Canadian Lawyer

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m J U L Y 2 0 1 5 31 long the north bank of the South Saskatch- ewan River sits a bronze statue of a preacher and a chief gazing across the river looking at what is today the southeast side of Saskatoon. The monument marks the spot — according to the city's history — of a meeting in August 1882 between the Dakota Sioux Chief Whitecap and Saskatoon's founding father John Lake. As the story goes, the Dakota chief counselled the temperance colony leader about where the best place would be to build a town site. A year later, Saskatoon was born and by 1884 the population was around 80 people with six houses, a store, and a sawmill and by 1903, the community officially became a town. Like most other Saskatchewan communities at the time, Saskatoon depended upon agriculture to drive its economy and generate growth during numerous boom and bust cycles. Eventually the economy diversified turning to the mining industry and the province's vast natural resources such as coal, uranium, and potash to fuel economic growth. "In Saskatchewan, as everyone I think knows now, we have had a very successful last 10 to 15 years for sure and before that as well," says Dan Anderson, a partner and chairman of one of Saskatchewan's largest law firms, MacPherson Leslie & Tyerman LLP. The last 10 or so of those years, the province has had significant growth and he says he thinks the legal community has played a big part in that as it services that economy. "When [the economy] has done really well, then the lawyers have been busy with interesting work. Lots of inter- esting clients to work with, interesting people, we've seen an influx of people from many parts of the world have come here to participate in what has been going on in Saskatchewan." International mining companies like Australia's BHP Bil- liton and German-based K+S Potash Canada have opened offices in Saskatoon. Both are building new potash mines cre- ating thousands of jobs related to the mining industry. This kind of economic activity and business growth usually means lots of legal work, something not lost on Anderson. He has ties to Saskatoon's business community serving as the president of the Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce in 2003. His Saskatoon city report A Saskatoon: Strong economy boosts city's legal profession Firms finding young lawyers staying or seeking out jobs in its solid economy. By Mervin Brass

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