Canadian Lawyer

May 2016

The most widely read magazine for Canadian lawyers

Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/672505

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 31 of 51

32 M A Y 2 0 1 6 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m L itigation boutiques once thrived on the work big law firms couldn't keep for conflict of inter- est reasons, but today, special- ized litigation firms say they're going head to head with those same big shops on some of the most complex and high-stakes files. "It seems that the market has recognized that it's not the number of lawyers that matters, it's the quality and the knowledge of a very specialized area," says Richard Vachon, managing partner at Quebec-based Woods LLP, one of the top 10 vote-getters in this year's Canadian Lawyer survey of litiga- tion boutiques. While they maintain good relation- ships with large firms that still refer work to them, some of the top 10 bou- tiques tell us they compete on much the same level as national firms for the rest of their mandates. "One of our goals when we started in 2001 was to quickly scale up to the point where we'd never feel that our clients were at a disadvan- tage when we were going toe to toe with the [large], full-service firms and their litigation departments," says Rob Centa, managing partner at Paliare Roland Rosenberg Rothstein LLP. "We're abso- lutely at that place now." He notes his 34-lawyer firm is now "larger than the litigation departments of several of the big firms. We have all the technological resources necessary, we have the relationships with the for- ensic firms, [and] we are fully capable of engaging in any mandate." Unlike the big firms, Centa says his firm's largest mandates are one-off files. It doesn't do large commodity work for banks or insurance companies; instead, it's brought in on specific litigation man- dates often when the stakes are very high and the pressure to achieve good results is enormous. "Our size allows us to be nimble, to staff our files appropriately, to keep our overhead reasonable, and to provide very attentive and responsive client service," he says. Top boutiques Strong, confi dent, competitive Canadian Lawyer 's top corporate law and litigation boutiques have the bench strength to go head to head with Big Law. By Yamri Taddese Canadian Lawyer selected Canada's top litigation and corporate law bou- tiques by asking readers to rank a long list of notable firms in each area, which was whittled down to a short list through votes drawing on input from our editorial team. The results on the following pages are an alphabetical list of the 10 boutique firms in each area that are rated most highly by other lawyers. How we did it:

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Canadian Lawyer - May 2016