Ontario’s mid-size firms, then, know how to attract talent, but do they know how to retain it? Are they worried that the lure of going to a big Bay Street firm or joining a client in-house may be too strong to resist?

“We have to make sure that we’re at least competitive from a salary perspective,” says Cohen. “I think the quality of the work and the speed with which we train our lawyers to deal directly with clients at a very early age, by the time they’re out three to five years [they] have a good foundation. They are very often the client contact lawyers. I think that for people who are self-starters and very motivated and somewhat entrepreneurial, that’s a very significant incentive for them to stay.”

Indeed, the mid-size model is ideal for those who are self-starters, eager to network and build relationships, and get on-the-ground training both in court and with clients. But it’s still not without its challenges. “Our retention numbers are certainly better than average, but retention in the junior ranks is always a struggle in large part because of the hours expectation,” says Aird & Berlis’ Bennett. “They want more balance in their lives than certainly the older lawyers experienced in their early years of practice, and fair enough. We try to address that. The demands of practice aren’t predictable.”

Mid-market pressures?

Speaking of unpredictability, some were caught off guard when mid-size firm Goodman and Carr LLP announced it was dissolving earlier this year. At the time, partner Steve Watson told the media failed merger discussions with Chicago-based Baker & McKenzie LLP weren’t to blame, but rather it was the competitive marketplace and recent staff departures that led to the firm’s decision to close.

Did this toll the death knell for other Ontario mid-size firms? Or at least made mid-size firms wonder who’ll be next? Not really. It seems to be more of an “it’s not us, it’s you” mentality. “I don’t believe it has anything to do with being a mid-size firm,” says Cohen. “On the other hand, I think if you’re trying to be a 50-to 100-lawyer mid-size firm where you’re specializing in only corporate law and as a result trying to get primarily institutional work, I don’t think that’s a model that works. I think that’s the primary reason we continue to have that personal services component. You need to have a mix.”

Richards says WeirFoulds read the June 2007 article in Canadian Lawyer on the demise of Goodman and Carr “with great interest and very carefully to see if there was anything in the tea leaves that we’ve got to be aware of.” Borsook adds: “The thing that I found most interesting, a lot of the spin was about mid-size firms . . . when you talk to the people who are no longer there you can see that the real story had less to do with size and had more to do with personalities involved. They wanted to be something different from what they were.”

Kallish, who articled at Goodman and Carr, says having lived in only a mid-size world, he doesn’t have a concern about the demise of other mid-size firms. “The reality is the mid-size firm will always have a place as long as the buyers of legal services want the type of hands-on, efficient, responsive, and cost-effective services that we provide,” he says. Epstein, who also used to work at G&C, says it boils down to trying to be more than you are and spreading yourself too thin in the process. “I think that the problem with G&C was that they were trying to be more than a mid-size law firm. It was a great firm and as a mid-size firm they could have been very successful, but I think they were trying to get to the next tier and couldn’t quite make up their mind as to who they were.”

Bennett, who says it was an open secret that he was approached by a consulting firm merging with the defunct firm, says, “It was them. It was the way they ran the firm, the decisions they made, the things they didn’t do. Frankly, I think a lot of people, with respect to them, had been wondering just when it would happen.”

The environment for mid-sizers is very competitive, he notes. “Canada is a relatively small place and we’re subject to what’s going on in the market and the fact that significant Canadian clients are being taking over by foreign entities, and when you have mergers and acquisitions, domestic clientele is being reduced for somebody.

See the following page for a list of Ontario’s 50 mid-size business law firms.