Canadian Lawyer

32 N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8 w w w . c a n a d i a n l a w y e r m a g . c o m that trend is going to reverse itself any time soon," he says. Despite this consolidation, Grubb says, farms are still primarily family operations and the family farms are becoming more business-like in their approach and struc- ture, something Grubb knows well. He runs a grain farm and has been farming all his life. His son manages the daily operations, while Grubb attends to his law practice, which includes many clients in agribusiness. "It's not unique in Saskatchewan in the sense that many of us from Saskatchewan are not very far from the farm or rural background," he says. "Having a knowledge and understanding of agriculture is pretty important in terms of serving the clients that I deal with." Don Wilson, managing partner of MLT Aikins LLP, a firm that brands itself as Western Canada's law firm, says relatability from a shared business culture and approach to clients helped in the 2017 merger that brought together MLT and Aikins in 2017. "Prairie people are prairie people. There's a certain intangible there, whether you're from Winnipeg or Swift Current or Medi- cine Hat. You're different, but you're the same," says Wilson. Manitoba's Aikins MacAulay & Thorvald- son LLP had been in operation since 1879, nine years after the establishment of the province and only a decade after Louis Riel led the Red River Resistance. MLT was founded in 1920 and MLT Aikins now has more than 240 law- yers in Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. Clients in this part of the country require different treatment from their advisors than someone from Manhattan or Bay Street, says Wilson. "So many of our clients say that they coached the same hockey team as some other lawyers here, and their kids are on the same team," he says. "That matters to people." People talk to each other on elevators in the Prairies, says Wilson, adding that his firm is finding clients respond to the fact the firm has focused its growth in the west rath- er than the east. But aside from culture, their intention is to offer the Prairies big-firm service without their clients having to dial a 416 number. "Any of this hokey 'we're all prairie folk' doesn't get you anywhere if you're not pro- viding first-class service," he says. Because of a flurry of regulations from the law society, Glen Peters, managing part- ner of Fillmore Riley LLP in Winnipeg, has seen the borders become blurred in the last decade, affording lawyers the opportunity to practise across provincial lines. "I'm more likely now to see, for example, an Alberta lawyer on the other side of a real estate transaction with me here than I would have seen five to 10 years ago. And they would probably tell you the same thing in their jurisdiction." But when it comes to the border to the immediate south, Peters says, the prairie region is going from close-to-home north-south rela- tionships to far-east-west connections. "We're seeing an increased interest from eastern Asian-based companies in in our jurisdiction," he says. "And there's obviously political reasons for that." By the numbers Saskatchewan 77 - Number of lawyers called to the bar in 2018 (43 male, 34 female) 1,874 - Number of practising lawyers (1,180 male, 714 female) 507 - Retired lawyers 333 - Number of law firms 3 - Number of firms with 50 or more lawyers 94.59 - Percentage of firms with 10 or fewer lawyers 1,197 - Members in private practice 31-40 - Age group with the largest group of lawyers (male 250, female 220, 470 total) Manitoba 2,020 - Number of practising lawyers (1,257 male, 763 female) 87 – Percentage of practising lawyers in Winnipeg (1,767 in Winnipeg, 253 outside Winnipeg) 175 - Number of law firms 3.4 - Percentage of firms with 50 or more lawyers 46 - Percentage of practising lawyers 0-5 years at bar who are female (from a total of 502) 12 - Percentage of practising lawyers 36+ years at bar who are female (from a total of 382) Sources: Law Society of Manitoba and Law Society of Saskatchewan

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