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 A P R I L 2 0 1 9 37 Calgary's entrepreneurial spirit has made the legal market surprisingly robust By Anthony Davis C A L G A R Y C I T Y R E P O R T I n 2014, when plummeting oil prices bucked Calgary's economy, the city's legal community — especially corporate lawyers — must have slumped in their saddles. Oil & gas have long been the rich lifeblood of the Alberta economy and, in Calgary especially, that resource sector kept lawyers well fed. But in the fourth quarter of 2014, crude oil prices, after peaking at US$106.65 per barrel, stumbled as low as $28.49 in the ensuing years. Just lately, providing some hint of respite, prices have ranged up around the mid-$50s. Sagging oil fortunes wasn't the only change that walloped Alberta since then, impacting legal practices of all sorts. After 44 years of rule by Progressive Conserva- tive governments, the NDP pulled off a stunner by winning a majority in the 2015 provincial election. Over its years in power, the NDP has enacted a slew of changes to environmental, educational and labour laws, which have impacted a wide range of businesses and institutions. As the de facto capital of the Canadian oil and gas sector, diving fossil energy prices has a gloomy impact on many lawyers in Calgary's corporate law community. Foreign investments shriveled, M&A work evaporated and corporate clients pulled back hard on reins when it came to every kind of legal cost. Law firms had to stream- line their operations and trim billing fees for whatever work they still wrangled. So as 2018 wrapped up and 2019 began — with headlines still abounding about Alberta's struggling economy — one might reasonably expect lawyers at Calgary's major law firms to sound as surly as Rooster Cogburn in the western True Grit. But no. "It's been our best year ever," says Robert Maxwell in a surprisingly cheerful opening line about how Fasken's Calgary office fared in 2018. Maxwell co-manages the office with Clarke Barnes. The good news at Fasken, they both expound, was broad based across most of their office's practice areas. "I'm in litigation," says Maxwell. "I can speak from per- sonal experience. Our litigation and regulatory practices are super busy." It took entrepreneurial grit for Calgary to get through the past five years. Barnes has watched how many clients in the suffering oil & gas sector have reinvented their businesses to survive. "As an example," he says, "I have one or two service company clients that have started divisions that focus more on construction." A tubular manufacturing com- pany with which he worked that once thrived supplying the oil and gas industry opened a commercial landscaping division to keep its workforce going. "The entre- preneurial spirit, while taking some dents, is still alive and well in Calgary." Not that all is perfect, says Pat Maguire, Calgary managing partner at Bennett Jones LLP. Alberta and Calgary still face economic hurdles. The prime one, of course, is overcoming regulatory hurdles and the fierce opposition of environmen- A LIGHT IN THE OIL SLUMP TUNNEL

• Cover