Practising/working in Regina

ERIN KLEISINGER • McDougall Gauley LLP

PROS:

•The chance to be a big fish in a small pond. “The reality is that in a smaller centre like Regina, you’re going to have an opportunity to make an impact in your area of practice in a way that you might not in a larger centre, [where] you’re just going to get diluted by the number of lawyers that are there,” she says.

•Regina has many large corporations, financial institutions, government, developers, entrepreneurs, and fewer lawyers to act for them than in other provinces.

•A lower cost of living than in other centres and the opportunity to earn a very good living.

•Because of the size of the bar, as a young lawyer you’re exposed early on to significant files and given the opportunity to contribute to them in a meaningful way. There is also significant quality and diversity of work for younger lawyers.

•Quality of life is high, as lawyers can work long hours, but the commuting times are short and there is a certain pace.

•Collegial legal community. “Our Regina bar is very collegial, we have terrific bar functions. The nice thing is that a lot of the judges tend to attend those and socialize with the practitioners, which may be [more] unusual than some of the other centres,” says Kleisinger.

•Getting to work with other excellent lawyers from across Canada, as there are no national firms that have offices in Saskatchewan, firms in the province get a wealth of agency work, which allows them to collaborate with practitioners from every province.

CONS:

•The B- team perception, where occasionally some counsel in larger centres when doing the agency work seem to have the impression that the caliber of lawyers in a smaller centre like Regina is second rate. “Usually it doesn’t take too long for you working on a file with them to realize that there’s some depth of legal talent here in Regina,” she says.

•Depending on the type of law that you want to practise, the market may not be broad enough to allow you to entirely specialize in that area. While lawyers might have areas of expertise, they often have a more general practice then you might see in the larger cities.

TONY MERCHANT • Merchant Law Group

PROS:

•A smaller bar and a bar in more convivial circumstances with judges means that things aren’t oppressively businesslike and judges get to know and like the counsel and counsel get to know and work with each other.

•Court and chambers are more personal and friendlier.

•Happier circumstance of work in many ways.

•Can see the respect and camaraderie that builds up within the legal community; a less aggressive world.

•Commuting time is very short.

•“As a professional, the small-town or medium-town pluses are that you sort of have a sense of everyone. It also makes the practice more efficient,” says Merchant.

CONS:

•Always have the worry that you’re a big fish in a little pond, but there are tradeoffs between big and small.