Canada

The View From Up North: A Look At Who's Advising On The Biggest Canadian Deals

How are Canadian Biglaw firms doing when it comes to advising on debt and equity public offerings?

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Thanks to our friend Drew Hasselback and the Legal Post, we have some great data on debt and equity public offerings in Canada from 2014 and Q1 of 2015. I thought it would be fun to look at which firms are advising on the juiciest Canadian deals. We might give out some awards too.

2014 Counsel to the Underwriters

Let’s start with 2014, where Canadian law firms advised the underwriters of 455 debt and equity deals:

Most deals: McCarthy’s (64)

Least amount of deals, Seven Sister firm: Davies (8)

Highest average per deal: Burnet, Duckworth ($533.72 million per deal on 16 deals)

Highest average per deal, Seven Sister firm: Osler ($354.31 million per deal)

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Lowest average per deal, Seven Sister firm: Davies ($83.02 million per deal)

Commentary:

I’ve written in the past that the Seven Sister firms wipe out the competition when it comes rankings, like the ones provided by Chambers & Partners, for instance. In 2014, Davies had a credible argument for top law firm in Canada, according to Chambers & Partners. That doesn’t seem to translate to snagging sweet underwriting deals, however. Davies represented the underwriters in only eight deals (compared to 64 for McCarthy’s) and had a measly per deal average of just over $83 million.

Contrast that with Burstall Winger Zammit, who I’d never heard of before writing this column. Turns out Burstall is a 28 lawyer firm in Calgary that, IMHO, wins the “Punching Above Its Weight” award. Burstall managed to snag two underwriting deals for an average of just over $254 million per deal. Maybe I’m easily impressed, but I’m impressed. I bet those deals helped to pay off a few cottages.

Still, the Seven Sisters cleaned up overall. Between them, they represented the underwriters 252 times, or 55% of all deals. The Internationals, who are presumably trying to eat the Sisters’ pie, lagged far behind. Baker & McKenzie (4), Norton Rose (17), and Dentons (25) totaled 46 deals between them.

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Davis LLP, now DLA Piper Canada, could desperately use a little brand help to get a piece of the lucrative securities market. Davis only represented the underwriters in four deals last year, totaling $1.85 million.

2014 Counsel to the Issuers

Here’s the summary for Canadian law firms advising public debt and equity issuers in 2014:

Most deals: Blakes (52)

Least amount of deals, Seven Sister firm: Davies (11)

Highest average per deal: Parlee McLaws ($865.49 million on 4 deals)

Highest average per deal, Seven Sister Firm: McCarthy’s ($535.62 million)

Lowest average per deal, Seven Sister firm: Goodmans ($185.28 million)

Commentary:

The Seven Sisters once again led the way, advising issuers on almost 50% of all debt and equity raises. Davies again brought up the rear with only 11 deals. I’m surprised by that. I have an image of Davies as a big dog in the securities market. It is ranked by Chambers & Partners in the second-highest band for Corporate/M&A (which usually goes hand in hand with raising capital). But it only managed 19 deals in all of 2015 for issuers and underwriters. Maybe the lawyers just don’t work hard enough at Davies (I kid. It’s a play on the “slavies” thing.).

One International fared really well — Norton Rose did 31 deals at a lofty average of $607.40 million per deal (better than McCarthy’s).

Q1 2015 Counsel to Issuers

Let’s take a look at Q1 of 2015 (advising the issuer only).

Most deals: Torys (15)

Least amount of deals, Seven Sister firm: Davies (1)

Highest average per deal: Bennett Jones ($849.94 million on 2 deals)

Highest average per deal, Seven Sister Firm: Osler ($571.59 million on 9 deals)

Lowest average per deal, Seven Sister firm: Goodmans ($147.12 million on 3 deals)

Comments:

I’ll keep it brief with two comments. First, Norton Rose did quite well. I think we’ll give it the “International Firm That Is Making the Biggest Mark on the Canadian Public Equity and Debt Markets” award (the “IFTIMBMCPEDM” award). NR was fourth in total deals (9) and second in average per deal at $760.76 million. It had a good 2014 and a really good 2015 Q1. I’d like to see whether that strong showing continues for the rest of the year. If so, it could knock several Sisters down a peg.

On an annualized basis, deal flow is trending down, but deal value is going up. In 2014, there were 488 issuer deals for an aggregate of approximately $130 billion. If you multiply 2015 Q1 results by four, you get 420 deals for an aggregate of almost $139 billion.

You know what that means — less happy lawyers in 2015. High per-deal values look sexy, but more deals mean, in general, more cottage payments. We all know how important it is for lawyers to pay off recreational properties they have no time to use.

That’s the View From Up North. Have a great week.

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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