, but if you compare with physicians and surgeons, there’s more of a spread in the legal profession,” said Nicholas Bala, a law professor at Queen’s University. “At the very high end, the numbers are a bit misleading.” Bala attributed part of the “significant” income gap to lawyers at the opposite end of the remuneration spectrum who decide to take on less lucrative legal aid cases. “More generally, it points to social questions about income disparities across society,” Bala said of compensation data. But “it has to be seen in context,” he said, noting that the million-dollar lawyers identified in the report should not be of public concern because they are not funded by the public purse.