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MANAGING PARTNER MLT riding hot markets in both Alberta and Saskatchewan BY GAIL J . COHEN about 90 lawyers in its four offices in Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton, and Calgary. Managing partner Donald K. Wilson chats with Canadian Lawyer about operating in four different hot markets and the challenges of staffing and maintaining MLT values. M Q Q Q Are you one of the bigger firms in Saskatchewan? Yes, we are certainly one of the largest Saskatchewan firms. Some of our lawyers are outside of Saskatchewan and there is at least one other Saskatchewan firm that is about our size but their lawyers are all in Sas- katchewan. Are there many firms that have offices in both Saskatchewan and Alberta? There are none to my knowledge. I'm sure we were the first Sas- katchewan firm, and I think the only Saskatchewan firm, to open an office outside of Saskatchewan, to my knowl- edge. How do you manage the communica- tions between your four offices? It's very important to us, and we have a tradition that probably sounds hokey, but we really have an MLT way of doing things and a set of values that's very important to all of us. The only way we would expand is if we en- sure that those would remain through- out all of our offices. We do that by a variety of things: we have get-togethers of all of the lawyers annually, we make a point of having social occasions where all of the lawyers and all of the offices get together. . . . We put a lot of effort into trying to make it so that if any client walks through into our reception area in Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, or Regina, they wouldn't really know MLT Regina from MLT Edmonton, except perhaps for the size of the office. The at- titude and the values they would see would be the same everywhere. Q How did you fit in the Alberta market? We have found that certainly the Alberta and Calgary marketplace is extremely robust. . . . While it was a natu- ral place for us to evolve and grow because of the similarities, we also as a firm didn't have the footprint there we had in Sas- katchewan. What we found, frankly, is be- cause the economy is so hot there and the demand for legal services so high, many of the very large public companies — the Shell Oils of the world — the large Bennett Jones and such Calgary firms were focused on those, and there was a fair segment of folks that were perhaps not that large but were still looking for law firms that could do their work — reasonably good, so- phisticated, commercial, and other work. We've been able to tap into that. Q Tell me what sort of management structure your firm has. A managing partner, who is currently me, for all of the offices. Then we have an executive committee, which is made of group co-ordinators [who co-ordinate our practice groups in each of the cities]. . . . The only other official committee we have is a compensation committee. That is an elected committee that has one member of each practice group. We have a chairman of the firm who is a former managing partner, Rob Pletch. The chairman provides as- sistance to the managing partner, appear- ances, and sort of the public persona of the firm, if you will. [That person] is a practis- ing lawyer, but a senior in the wind-down. DONALD K. WILSON Q What are the more challenging aspects of running a firm with four offices? It's just that. It's making sure that people still feel part of a common vision and a common enterprise. And that they don't see themselves as a splin- ter office. First and foremost, we're MLT, and then you can add the city location after that. . . .The second challenge in this hot market . . . in Alberta and Sas- katchewan right now, is trying to find everything from receptionists to what- ever, let alone the lawyers. Q In which areas do you see potential future growth for the firm? It's probably different in Alberta than Saskatchewan, but certainly in Sas- katchewan I think there is a huge potential in all the areas that are booming in the province: the ag sector — things like etha- nol and new things that are developing in the ag sector that are just changing and opening every day — and then there's the whole natural resource sector — potash companies, gold, and uranium. And then of course, there's those that service those industries. . . . Obviously in Alberta, the oil patch is not everything, but it controls it and the strength of the oil and gas industry is what drives other industries. To read more of Don Wilson's interview with Canadian Lawyer, visit us online at canadianlawyermag.com www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com JANU AR Y 2008 15 acPherson Leslie & Tyerman LLP has been around for about 70 years and is one of the largest law firms in Saskatchewan. About six years ago, the firm expanded into Alberta, opening an office in Calgary and in Edmonton in 2006. The firm now has