Canadian Lawyer

34 A P R I L 2 0 1 7 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m That respect extends in particular to newer members of the profession. Saturley remembers that after her first arbitration she got a call from the opposing (and more senior) counsel to tell her what a great job she had done. "I will never forget that." Being nice, however, is not syn- onymous with being less proficient or less effective. "I've seen the pleasant attitude, which is not to be mistaken for being a pushover," says Mohammad Raza, an associate with Cox & Palmer LPP, a full-service regional firm with 200 lawyers in four provinces. Raza discovered the resolution behind the smiles, and more, when he moved to Halifax in 2014 after having worked as a lawyer in several countries including Pakistan, Belgium and Italy. He had no intention of staying in Nova Scotia, having heard that lawyers here were conservative by nature and slow to make decisions. "I found the complete opposite," he says. "Lawyers are very quick decision-makers here. They are driven by the desire to service clients. They are competitive, but they do not lose sight of what's important." Lawyers in Halifax, which has a population of approximately 400,000, are also not immune to changes hap- pening to the profession elsewhere in the country. Matt Napier, a partner with BoyneClarke LLP's personal injury team, notes that there is growing pres- sure to litigate. "In days gone by, it was recognized by defence counsel that we we're all in the Maritimes and we are talking about our neighbours. There is a heavy onus [now] on defence counsel to defend, defend, defend to the bitter end. I'm not sure there's a need for that." Growing business, as for lawyers everywhere, is critical. In Halifax, that growth is attained for large firms at least by looking beyond city, provincial and even regional boundaries. McInnes Cooper, for example, bills itself today as "one of the 20 largest business law firms in Canada." "The client base has changed over 20 years," says Comstock. "The focus used to be local. We were a regional firm and that is as broad as it got. Our attention now is worldwide. We think more broadly and have clients interna- tionally." Much of that growth has been in tandem with the growth of local and regional clients, notes Saturley. "You develop a rapport and a relationship. Halifax city report TECHNOLOGY LAW SPRING FORUM CHAIRED BY Kirsten Thompson, McCarthy Tétrault LLP Ian Thorburn, Solicitor, City of Toronto St. Andrew's Club & Conference Centre 150 King Street West 16th Floor, Toronto ON, M5H 1J9 MAY 18, 2017 | WWW.IT-CONFERENCE.CA 2017 JOIN US FOR THE Powered by ntitled-3 1 2017-03-16 2:34 PM

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