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lawyers involved with more mainstream commercial, real estate, and litigation work. "There's not a whole lot of inter- action with lawyers practising in those areas, which historical- ly made Johnston & Buchan's practice a bit more isolated." But specialty boutique prac- tices account for a significant portion of Ottawa's legal land- scape, including firms focusing on labour and employment and family law. "Some just rep- resent labour unions or just do civil litigation," says Mark Ertel, president of the Defence Coun- sel Association of Ottawa and a member of firm Bayne Sellar Boxall. He estimates that of the 130 criminal lawyers the asso- ciation represents, about 120 of them are affiliated with smaller firms, with usually no more than five or six lawyers. "When I came to Ottawa 21 years ago, there was government work and always matrimo- nial and criminal work," says Kitchener, Ont.-born Ertel, adding that when he was called to the bar in 1992, the asso- ciation only had about 40 members. Ottawa-born corporate and commer- issues, including Canada Post Corp. On government procurement issues, Derek Burney Jameson says the firm, which is steps away from Parliament Hill, has regular dealings with the Federal Court and the Ca- nadian International Trade Tribunal. Last November, the firm launched a recall and crisis-management practice — with a presence in Ottawa — that involves product recalls, from medi- cal devices and drugs to electrical equipment, toys, food, and cosmetics. And Ogilvy Renault is taking advan- cial lawyer Grant Jameson recalls when he entered practice, in 1976, there were more smaller firms, several of which focused on real estate law. But that was back in the days when lawyers received not a flat fee but one based on one per cent of the purchase price of a home and 0.5 per cent of the value of a mortgage. He says the scene began changing in the mid-1980s with the arrival of national law firms, including, in 1984, that of Montreal-based Ogilvy Re- nault LLP, of which he is the Ottawa managing partner. These larger, multi-lawyer practices subsumed some historic Ottawa specialties, such as IP, while handling a broader business portfolio involving regulatory matters, government procurement activities, international trade and commodity tax issues, and labour and employment law. Ogilvy Renault's Ottawa office, for instance, acts only for management but represents large employers with union tage of Ottawa's Silicon Valley North reputation for developing technology. Last October, the firm unveiled one of Canada's first "clean-tech" practices to represent cli- ents creating energy-friendly products or services. Headed by Jameson in Ottawa, and combining business, IP, real estate, and employment and labour law with the litigation group, the firm has already helped start an Ottawa com- pany, Triacta Power Tech- nologies Inc., that specializes in software and hardware that supports environmentally smart energy, water, and sewer meters. This new green-friendly sector ex- pands the definition of technology and provides new opportunities for Ottawa firms that once did a booming business in high-tech. Between 1999 and 2001, Grant Jameson Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP was so busy that it "turned work away," says Tom Hous- ton, head of the firm's nation- al technology practice group and its managing partner in the city. "The major focus was on optical networking and telecom, and Ottawa was right in the bull's-eye." Though the tech bubble burst in 2001, it didn't have a dev- astating effect on FMC, since the firm's Ottawa office is diversified and has sig- nificant federal regulatory, public policy, and litigation practice groups. Indeed, the national firm set up shop in the na- tion's capital in 1985, partly to be closer to the federal government and better able to advise clients "dealing with gov- ernment," says Houston. Since then, FMC's tech group has scored significant wins, including serv- ing as company or investor counsel on seven of the country's largest 25 publicly reported venture capital financing trans- actions in 2006. As the national capital, Ot- Leonard Farber tawa also offers firms prime pickings from the public ser- vice. Last year, Peter Harder, former deputy minister of Foreign Affairs, joined FMC as a senior policy advisor on regulatory and policy issues. And among the 50 lawyers and agents at Ogilvy Renault's Ottawa office is Derek Bur- ney, a former Canadian am- bassador to the United States who served as chief of staff to prime minister Brian Mulroney. More recently, he was named by Prime Minister Ste- phen Harper to serve on the Indepen- dent Panel on Canada's Future Role in Afghanistan. Burney helps the firm's cli- ent on cross-border and domestic issues, as well as trade and investment policy matters. Ogilvy Renault has also recruited Leonard Farber, former general director of the tax policy branch at the federal Finance Department, to help clients re- solve tax disputes and assist the firm's tax practice with tax planning and advice. Lawyers, too, have carved out niches for themselves in practices unique to the capital. Among them is Eugene Meehan, a specialist in appellate litigation who is regularly called on by lawyers and law firms across the country for his exper- tise with the Supreme Court of Canada, where he once served as executive legal www. C ANADIAN mag.com M AY 2008 43