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companies, unions, and Quebec's rich and famous over the past quarter-century. "Daniel is a brilliant lawyer and an extremely hard worker," says Bergeron. "He is what I call a litigator type: he has a strong personality and convictions and he expresses them very forcefully, sometimes too much so. He is not afraid to go to court and he is a very tough and tenacious adversary." If O'Brien is the firm's ying, Bergeron suggested that his long- time associate Stéphane Lamonde, a business lawyer who joined the firm in 1985 a year after being called to the bar and has been managing partner since 2001, is its yang. "Stéphane is brilliant, too, but he is much more diplomatic than Daniel. Stéphane is what I call a transactional type of lawyer, always looking for agreement and deal making. The two of them complement each other beautifully." Though he, too, does a lot of deal making and transactions, the bilingual O'Brien admits a fondness for litigation. Among his many legal victories, he says he is most proud of a relatively small and obscure judgment from last year that authorized a Quebec City trustee to sue the federal superintendent of bankruptcies. "I usually represent powerful people and organizations," he says. "But this was a real David versus Goliath battle in terms of both the size of the opponents and the outcome." In many ways, the results of the case and O'Brien's satisfac- tion with the win reflect his modest upbringing in a working- class family that put a premium on hard work, dedication, and social justice. Born and raised not far from his firm's suite of offices on Quebec City's prestigious Grande-Allée, directly opposite the longtime residence of former prime minister and lawyer Louis St. Laurent, O'Brien credits his English-speaking father, Gerry, for both his tenacious character and his intel- lectual curiosity. "My father was a World War II veteran and a well-known amateur boxer who worked two jobs," recalls O'Brien. "He did not graduate high school but he had a broad culture, as he still does today at age 90, because he read ency- clopedias, atlases, and dictionaries like some people read nov- els." He credits his francophone mother, Pierrette, now 86, with successfully pushing him and his two siblings to attend Laval University on their own dime. O'Brien also acknowledges the crucial role his fluency in English had with helping him land his first job as a lawyer in the office of Quebec City lawyer and current president of the Canadian Olympic Committee, Marcel Aubut. At the time, Aubut was president (and later part owner) of the Quebec Nordiques. "They were looking around for someone with good English skills and [lawyer and schoolmate] Yves Lepage gave them my name," recalls O'Brien. "I owe Yves a lot." Being the member of the firm with the best English abilities, he spent the next four years handling cases and matters pertaining to the National Hockey League. In addition to helping make O'Brien a well-known figure in the hockey-mad provincial capital, he travelled extensively across North America, which enabled him to make many valu- able contacts in the legal world of professional sports. "Those unique opportunities gave me a chance to acquire a significant amount of experience early in my career." O'Brien concedes it took both courage and confidence to walk away from what was likely the best job in town for a young lawyer and start his own firm based on an idea. "But I realized that I couldn't create something new from something that existed," he says. "And I was convinced that I was on to something good." As with any firm, O'Brien says contacts, hard work, and delivering quality legal services have proven to be solid foun- dations on which he and his associates, several of whom have been with him 20 years or more, have built the business. "I like to say that my partners are in osmosis with me," says O'Brien, who lives with his wife, writer Hélène Lucas, and their two teenage sons, Francis and Dominic, on a posh residential street a five-minute walk from his office. He says the firm's growth has also been sustained by an unex- pected result of its unique business model: the need for him and his associates to continue working hard in order to stay abreast of legal developments in many different fields. "Because I repre- sent so many different companies, I have to keep studying like a young lawyer," says O'Brien. "I must continue learning like a gen- eralist but also be as good as any specialist in a variety of fields." In addition to helping to keep him and his associates sharp, O'Brien says the firm's small size and its close-knit personal relations with most of its clients makes every work day different, challenging and, above all, fun. "It's always a pleasure to come into the office. There's always something new going on." NEW EDITION THE 2011 ANNOTATED BRITISH COLUMBIA REPRESENTATION AGREEMENT ACT, ADULT GUARDIANSHIP ACT AND RELATED STATUTES ROBERT M. GORDON CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS: GERRIT CLEMENTS, HUGH McLELLAN, AND GREGORY STEELE FOREWORD BY JAY CHALKE Stay current on amendments to guardianship law in B.C. This edition covers all the latest legislation, including the incapacity planning provisions of the Adult Guardianship and Planning Statutes Amendment Act (S.B.C. 2007, c. 34) as well as the adult abuse and health care consent legislation, in force September 1, 2011. You also get the most current case law and expert commentary that help you interpret and apply the law. ORDER 983517-67772 $110 Softcover 660 pages April 2011 978-0-7798-3517-1 Shipping and handling are extra. Price subject to change without notice and subject to applicable taxes. AVAILABLE RISK-FREE FOR 30 DAYS Order online at www.carswell.com Call Toll-Free: 1-800-387-5164 In Toronto: 416-609-3800 www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com N O VEMBER / D ECEMBER 2011 25