Law Times

Page 4 June 29, 2015 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com Infrastructure Ontario's web site." The government is to post de- tails of a request for proposals on the Infrastructure Ontario web site this summer. Stephen Mull- ings, vice president of the Toronto Lawyers Association, says the or- ganization's members are happy with the project, especially since it will amalgamate a lot of court spaces from across Toronto into a centralized location downtown. The size of the building, he adds, is reportedly quite considerable given suggestions it will be any- where from 14 to 30 stories. Jody Berkes, vice chairman of the Ontario Bar Association's criminal justice section, says the new courthouse will house the Ontario Court of Justice and will include facilities for hearing both criminal and family law cases. The government will likely con- solidate existing criminal and family court facilities at 47 Shep- pard Avenue E. and 311 Jarvis St. into the new facility or repurpose them, he says. Berkes, who says he's happy with how the province has been consulting with the Ontario Bar Association on the project, notes the new courthouse will likely feature a number of innovations. They include a number of meet- ing rooms for families and ser- vices for self-represented litigants to get legal information. Berkes says his understand- ing is that the new building won't include facilities for civil cases, a fact that's likely to disappoint civil litigators who are unhappy with existing court space. Whatever plans the province has for the new building, it des- perately needs new facilities to replace the "squalor" of rented space at 393 University Ave., says Robert Harrison, a partner at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP's Toronto office. "It's an ap- pallingly squalid accommoda- tion that is not worthy of this city or the justice system. It's an office building, for crying out loud. If you put more than 10 people in one of these courtrooms, you just suffocate. It's just horrible. "The most senior civil court in this city is getting short shrift, and I just think it's appalling. I can't believe that they're continu- ing to let that squalor be the place for civil cases to be tried in front of Superior Court judges." To Sylvia Jones, the Progres- sive Conservative critic for the attorney general, a scarcity of information about such an im- portant project ref lects a lack of transparency on the part of the government. She says she has been unable to get answers from the government as to how much court administration it intends to consolidate into the new building and whether such a move is prac- tical. "If you're going to do that kind of a build, presumably there is a business case somewhere that says these are the benefits, wheth- er the benefits are fiscal or logisti- cal, and I've never seen that laid out," says Jones. The construction of the new courthouse also raises questions about what happens to the exist- ing facilities elsewhere in the city, she says. Once surveys, environmental assessments, and soil testing are complete, the ministry will issue a request for qualifications for a project team to design, build, finance, and maintain the proj- ect, said Crawley. The ministry expects to release the request for qualification next summer. LT NEWS CANADA LAW BOOK ® Available risk-free for 30 days Order online: www.carswell.com Call Toll-Free: 1-800-387-5164 In Toronto: 416-609-3800 You owe it to yourself and your clients to get a copy of The Law of Subdivision Control in Ontario, Third Edition by Sidney Troister. Real estate lawyers trust this classic as the authority on Section 50 of the Planning Act. Previous editions have been cited in court. If you aren't consulting this book at the beginning of every real estate transaction, you're starting at a disadvantage. Get clear answers to the important real estate law questions • Is "once a consent always a consent" always true? • Can you use trusts to get around the Planning Act? • How do you avoid merger? • Does taking title as tenants-in-common make a difference to merger? • How far back do you have to search abutting lands? • Is the whole Property Identification Number (PIN) a separate property for Planning Act purposes? • How do you obtain consents for severances? • What is the process for validation of title? • When can you sign the Planning Act statements? • How do you take title to property when your client owns the property next door? Order # 804514-65203 $160 Hardcover 464 pages January 2011 978-0-88804-514-0 Shipping and handling are extra. Price(s) subject to change without notice and subject to applicable taxes. 9827-A51222 Real Estate Lawyers – Do you worry about the Planning Act? to achieve all that is another matter and represents a considerable challenge." Where there's consensus is that no one will be able to fault Den- tons for lack of trying. Last month, the firm announced the launch of NextLaw Labs, a technology company that will develop systems and processes not only for itself but for sale to other law firms. NextLaw Labs will also invest in legal technology startups and companies that are already operating. Heading the effort is Dan Jansen, who led the media and enter - tainment division at the Boston Consulting Group for 17 years. From a Canadian perspective, the advantages of a global con- nection of Dentons' intended magnitude are obvious. But the greatest impact on Dentons Canada LLP is likely to come from the firm's push for growth in the United States, a development already in the works following its announcement in April of a long-delayed merger of its existing U.S. presence with McKenna Long & Al - dridge LLP. As Law Times reported in May, McKenna Long's powerful con- nections to Canada, spearheaded by former U.S. ambassador to Canada Gordon Giffin and nurtured over two decades, will greatly strengthen Dentons Canada's cross-border practice. From all ap- pearances, this relationship will not only continue but will feature a renewed emphasis on growth. But McKenna Long today isn't what it was when the merger talks started with Dentons in late 2013 as the 520-lawyer firm is now down to about 320 lawyers. The 100 lawyers who had already left in 2014 include 32 people from McKenna Long's powerful gov - ernment contracts practice in Washington and Los Angeles, 27 from the firm's health-care practice in Atlanta, and five corporate lawyers. Still, both Dentons and McKenna Long have said throughout they knew the two teams would leave. Indeed, Tony Williams of Britain-based Jomati Consultants LLP says it's a mistake to make too much of the departures. "Most firms experience losses on mergers and some of the McK - enna losses are neither a surprise not unexpected, although the ex- tent of the departures is probably a bit disappointing," he says. "My belief is that the moves represent both the hot nature of the current U.S. legal market and the fact that many people prefer the certainty of an established firm to the uncertainty and opportunity that a combination involves." Bruce MacEwen, president of New York-based legal consultancy Adam Smith Esq. LLC, says the hullabaloo about the departures is much ado about nothing. "The only story here is that people seem to think it is a story," he says. "Whenever there are mergers, there are departures, and in this case we were dealing with a shotgun wedding because there were already reports of difficulties at McKenna." But MacEwen also says it would be a mistake at this point to make too much of the 21 non-disclosure agreements Dentons has entered into. "There are negotiations and there are negotiations and so far there are no indications of how serious these talks are, how big the target firms are or what the conf lict checks — if Dentons gets to that stage — may reveal," he says. "What they have succeeded in doing is getting a lot of press, but on the other hand, there's no reason to doubt them when they say they want to keep growing what is al - ready the world's largest firm." From MacEwen's perspective, there's nothing unique about Den- tons' polycentric approach. "It's a snappy and catchy word but it's nothing new," he says. "Firms like Latham & Watkins, K&L Gates, Jones Day, and Hogan Lovells would all tell you they have no head office." Because Dentons has made it quite clear the firm won't release financial performance metrics, it becomes harder to gauge the suc - cess of its expansion efforts. Unlike Williams, MacEwen believes observers should keep a close eye on movement to and from the firm. "Because Dentons are trying to build an empire so quickly, the thing to watch is lawyer churn," he says. "It's one thing to gobble up a lot of firms but it's another to count who's staying on after the mergers." Indeed, MacEwen is somewhat skeptical of Dentons' overall strategy. "I don't see how it makes sense but I'm of the prove-it school," he says. "Ultimately, the only vote is that of the clients and the whole thing may still surprise us." Still, MacEwen insists the legal market affords limited room for global firms. "The notion that there was room for a couple of dozen has now been recognized as false," he says. "It's hard to escape a much low- er ceiling if for no other reason than the difficulties that conf licts present." LT Continued from page 1 Toronto's civil facilities decried U.S. departures downplayed Continued from page 1

• Cover