4. Desjardins Ducharme LLP
Total Lawyers: 150
Offices:  Montreal, Quebec City
Lawyers by Office: Montreal: 100,  Quebec City: 50

Core Practice Areas:     
Business law.

Key Clients:
National Bank of Canada; Mouvement Desjardins; Industrielle Alliance; Coop Fédérée; American International group; Rona; SAQ; Genome Canada; Heroux-Devtek; Mistral Pharma; Bridgestone/Firestone; and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

Notable Mandates:
Counsel to the government of Quebec for the privatization of Innovatech Grand Montréal; Caisse de dépôt in the purchase of Gaz Metro with a consortium of other institutional investors; Caisse de dépôt in the acquisition of an interest in Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline in the United States; Kunz Group in the sale to Pfleiderer AG of Uniboard Canada Inc. and its affiliates; federal government before the Gomery Commission; and 2006 victories before the Supreme Court of Canada in Barbie’s Restaurant v. Mattel and Concordia University v. Bisaillon.

Star Alumni:
Jean Lesage, former Quebec premier; Louis St. Laurent, former prime minister; Yves Pratte, former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada; Pierre Michaud, former chief justice of the Quebec Court of Appeal; Claude Wagner and Jérome Choquette, both former Quebec ministers of justice and solicitor general; Warren Allmand, former federal solicitor general; Robert Demers, former president of the Montreal Stock Exchange and the Quebec Securities Commission; and Gilles Hébert, judge of the Quebec Superior Court.

Pro Bono/Community Service:
Fondation de l’Hôpital Sainte-Justine; Orchestre I Musici de Montréal; and L’Arrêt-Source.

Affiliations:
Lex Mundi, an association of 160 independent law firms.

The Firm:  
Desjardins Ducharme originates from the 1949 association of Guy Desjardins and Claude Ducharme in Montreal, which joined the even older firm of Gélinas Bourque in 1975. In 1991, the firm expanded to Quebec City by merging with the highly respected Stein Monast, briefly becoming Desjardins Ducharme Stein Monast before switching its name to Desjardins Ducharme upon becoming a limited liability partnership in May 2005.
Now led by managing partner André Vautour, Desjardins Ducharme counts former a prime minister, a Quebec premier, and innumerable judges among its alumni. Located in Montreal’s National Bank Tower and with new offices in Quebec City, this establishment firm represents many of the province’s top francophone institutions. As “a distinct partnership in a distinct society,” the firm has given the cold shoulder to numerous national firms seeking a merger to establish a presence in the vital Quebec legal market, which is increasingly seen as a linguistically and culturally amenable gateway for European companies seeking to gain access to the North American markets.

5. Aird & Berlis LLP
Total Lawyers: 120
Offices:  Toronto
Lawyers by Office:  Toronto: 120

Core Practice Areas:
Banking; corporate/commercial; corporate finance; environmental; insolvency and restructuring; litigation; municipal and land-use planning; real estate; tax; and energy.

Key Clients:
Allied Canadian Group; BMO; Dynatec Corp.; Falcon Oil & Gas; GMAC Commercial Finance; La Salle Business Credit; Ontario Power Authority; ROW Limited Partnership; Royal Bank; TD Financial Group; Wachovia Capital Finance Corp.; the municipalities of Markham, Mississauga, and Oakville, Ont.; Enbridge Group; Environment Management Solutions Inc.; and Enersource Corp.

Notable Mandates:
Counsel to Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd. in a $100-million public offering; Dynatec Corp. in the acquisition of a 27-per-cent interest in FNX Mining Company and a $119-million share issuance; St. Louis-based Ralcorp Holdings Inc. in the Canadian aspect of their US$80-million purchase of Western Waffles; and Allied Properties REIT in the acquisition of a $56-million portfolio from Camwood Properties Ltd.

Star Alumni:
Founding partner John Aird was appointed to the Senate and served as Ontario’s 23rd lieutenant governor from 1980-1985; Gilbert Bennett, chairman of the board of Canadian Tire Corp. and Fortis Ontario Inc.; and Toronto Mayor David Miller.

Pro Bono/Community Service:
Sponsored speed skater and Olympic gold medalist Clara Hughes during the 2005-2006 competitive season; organizes a law firm challenge for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s annual Ride for Research; and partner Nick Torchetti recently received the Villa Charities’ Heart and Hand Award for embodying the true spirit of volunteerism.

