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"Joining ranks with a national law firm will allow us to pursue growth opportunities in the Saskatchewan market that are currently out of our reach." bRIAN SChERMAN, bALFOUR MOSS LLP Peter Martyr, the London-based group chief executive of Norton Rose Group, says his firm saw parallels between Canada and Australia, where in 2009 it merged with the Deacons law firm. Both countries have strong capabilities in Norton Rose's niches — financial institutions, resources, infra- structure, and transportation. Both countries also have a number of highly respected and well-run law firms that seem to lack the wherewithal to fol- low their clients internationally. It was therefore evident that a merger on the scale of its move in Australia was in order for the Canadian market. While this made eminent sense to Martyr, he encountered a range of responses from Canadian firms' leaders when they met to test the waters. "There are some firms [that] get it immedi- ately; there are some who see a potential threat; there are others who don't see it at all," says Martyr. Ogilvy's managing partner was among the first group. "John Coleman was somebody who very much had the same ideas as I had; instinctively understood what we'd done in Australia; instinctively understood what we were trying to achieve; and understood the business connection that lay behind the whole prospect." Perhaps even more importantly, Coleman and Martyr meshed on a per- sonal level, which the Norton Rose head believes is vital to any merger. "These are not deals, I believe, that you can drive by reference to some complex set of documents. This has got to be some- thing where you stay on the same page, and there should be limited words, but you should have the ability to talk and resolve any issues that arise. And I felt with John, we just hit it off." Combined with the synergies between the two firms' businesses, and Norton's jointly announced merger with South Africa's 200-lawyer Deneys Reitz, Martyr believes Ogilvy has vaulted itself into the mix internationally in a way unmatched by other Canadian firms. The combined moves put the Norton Rose Group in an enviable position to take advantage of significant profit streams. Resource-rich economies, such as Canada, Brazil, South Africa, and Australia, are expected to lead the way as high-demand economies, such as India, China, and Japan, fuel growth. "Read the press over the last year; you cannot fail to be impressed by the num- ber of deals that are passing between Australia-Canada, Australia-South Africa, South Africa-Canada, often financed from China," says Martyr. Coleman says that, unlike other large Canadian firms, Ogilvy opted against growing its global presence through representative offices. Clients are look- ing for a more robust presence than can be offered by an office with just a few lawyers, he says. From the firm's perspective, such offices act largely as networking hubs for landing inbound Canadian work, yet can be very costly to operate. "We really want to be able to help our clients around the world as they grow globally, and having a representative office just won't do it for them," he explains. There has also been much said of the gaping hole in Norton's global pres- ence. After all, how can a firm honestly call itself global when it is absent from the United States? Martyr acknowledges the significance of this gap, but says his firm has opted to strengthen its oper- ations elsewhere before entering the fiercely competitive American market. "I think we all stand at exactly the same place in terms of the importance of the U.S. Clearly it is crucial." At the same time, the process of choosing a partner through which it can break into the U.S. market cannot be taken hastily. "It is the single most risky and the single most important decision that we will take," says Martyr. One of the top roadblocks seems to be the unique organizational and cultural approaches taken by many large U.S. firms. "A lot of Canadian law- yers probably find the type of organiza- tion that we are, which is very multina- tional, easier to assimilate than some of the U.S. style of management and way in which firms are run," he says. For the architects of the Nov. 9, 2010 merger between McMillan and Lang www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com FEBRUA R Y 2011 29