Canadian Lawyer

BOYNE CLARKE LLP RANKINGS FOR FIRMS WITH OFFICES IN ONE PROVINCE BOYNECLARKE.CA 4 Total lawyers: 51 Office: Dartmouth, N.S. Core practice areas: Business law; business litigation; real estate (residential and commercial); financial recovery; personal injury Key clients: Royal Bank of Canada; National Bank; Bank of Nova Scotia; Cresco Properties Ltd.; Doctors Nova Scotia; Pomerleau Inc. Notable mandates: Jointly retained by the CBC and the Telegraph Journal in St. John, N.B., as a result of media interest in reporting on the Richard Oland murder; Supreme Court of Canada decision on Ernest MacIntosh extradition case; retained by the government of Newfoundland & Labrador in murder case Star alumni: Former vice president of legal affairs at Dalhousie University Brian Crocker; former senior vice president, general counsel, and secretary of Bank of Montreal Derek Jones; former vice president of regulatory affairs at Emera James L. Connors; Nova Scotia Supreme Court Family Division Justice Moira LegereSers; Colonel Kirby Abbott, Office of Judge Advocate General; Senator Thomas McInnis Affiliations: TAGLaw The firm: In 1972, a small group of lawyers, Boyne Crocker & Jones, set off on their own instead of joining one of the large established Halifax firms. In 1981, Boyne Crocker & Jones merged with Claman Dietrich Clark Bright & Clarke to form Boyne Clarke LLP. The two name partners of this merger — Tom Boyne and Richey Clarke — still practise at the firm today. In 2010, Boyne Clarke rebranded itself and moved into new offices in Dartmouth. It currently employs 160 staff including 51 lawyers, of whom 25 are partners and is the largest private employer in downtown Dartmouth. ""Quality of lawyers, high level of client service, maritime focus and breadth of practice areas," said one respondent of Boyne Clarke. Managing partner James MacNeil says growth areas include mergers and acquisitions and tax. "We're really focused in general on our whole corporate area," he adds. "It's primarily our corporate areas where we want to continue to grow." WICKWIRE HOLM WICKWIREHOLM.COM Total lawyers: 16 Office: Halifax, N.S. Core practice areas: Banking and finance; corporate structures and transactions; labour and employment; insolvency and restructuring; energy Key clients: Toronto-Dominion Bank; Efficiency Nova Scotia Corp.; XL Insurance; HSBC Bank Canada; Business Development Bank of Canada; Royal Bank of Canada Notable mandates: Retained by a utility company in its acquisition of power plants; acted for a utility company in a joint venture for a new power development; worked on the sale of a nutritional supplements company; acted for a lender in providing financing to a Nova Scotia company with operations across Canada; acted for a lender in an insolvency restructuring proceeding involving a company with substantial aquaculture assets in New Brunswick and Newfoundland; acted for a lender and a receiver in an insolvency restructuring of a substantial apple farming operation; acted for a receiver of assets of a development company in P.E.I. and in a dispute in P.E.I. between two secured lenders concerning entitlement to proceeds realized on a receivership; numerous multimillion financings for one of the largest commercial multiunit residential financiers in Nova Scotia Star alumni: Former Nova Scotia Court of Appeal judges Doane Hallett and J.E. (Ted) Flinn; Nova Scotia Court of Appeal Justice Duncan Beveridge; former MP and premier of Nova Scotia Russell MacLellan; former president of the Nova Scotia Barristers Society Ted Wickwire, who played a major role in developing the Nova Scotia Legal Ethics Handbook Affiliations: SCG Legal and Meritas Law Firms Worldwide The firm: The firm was founded and has been in continuous operation since 1884. Throughout its existence, Wickwire Holm has been principally focused on providing legal services to financial institutions and businesses. With the revised practice mobility rules adopted by all of the Canadian Bar Associations, the firm finds itself increasingly involved in matters throughout Atlantic Canada and appearing in the courts of all Atlantic provinces. It has also appeared in the courts of Quebec. A respondent who ranked Wickwire Holm in first place admired its "excellent coverage and service levels in Nova Scotia, with good regional coverage through affiliate offices and limited conflicts issues." Senior counsel Carl Holm says: "Consolidation of the practice of commercial law in the three Atlantic regional law firms have led to many retainers as a result of conflicts. In any large or complex matter it does not take long before all regional law firms are conflicted out." www.CANADIAN L a w ye r m a g . c o m OctOber 5 2013 37

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