Canadian Lawyer

w w w . c a n a d i a n l a w y e r m a g . c o m S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 8 35 of the firm used to be primary, now clients are focused on affordable fees. "They're not going to choose lawyers based on the reputation of a firm," she says. "They're going to look for a less traditional law firm that offers more value to them than they would have [in] the past." The trend of big-firm lawyers leaving and starting their own boutiques and their ability to offer clients their skills without the larger firm model is driving migration from smaller and mid-sized firms to smaller boutiques, says Bar- bara Hendrickson of BAX Securities Law. "I see more and more smaller boutique law firms with very highly skilled, professional lawyers who provide services particularly in the financial services securities, corporate finance area, where really, in the past, you could only find that level of expertise in a large firm." Hendrickson formed the Toronto Business Lawyers Association in 2016, meant to repre- sent those practising in small and mid-sized firms. Allen McDonald Swartz has a broad range of clients and Allen says it's her firm's expertise in corporate law and not a deep involvement in a specific industry that tends to be important. The firm's lawyers were all trained at big firms and Allen says the lower overhead of a boutique model allows them to compete with what large firms can offer through their econo- mies of scale. "We do find that this model can be very effective because we're able to offer reasonable rates for very high-level advice and quick turn- around times," she says. The client "can pay a reasonable rate but still speak to a partner and we don't need all the time to delegate and then review and cor- rect and send out. So, we find that this model is actually much more efficient and provides much more value to the client." Part of the way Allen McDonald Swartz adds value is off-the-clock relationship build- ing. Allen says her firm's small size allows the lawyers to have a more intimate relationship with clients who aren't spending as much money. "Because we're more nimble and we're smaller and we don't have as much infrastruc- ture and bureaucracy, [for] a smaller client that has a smaller deal, we can still give them a high level of service because we aren't too busy ser- vicing the billion-dollar files," she says. Evrensel says the boutique model means that MEP's clients are always dealing with a senior lawyer. "Sometimes, senior partners at big firms have so many associates that it's hard to get their time and deal with them daily, so we try to ensure that the partners are always hands on," he says. The emergence of smaller, boutique law firms is also partly driven by an excess of law- yers and the too few positions available at large firms. "There really are way too many lawyers and it's very hard for junior lawyers to get articling positions and then kept on after articles," Hendrickson says. She says she's seeing a lot of smaller firms develop with more junior lawyers as a result. "[Clients today are] not going to choose lawyers based on the reputation of a firm. They're going to look for a less traditional law firm that offers more value to them than they would have [in] the past." How we did it Canadian Lawyer asked lawyers, in-house counsel and clients from across Canada to vote on the top corporate and immigration law boutiques. They were asked to rank their top firms from a preliminary list, with a chance to nominate a firm that was not included. To be considered in the vote, firms were required to have at least 80 per cent of their business come from corporate and immigration law. The final rankings were determined through a points system, in which firms were rewarded on a sliding scale for the number of first to 10th-place votes received.

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