Biglaw, Canada, Rankings

The View From Up North: The Seven Sisters vs. The Internationals

Chambers and Partners has published its Canadian law firm rankings for 2015. How did your firm do?

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I see Chambers & Partners has published its Canadian law firm rankings for 2015. Are rankings useful? Who knows? The law firms that get ranked highly think they’re the most valid thing in the world. Those who don’t can point to any number of flaws in the ranking methodology.

The most important thing about rankings, IMHO, is they’re fun. They’re good for gossip. As a public service, I spent several hours collating some Chambers data for Canadian firms. I am most interested to see how the “International” firms stack up against the Seven Sisters. Baker & McKenzie has been in Toronto for a long time. Norton Rose and Dentons have only been on the scene for a couple of years (in their international iterations). I also included Davis LLP, who recently announced a merger with the DLA Piper Globetrotters.

How do the Internationals, who are presumably trying to use their global brand strength to climb the Canadian ladder, stack up against the all-powerful Sisters? We will discuss that question after some housekeeping. Here are some things you should know:

1. Chambers reviews approximately 30 practice areas (Corporate/M&A, Environmental, Tax, etc.).

2. Chambers ranks firms in bands, starting at the top with Band 1 and going down to Band 5.

3. Chambers ranks individuals from Band 1 to Band 5, but also adds superstar designations like “Star Individual.” When you read the data below, “Top Category Lawyers” includes Band 1, Star Individuals, Senior Statesman, and Eminent Practitioners.

4. I used Chambers’s firm headcount data without verifying it.

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5. I only looked at lawyers who focus on Canada and, thus, cut out all lawyers designated as “Foreign Experts” and “Experts Based Abroad.”

6. Although it’s nice to be recognized as, for example, a top Boeing 747 finance lawyer (making your mama proud for sure), some categories are more important than others, namely Corporate/M&A and Litigation. I highlighted the firms that had strengths in those two areas.

Most important — remember this is unscientific and just for fun. Without further ado, here is a summary of the data. If you want to review the actual tables, they’re below.

SUMMARY:

A. By percentage, Davies Ward has the most ranked lawyers (21.7%). It also has the highest percentage of Top Category Lawyers (7.8%). If you believe in rankings, Davies has a claim for the best law firm in Canada.

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B. Stikemans has the lowest percentage of ranked lawyers amongst the Seven Sisters (13.2%) and also the lowest percentage of Top Category Lawyers (1.5%).

C. The Sisters are miles ahead of the Internationals in ranked lawyers. The Internationals have a combined 43 ranked lawyers. That’s only 2 more than small, but feisty, Goodmans has by itself. The Internationals have a combined 4 Top Category Lawyers. The Sisters have a combined 109 Top Category Lawyers. That’s 27 to one.

D. With respect to Corporate M&A, every Sister firm is ranked either Band 1 or Band 2. For the Internationals, only Norton Rose (Band 3) is ranked in this lofty category.

E. On the litigation front, the Sisters dominate once again, with multiple rankings for each firm in different categories of litigation. Blakes, for instance, is a playa in every Canadian district that matters (Alberta, B.C., Ontario, and Quebec) and in high-ticket Class Action Defense, as well. For the Internationals, only Norton Rose and Dentons get recognized for any kind of litigation prowess (and pretty minor recognition at that).

CONCLUSIONS:

If this were an MMA battle, the Internationals just got choked-out by the Sisters in under four seconds. Thankfully, there’s no blood. The Chambers rankings are pretty clear — if you want top legal expertise, the Sisters wear the championship belt. The Internationals have a long way to go to make up ground. It’s still early in the game, however, for the Internationals. Let’s see what Chambers says in five years.

Also, I’m really interested to see if DLA has a marketing strategy that can lift Davis to loftier heights. Despite the fact it’s still early, the Norton Rose and Dentons brands don’t appear to have made an instant impact (at least according to Chambers). I hope DLA realizes that announcing “We’re Here!” probably won’t be enough by itself to change the Canadian legal landscape. If DLA wants to play in the Sisters’ octogon (which it might not), DLA has a lot of hard training ahead of it (to beat the MMA metaphor one more time).

That’s the View From Up North. Have a top-ranked week.

TABLE 1 – RANKINGS

Firm No.  of  Lawyers Areas Ranked In No. of Lawyers Ranked Percentage of Ranked Lawyers No. of Top Category Lawyers Percentage of Top Category Lawyers
Baker & McKenzie 75 3 3 4.0% 1 1.3%
Blakes 602 24 92 15.3% 18 3.0%
Davies Ward 230 12 50 21.7% 18 7.8%
Davis LLP 237 4 10 4.2% 2 0.8%
Dentons 548 12 13 2.4% 1 0.2%
Goodmans 232 12 41 17.7% 11 4.7%
McCarthy 609 23 89 14.6% 21 3.4%
Norton Rose 880 14 17 1.9% 0 0.0%
Osler 409 23 77 18.8% 20 4.9%
Stikemans 456 20 62 13.2% 7 1.5%
Torys 286 17 59 20.6% 14 4.9%

 

TABLE 2 – CORPORATE/M&A AND LITIGATION

Firm No. of Lawyers Corporate/M&A Ranked? Litigation Ranked? No. of Lawyers Ranked in Corporate/ M&A No. of Lawyers Ranked in Litigation
Baker & McKenzie 75 No No 0 0
Blakes 602 Band 1 Alberta (Band 2) 

BC (Band 2)

 

Class Action Defence (Band 1)

 

Ontario (Band 3)

 

Quebec (Band 3)

 7 15
Davies Ward 230 Band 2 Ontario (Band 2) 

Quebec (Band 2)

 

Class Action Defence (Band 3)

 4 7
Davis LLP 237 N/A N/A 0 1
Dentons 548 N/A Ontario (Band 4) 0 2
Goodmans 232 Band 2 Ontario (Band 2) 

Class Action Defence (Band 2)

 6 4
McCarthy 609 Band 2 Alberta (Band 3) 

BC (Band 4)

 

Ontario (Band 1)

 

Quebec (Band 2)

 

Class Action Defence (Band 1)

 7 12
Norton Rose 880 Band 3 Ontario (Band 3) 

Class Action Defence (Band 3)

 2 3
Osler 409 Band 1 Alberta (Band 4) 

Ontario (Band 3)

 

Quebec (Band 1)

 

Class Action Defence (Band 2)

 9 10
Stikemans 456 Band 1 BC (Band 4) 

Ontario (Band 3)

 

Quebec (Band 1)

 

Class Action Defence (Band 1)

 10 10
Torys 286 Band 1 Ontario (Band 1) 

Class Action Defence (Band 1)

 9 7

Steve Dykstra is a Canadian-trained lawyer and legal recruiter. He is the President of Keybridge Legal Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm that places lawyers in law firms and in-house roles throughout North America. You can contact Steve at steve@keybridgerecruiting.com. You can also read his blog at stevendykstra.wordpress.com, follow him on Twitter (@IMRecruitR), or connect on LinkedIn (ca.linkedin.com/in/stevedykstra/).

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