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www.canadianlawyermag.com 19 "If you go back 20 years, a lot of our clients were in the public sector," says Jean-Jacques Rainville, a partner and chairman of Dunton Rainville LLP in Montreal. "But now this sec- tor is mostly served by their own [in-house] lawyers, so that part of our business is less im- portant now than it was 20 years ago." Benefits that regional firms bring is a keen awareness "of what's going on in the economy of Quebec," Allard says. "You have to know all the people that have an impact: the banks, ac- counting, politics and so on. "We have a real relationship proximity with our clients. We [support] the same charities, the same success in our city, in our province. So, I think that the proximity and the knowl- edge of what's going on in the province and [having] the same goals . . . to achieve, be- cause we are also an enterprise," is important, he says. "We are living the same thing that our clients [are]." And regional firms also partner with na- tional firms where appropriate. "As a large regional firm offering a full range of legal services, we have excellent rela- tions with law firms outside Quebec that refer many cases to us when there is a 'Quebec' as- pect, whether in financing or acquisitions or even labour and employment law," says Anik Trudel, CEO of Lavery, de Billy LLP. "In situations where our clients require legal services outside Quebec, such flexible partnerships allow us to choose the firm best suited to provide the appropriate expertise to our clients, whether in labour law, transac- tional, litigation or other areas." THE RANKINGS, AND HOW WE DID IT Canadian Lawyer asked lawyers, in-house counsel and clients from across Canada to vote on the top full-service regional firms in Quebec. They were asked to rank their top firms from a preliminary list, with a chance to nominate a firm that was not included on the list. Respondents' rankings were based on firms' regional service cov- erage, client base, notable mandates, service excellence and legal expertise. To be considered in the vote, firms were required to have offices only in Quebec and offer a wide range of legal services. 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.