Affiliations:
Toronto representative of Interlaw, an international association of independent law firms.

The Firm:
Aird & Berlis, situated in BCE Place, is the product of the 1974 union of Zimmerman Grant Hugo Paddon Worley & Bennett, founded in 1919, and Edison Aird & Berlis, founded in 1953. Today, the 120-lawyer Aird & Berlis enjoys a strong reputation as a leading corporate finance and real estate and development law firm. Toronto Mayor David Miller once practiced law with the firm, specializing in employment and immigration law and shareholder rights. While Aird & Berlis once had an Ottawa office and an association with a Vancouver firm, it is now content to maintain a single Toronto office, says managing partner Eldon Bennett. While the firm plans to hire about 15 lawyers in banking, financial services, corporate finance, and energy law, Bennett says the firm’s modest size leaves it well-positioned to cope with a consolidating Canadian business world that is placing downward pressure on the domestic legal services market. “We’re on the opposite side of lots of sides of deals with larger (law) firms,” he says. “The way they man the deal is so much more expensive than the way we do the deal.”


6. Lavery, de Billy LLP
Total Lawyers: 145
Offices: Montreal, Quebec City, Laval, and Ottawa
Lawyers by Office:  Montreal: 114; Quebec City: 27; Laval: 2; Ottawa: 2

Core Practice Areas:
Business law; mergers and acquisitions; securities; financial services/business finance; competition law; tax and trusts; mining; real estate; leasing; employment and labour; commercial; class action; securities; professional liability and insurance litigation; environmental law; privacy law; and health law.

Key Clients:
Hydro Quebec; Gaz Metropolitan Inc.; Labatt Breweries; University of Montreal; Goodyear Canada; Canadian National Railway Co.; Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec; BMO Financial Group; AXA Insurance Inc.; Campbell Resources Inc.; Cambior; Brookfield Power Corp.; La Presse Ltée; Noranda Inc.; Sobeys Inc.; McCain Foods Limited; The Home Depot, Inc.; and Metro Richelieu Inc.

Notable Mandates:
Acted for Rabaska Limited partnership in regulatory and environmental approvals for a $840-million LNG terminal project on the St-Lawrence River near Quebec City; Campbell Resources Inc. and its subsidiaries in its reorganization and plan of arrangement pursuant to the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act; Advanced Fiber Technologies Income Fund in the $37.4-million purchase by Aikawa Iron Works Co. Ltd., of all outstanding units; the University of Montreal in its development of a new campus.

Star Alumni:
Quebec Superior Court judges Michel Caron, Paul Carrière, Jean-François de Grandpré, Pierre Gagnon, Marie Gaudreau, Jean Guilbault, Hélène Langlois, Marc Lesage, Diane Marcelin, Édouard Martin, J. Fraser Martin, Anne-Marie Trahan, and Richard Wagner; Federal Court associate chief justice Allan Lutfy; and Quebec Court of Appeal justices Marc Beauregard, Jacques Chamberland, and Lorne Giroux;

Pro Bono/Community Service:
Jean Saint-Onge, chairman of the Marie-Vincent Foundation; Canadian Centre for Architecture; the Montreal International Music Competition; the Metropolitan Orchestra of Greater Montreal; the YMCA; and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; partner Odette Jobin-Laberge recently received the Barreau du Québec’s Mérite award; Jules Brière chairs an inter-ministerial committee to consult with the aboriginal community; and firm lawyers have authored French-language legal texts.

Affiliations:
None.

The Firm:
Founded in 1913, Lavery, de Billy is a full-service law firm headquartered in Montreal’s 41-storey cruciform tower, with smaller offices in Quebec City, Laval, and Ottawa. It’s no mystery why this 145-lawyer firm has been so keenly courted by several national law firms wishing to expand into Quebec. “We act for numerous entrepreneurial start-up, mid-size, and multinational corporations in numerous sectors of the economy. Amongst many other important clients, we act for Labatt Breweries, Hydro-Quebec, Canadian National, Goodyear Canada, Parmalat, SNC Lavalin, Cambior, the Quebec Hospital Association, Gaz Métropolitain, and McCain Foods,” says managing partner Richard Dolan. “We are the only regional firm in our market offering significant bench strength and expertise in all major practice areas, including business law, employment and labour law, litigation, class action work, and environmental law.  In fact, in many of these areas, we occupy a position second-to-none in our market.”