In-house counsel select top 10 firms across Canada
Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP has been named Canada’s leading law firm brand for the seventh consecutive year in the Thomson Reuters Canada Law Firm Brand Index 2022. This is the eighth time Blakes has earned the top spot since the Canadian index was introduced in 2012.
The Canada Law Firm Brand Index is compiled of 235 interviews that were conducted with senior legal buyers in Canada between January 2021 and December 2021.
“Blakes’ staying power is fueled by building deep relationships with its clients to earn it the distinction of the Canadian legal market’s most favored law firm,” states the report.
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“The firm also combines this favorability with a deep understanding of clients’ businesses, which helps position the firm for handling clients’ most complex work from top-level litigation to top-level M&A deals.”
Other firms ranking in the top four — McCarthy Tétrault at number two; Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt (three); and Norton Rose Fulbright (four) — maintained their ranks from last year with each firm earning their spot in this market by leveraging various brand differentiators, according to survey respondents.
This year, Torys and Borden Ladner Gervais jumped ahead with Torys landing among the top five firms – up from the number six slot in 2021. Torys fueled its rise by building more top-of-mind awareness and consideration for top-level M&A work.
BLG’s rise to eighth after three years in the number nine spot can be attributed to the firm’s meaningful increase in consideration for high-value work matters, respondents reported.
Another rapid riser, Bennett Jones joins the Index’s top ten for the second time in 2022, enjoying the firm’s strongest position yet by landing at the number nine spot. In addition to earning more recognition for top-level M&A and high-value matters, Bennett Jones also improved its favorability among Canadian legal buyers.
The top 10 Canadian firms in 2022 were (in ranked order):
- Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
- McCarthy Tétrault LLP
- Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
- Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP
- Torys LLP
- Stikeman Elliott LLP
- Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
- Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
- Bennett Jones LLP
- Dentons LLP & Gowling WLG (tied in tenth place)
Commenting on Blakes’ top spot, managing partner Bryson Stokes said: “We are proud of our teams for consistently anticipating our clients’ needs and delivering innovative solutions to their most complex and sensitive challenges.”
Among questions in the survey, researchers asked corporate leaders about their awareness of and favourability toward Canadian law firms, as well as their consideration of firms for major M&A, top-level litigation, high-value and inbound work.
Thomson Reuters’ 2022 indexes covers the legal markets in five separate countries or regions — the United States, the United Kingdom, Mainland Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region, as well as Canada. Each index is based on data compiled in 2021 from Thomson Reuters Sharplegal study.
A post-pandemic shift was clearly going on across all regions. Traditional law firm differentiators like historic reputations or relationships with individual lawyers gave way to other factors such as clients’ need to have fast, trustworthy advice from their external counsel. The rapid response aspect of legal work was increasingly important to clients, especially as in-house lawyer workloads continue to grow.
“In 2021, as businesses emerged from the crisis, legal service buying patterns focus on forward-facing factors like understanding the client’s business and knowledge of their sector,” said Elizabeth Duffy, senior director of global client services at Thomson Reuters. “And we still see clients prioritizing specialist expertise over historical relationships or reputation.”