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Casgrain LLP's Calgary office. "I think the income trusts decision has had an impact," says Ken Mills, manag- ing partner of the Calgary office of Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP. "I think what we've seen is a drop, as all firms have, in [initial public offerings] in Calgary, as a result of the income trusts decisions, but we have seen an increase in M&A work and some restructuring. It's shifted work for the law firms." Last year also saw the Alberta Royalty Review — an independent panel of ex- perts appointed by the province to con- duct a review of Alberta's royalty and tax regime, to ensure Albertans are receiving a fair share from energy development through royalties, taxes, and fees. Again, the results were not what inves- anymore, because it's not as complete a story as it was 15 months ago," says Campbell. While this is bad for business, Cal- gary law firms are seeing an increase in the merger and acquisition, bank- ruptcy and insolvency, tax, banking, and financial work they are doing. "We believe there is uncertainty in the econ- omy in the upcoming year. For that reason, we are ensuring our insolvency and litigation practices are positioned for increased activity," says Matt Lind- say, managing partner of Fraser Milner tors wanted to hear. "I don't think we've seen the end of the fallout of the royalty review yet," says Kenneth Warren, man- aging partner of the Calgary office of Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP. "We'll know better when the rules are finalized and have come into force, but there are segments in the industry that are sig- nificantly affected by the royalty review. The bigger players, the large oil and gas companies that have considerable flex- ibility as to where they invest, some of them have already announced that they are taking their money elsewhere." He says, once more, it's the smaller, junior players, which have always been a big part of the Alberta oil and gas indus- try, that don't have the option to pull up stakes and go elsewhere. "Their environ- ment has changed significantly and there may be a lot of mergers and acquisitions in the next year, as some of those play- ers just can't make a go of it and have to look for another way to exit." Despite this economic downturn in certain segments of the energy industry, the oil sands continue to be a bright spot for Alberta business — and for Calgary law firms, as the oil sands cut across many practice areas. "Anything within the oil sands has been busy. There's lots of activity going on in the oil sands, which involves construction — general corporate-commercial — that may in- volve securities, capital markets," says Whelan. Warren agrees and notes that oil sands are going to continue to be big work for Gowlings in 2008. "They're multi-bil- lion-dollar projects, and there's going to be a lot of legal work and business work involved in completing the development of the oils sands, no question about it," he says. "Unconventional oil and gas, we'll see more work in coal-bed meth- ane and we're doing a lot more work in the wind-power area. "With the oil sands development you will see new focus on environmental issues, including a lot of focus on wa- ter rights. As a finite resource out here, the oil sands have huge water demands, but there's only so much to go around. I think that's going to be a bigger and big- ger issue." Good help wanted In Calgary, as in any major city, finding and retaining top talent can be chal- lenging. But quite apart from a city like Toronto, where associates leave one firm to join another (sometimes in the same office tower), the majority of associates who leave Calgary firms are going in- house. The lure of becoming corporate counsel is hard to resist, especially once stock options end up in the mix. Awinning teamwith years of experience. McKellar...full zone coverage www.mckellar.com GERRI STRAUS, VANCOUVER VANCOUVER 1-800-465-7878 EDMONTON 780-420-0897 GUELPH (HEAD OFFICE) 1-800-265-8381 USA 1-800-265-2789 CECIL PAULL, EDMONTON HALIFAX 1-800-565-0695 www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com FEBRU AR Y 2008 37