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COVERSTORY building on established relationships. And Bell Aliant has its share of established historical relationships (prior to a merger in 1999, Aliant was Bruncor Inc., Island Telecom Inc., Maritime Telegraph & Telephone Co. Ltd., and NewTel Enterprises). "One of the things that I've always been a bit concerned about, particularly to the extent that we've got operations in Atlantic Canada as well as in Montreal and Toronto . . . is try- ing to ensure we get the benefit of the quality of advice and expertise that is to be had in our region," says Crooks. "There are times when we absolutely need to have highly specialized advice that typically is available on Bay Street, and other times when we need advice that may not be quite as specialized but equally critical and benefits from having a local knowledge and flavour and dimension." Crooks could dole out high-level securities work to a large national firm and send labour and employment or real estate files to a local regional firm, but "that didn't give us the seam- less service delivery that we wanted to have," he says. "Halifax, and other centres in Atlantic Canada, has a really good depth of talent and expertise, but there are still going to be times where the expertise of a national firm is required," Crooks muses. "Is it possible to put the advantage of Halifax or Atlantic rates together with the national expertise in highly specialized areas we get from Bay Street?" Well, it seems it is possible. Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP in Toronto had worked on the financing end of the 1999 merger and has an established relationship with Crooks and Bell Aliant. On the local side, Cox & Palmer in Halifax also has an established relationship with Crooks and Bell Aliant — in fact, prior to going in-house, Crooks was a lawyer at Cox Hanson O'Reilly Matheson, better known now as Cox & Palmer. Was there a way to leverage the relationships, along with an 11-lawyer in-house team at Aliant, to form a seamless delivery of high-quality legal services at a lower cost? "My initial thought was, why can't I just get Cox & Palm- er and Blakes to work together almost as if they're providing services on a blended basis — as if they were one firm?" says Crooks. "I can understand the organizational challenges associated with that, but these are smart, service-oriented people, and un- less there was some rule of professional practice or conduct that prevented it, then I can't see why this isn't something that could be worked out." Crooks says he was warned by some that he wouldn't likely Looking for an easier way to attract attention? it's easy. JobsIL_IH_June_08.indd 1 C ANADIAN Lawyer INHOUSE A UGUST 2008 15 5/1/08 1:00:14 PM