Minden’s Kallish says an affiliation with Meritas Law Firms Worldwide, an integrated, non-profit alliance of more than 170 independent commercial law firms in over 60 countries, is crucial to his firm. “One of our challenges about 15 years ago was how do we service our clients who need representation outside of Ontario if we want to stay mid-size?” he says. “So our strategy back then was to join Meritas, because it leveraged our ability to use the organization to service our clients throughout the world.

“In addition, we receive a lot of inbound work throughout the world through the Meritas affiliation.”

No firm we talked to had plans to expand outside Ontario, so these types of networks can be crucial to compete with the national firms. Eldon Bennett, managing partner of Toronto’s Aird & Berlis LLP, says the 120-lawyer firm is part of Interlaw, an association of independent, quality-monitored commercial law firms in some 120 cities. “It’s quite interesting how many times within the course of a week you’ll get an inquiry if you can refer a client to someone in, say, a South American country,” he says. Membership in an international association allows you “to be able to say with confidence to the client, ‘This is the law firm we would refer you to and here’s the individual you should contact.’”

He says the vetting process for member firms is quite intense, but that also puts the firm at ease knowing other member firms went through the same rigours. As with most of these alliances, member firms are of similar size and the referrals are non-exclusive.

Blaney McMurtry LLP, the 100-lawyer Toronto firm is a member TAGLaw, a global alliance of independent law firms with more than 150 member firms based in nearly 100 countries. “We don’t have offices in Paris and London and Moscow like some of the Seven Sister firms have, but we belong to an international association of firms called TAGLaw, which has been an excellent association for us,” say managing partner Ian Epstein.

Michael Slan, partner at Fogler Rubinoff, says he’s finding the firm’s affiliation with the International Lawyers Network is bringing work in the door, useful for referring clients around the world, and definitely increases their chances on RFPs. “An organization like the ILN allows us to reach out to clients and say, ‘We may be a regional, mid-size firm in Toronto, but we actually have a lot of depth and breadth around the world, with local knowledge in a lot of places,’” he says.

“The way I look at it is, if I’m at a national firm I have to use somebody in Vancouver or somebody in another location that may or may not be best for the job, but he’s part of my firm and part of my operating profits, so I have to use him. The members of our organization are generally mid-size firms that are locally based, and I may have something that’s a small thing, but because I have an ongoing relationship with them, I get response from them.”

Recruitment and retention

Clients and corporations appear to be flocking to the mid-sizers, with almost every firm we spoke to reporting increased revenue year after year. But what about associates, junior lawyers, and laterals? Are they, too, embracing them?

“We are always looking to increase strategically. If we can increase the corporate area, we would,” says Torkin’s Cohen. “I think that would be an area we would like to focus on, but the talent pool and the recruitment opportunities in the corporate area are toughest.” He says this isn’t a new challenge and they’ve made a more concerted effort to ensure the quality of the articling and summer students and will continue to grow from within.

WeirFoulds is recruiting using the same model. “Virtually all students from last year are hired back this year and we’re hiring an increasing number of students, and we’ve found that works best, actually,” says Richards. Adds Borsook: “We’ve had a lot of luck. I know there are different models of growth: lateral hires, mergers, and growing from the bottom, but the one we’ve found that works best is growing through students. It takes a long time, but we seem to think it’s worth the effort because we don’t have really any attrition. They seem to be interested in being partners here, which is great.”