Could Miller Thomson LLP be the next Canadian firm to announce a merger? According to a report in the Montreal Gazette, the firm's partners are set to consider some sort of deal. But, The Gazette report says, don't expect a megamerger with a massive foreign firm, of the kind Ogilvy Renault LLP recently announced with British firm Norton Rose LLP.
Miller Thomson's chairman, Gerald Courage, declined to comment on the reports through a spokeswoman.
If there is a deal, it would come on the heels of not just Ogilvy's move, but the recently announced merger of Lang Michener LLP and McMillan LLP.
Miller Thomson, now with 450 lawyers, has grown dramatically over the past decade by merging with other firms in Edmonton and Calgary, Vancouver, Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph and Montreal. In the last five years alone it has almost doubled in size.
Just the bill, please
A joint survey conducted by the Association of Corporate Counsel and The American Lawyer magazine appears to offer more proof the billable hour is in slow decline.
Debate in legal circles of different ways to bill clients, such as flat fees for certain services, has been ongoing for years.
In the survey, 29 per cent of in-house counsel said they increased their use of "alternative fee arrangements" in 2010.
The ACC says the slow increase in alternative billing as companies and law firms emerge from the financial crisis suggests the new way of doing business is starting to take hold.
On the move
Influential entertainment lawyer and deal maker Michael Levine is giving up practising law at end of year. Mr. Levine will retain an office at Goodmans LLP in Toronto, but will no longer be a partner as of Dec. 31.
But Mr. Levine, who acted as executive producer for a number of TV shows and documentaries over the years, will still be keeping busy: He was just named executive vice-chairman of the Historica-Dominion Institute.
In Montreal, prominent corporate and commercial litigator Suzanne Côté has left the helm of Stikeman Elliott LLP's litigation group and joined Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, where she will head up the firm's litigation team. She succeeds George Hendy, who will continue as a litigation partner.
David Bish has left Goodmans in Toronto to join Torys LLP as a partner in the firm's restructuring and insolvency practice.
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