The View From Up North: Which Are Ontario's Best Regional Firms?

As an added bonus, which firm has the most famous alumnus?

A couple of weeks ago, I bared my soul and admitted I love any story about lawyers that includes the words “influential”, “best,” or “top” in the title. Canadian Lawyer Magazine has thrown me another juicy bone. Thank you CLM.

It recently put forth its list of Ontario’s Top Regional Firms. This list is open to Ontario-only firms. As a result, Canadian big shooters like Stikeman Elliott and Blakes can’t apply because they have offices in other provinces. Additionally, it means the firms on the list tend to be on the smaller end. The biggest is Aird & Berlis, at 150 lawyers. Pallett Valo is tiniest at 31 lawyers. For frame of reference, our largest law firm, Borden Ladner, is approaching 800 lawyers (in five cities).

Here’s the list with a few random comments:

1. WeirFoulds LLP (former firm of my contracts law professor, Sonny Sadinsky).
2. Aird & Berlis LLP
3. Lerners LLP
4. Pallett Valo LLP (best full-service firm outside Toronto, IMHO)
5. Torkin Manes LLP
6. Fogler Rubinoff LLP (home of swell and talented corporate lawyer, Gary Kissack)
7. Blaney McMurtry LLP
8. Minden Gross LLP
9. Gardiner Roberts LLP
10. Siskinds LLP (home to Dimitri Lascaris, trilingual plaintiffs’ class-action steamroller)

One thing I noticed — notwithstanding the contest is open to the entire province, Toronto still dominates. Seven of the top ten make T.O. their home. Only Siskinds and Lerners (both London) and Pallett Valo (Mississauga) have a substantial presence outside the T-Dot.

For fun, CLM includes a list of star alumni for each firm. I have to say, it’s a stretch to call some of the named people “stars.” But one name jumped out as clearly standing above the rest. A true star. Did you know David Shore used to work for Lerners?

David Shore, you say? Sounds familiar, but I can’t quite place it…

Sponsored

How about Executive Producer of House M.D., Executive Producer of Family Law, Supervising Producer of Law & Order, etc., etc.? His IMDb page (how many Ontario lawyers have one of those?) says he practiced corporate and municipal law before running off to Tinsel Town. Imagine dumping private practice for television? No more trying to convince crappy clients to retain you. No more servicing crappy clients. No more chasing crappy clients over delinquent bills. What self-respecting lawyer would ever drop those privileges to hang out with the beautiful people in Hollywood?

Anyway, I searched high and low through the rest of the alumni to find someone else worth mentioning. There’s a bunch of ex-Supreme Court Justices, some prominent business people, a senator. All boring next to David Shore, who is actually doing something useful with his law degree — entertaining us.

And, for that, David Shore, we thank you. Thank you for having the courage — and/or getting sick enough of private practice — to dump the law and create some mind-numbing programs to help us forget, even for an hour, that we still have to chase crappy clients.

For those of you who would like to read about Ontario’s Top Regional Firms, you can find them here. There’s some interesting stuff regarding how regional firms see their competitive position vis-à-vis the huge juggernauts.

While you read the article, I’m going to flick on Netflix.

Sponsored

That’s the View from Up North. Have an entertaining week.


Steve Dykstra is a Canadian-trained lawyer and legal recruiter. He is the President of Steven Dykstra Law Professional Corporation, a boutique corporate/commercial law firm located in the greater Toronto area. You can contact Steve at steve@stevendykstralaw.ca. You can also read his blog at stevendykstra.wordpress.com, follow him on Twitter (@Law_Think), or connect on LinkedIn (ca.linkedin.com/in/stevedykstra/).