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 5 33 awyers who have not visited St. John's, NL, in some time will find the view from historic Signal Hill reas- suringly familiar. The multi-coloured houses, reminis- cent of the painted ladies in San Francisco but distinc- tively East Coast, continue to dot the landscape. The salt tang from the harbour still lingers in the air, and the pubs that line Duckworth Street, as always, invite you in with infectious laughter. But visitors to St. John's will discover some- thing disconcertingly different: prosperity. Arguably once the poorest province in Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador has discovered uptapped wealth in oil fields. St. John's is home to much of the new-found affluence, and legal practices in the city are thriving — and shifting focus — as a result. "Oil changes everything," says Jeffrey Benson, a name partner with Benson Buffett PLC Inc., one of the largest independent law firms in the province. "In addition to exponential growth in local industries that directly service the oil patch and a large influx of similarly minded extra-provincial entities, there have also been increases in well-compensated employees in and around the St. John's metropolitan area," he notes. "Consumer-oriented busi- nesses have been booming, the residential and commercial real estate markets have been skyrocketing, and the local population has diversified." From 2004 to 2014, Newfoundland and Labrador outper- formed the rest of the country and most of the world. The province recorded substantial gains in real household disposable income per capita, a measure of average consumer purchasing power, outpacing all other provinces over the decade. More people are working than ever before and the unemployment rate is lower than any time since 1973. For the first time in more than 40 years, Newfoundland and Labrador no longer has the highest unemployment rate in Canada. Last year, the province was one of only three in the country to earn an A+ rating for economic performance from the Conference Board of Canada. Although the oil industry has not existed in Newfoundland and Labrador for very long, it is now a key economic driver. From 1997 through 2007, the Hibernia, Terra Nova, and White Rose fields produced 867 million barrels of crude oil, worth about $46 billion, according to Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage. The industry accounted for 35 per cent of the provincial GDP in 2007, up from 13 per cent in 1999 and 24.3 per cent in 2004. According to Statistics Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador experienced greater economic growth in 2007 than any other Canadian province, largely due to its oil and mining industries. "We have seen unprecedented growth," says Neil Jacobs, regional managing partner in Newfoundland and Labrador with Stewart McKelvey, one of the largest firms on the East Coast. "Newfoundland has gone from a have-not province to a have province. That changes the whole dynamic within the country." In addition to contributing directly and significantly to nation- al coffers, the province's wealth has had a direct impact on the St.John's city report The legal scene in Newfoundland and Labrador's capital is busier than it's ever been. By donalee Moulton St.John's: Big-city practice, small town lifestyle L

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