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w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m M A R C H 2 0 1 7 31 A lot has changed since Canadian Lawyer last surveyed top Prairie firms in 2013. This time around, the historical definition of what constitutes a regional firm in the Prairies was updated to allow the inclusion of MLT Aikins LLP and Miller Thomson LLP, both of which have offices in more than one province in Canada. Much as the survey has been updated to keep up with the times, so has the region on which it's reporting. The Prairies have seen: a significant merger, with MacPherson Leslie & Tyerman LLP and Aikins MacAulay & Thorvaldson LLP join- ing forces at the beginning of the year; a pick-up in infrastructure spend; rising competition from alternative service providers; and — especially in Saskatchewan — strong population growth. "Our market has remained very stable — work is solid," says Glen Peters, man- aging partner at Fillmore Riley LLP in Winnipeg. "We're quite isolated geographically, but it's a fairly diversified economy." Don Wilson, managing part- ner of MLT Aikins, says it's no secret these are not the strongest of times in the Prairie provinces, but he adds that commodities are by definition cyclical. While there's been "a bit of a dip" from a legal services per- spective, newer areas such as intellectual property, IT, privacy, working with first nations and insolvency have seen a rapid expansion. "These are a lot of specialties that tradition- ally might have been serviced in the Prairies from outside of the Prairies, but we have tremendous capability in these areas that we've grown over the years. We're much more recession-proof than we used to be — these are part of the reasons why, because of branching into some of these other areas," Wilson says. Jeff Grubb, Miller Thomson's office managing partner in Saskatchewan, says that despite the fact resource prices have been down for the last few years, the "fundamentals in Saskatchewan are still very strong." Along with a growth in infrastructure, general construction and the health sector work, more businesses are getting into the supply and processing areas of agriculture, Grubb says. "Even on the oil and gas side, we're starting to see compa- nies increasing their capital spend and so it looks like that's turning the corner as well," he adds. McKercher LLP partner David Stack says there's been an upswing in commercial litigation for his firm, which usually occurs when the economy softens a bit, and an increase in immigration work as the population keeps growing. McKerch- er is also finding strength in its environmental law and there's a bit of a buzz around renewable energy lately as well, he adds. "The economy is the major challenge — maybe it's affecting the quantity of commercial and corporate transactions but not necessarily the quality," he says. "Saskatchewan is very much open for business and our com- mercial and corporate lawyers are attracting some very significant work." Stack adds that, unlike other regions, "we're not really feeling the pressure to reduce our complement of lawyers. To the contrary, one of our challenges contin- ues to be that we would love to attract a few strong mid-range associates. It's been one of our continual struggles over the last few years." Grubb echoes this, saying "everybody is busy and we're growing, and finding SIGNIFICANT CHANGES HAVE HIT THE LEGAL ECONOMY IN MANITOBA AND SASKATCHEWAN AND OUT-OF-PROVINCE INTEREST IS NOT ABATING A TIME OF TRANSITION BY MALLORY HENDRY TOP PRAIRIE FIRMS "SASKATCHEWAN IS VERY MUCH OPEN FOR BUSINESS AND OUR COMMERCIAL AND CORPORATE LAWYERS ARE ATTRACTING SOME VERY SIGNIFICANT WORK." DAVID STACK, MCKERCHER LLP Canadian Lawyer asked lawyers, in-house counsel and clients from across Canada to vote on the top full-service regional firms in the Prairies. They were asked to rank their top 5 firms in both Manitoba and Saskatchewan from a preliminary list, with a chance to nominate a firm that was not included on the list. Respondents' rankings were based on firms' regional service coverage, client base, notable mandates, service excellence and legal expertise. To be considered in the vote, firms were required to have at least one office based in the Prairies and offer a wide range of legal services. The final lists were determined through a points system, with the top 5 firms for Manitoba and the top 5 firms for Saskatchewan listed alphabetically. HOW WE DID IT