Canadian Lawyer

20 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m hen Gary Mesch- ishnick was appointed a judge of the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench, it wasn't such a great surprise to his colleagues at Wallace Meschishnick Clackson Zawada LPC, the firm he helped found in 1996. After all, he had been open about his ambitions with his colleagues. That did help them prepare, somewhat. But no one was certain whether the call would ever come and, if it did, when. His was among a flurry of 43 pre- election appointments made by the gov- ernment to the country's federal court benches in June. They filled vacancies, some of which had been open for up to two years. For lawyers coming from law firms, it becomes a scramble for both the lawyer and the firm. "It happens and then it's over . . . so it really is sort of abrupt," says Craig Zawada, another co-founder of the Saskatchewan firm. "The advantage we had was that Gary was very open with us throughout." When the appointment was suddenly announced, Meschishnick had to imme- diately stop practising and shift his atten- tion to quickly transfer his files to col- leagues without the benefit of contacting his clients. It was so abrupt, Meschishnick had to hold up in the midst of drafting an opinion letter for a client. The firm's goal was to be transparent as Meschishnick transferred to his new position to ensure everyone involved met the ethical expectations of the profes- sion. Because it's a mid-sized firm for its market, about 20 lawyers, and it employs a collaborative approach, the remaining lawyers were able to absorb the extra work. In fact, the firm had ensured it had others on board who practised the same areas of law as Meschishnick, which included corporate-commercial litigation and insolvency and restructuring law. "One thing that helped is that he tried to have as many files in conjunction with another lawyer in the office," says Zawada. While more time would have made the process easier, the aim is to be seen to eliminate possibilities of conflict wher- ever possible. The generally accepted way to do that is to keep any suggestion of a judicial appointment secret right up until the time of the official announcement and have the appointed lawyer cease his or her practice immediately. Since he joined Stockwoods LLP in 1990, Paul Le Vay has seen three col- leagues leave to serve as judges: Robert Blair in 1991 is now on the Ontario Court of Appeal; Nancy Spies was appointed to the Ontario Superior Court in 2005; and last December, Michal Fairburn was also appointed to the Superior Court. Having Fairburn join Stockwoods to lead its criminal law practice after serving with the Crown law office was considered L AW O F F I C E M A N A G E M E N T W FAYE ROGERS Judge in the house It's an honour to have one of your fi rm's lawyers appointed to the bench, but it can create a bit of chaos as well. By Marg. Bruineman

• Cover