Law Times

LAW TIMES / MAY 26, 2008 Eye On Northeastern Ontario where his firm developed skills based on an observed client need due to the Sault's unique position as a cross-border town in north- eastern Ontario. Now, he says, 50 per cent of the firm's annual billing comes from outside the Sault. "The internet has been tremen- dous in allowing us to serve the cli- ent now from a single office, but al- lowing us to serve clients on a much larger geographical platform." As an epilogue to the story, in 2002, the economic fortunes of the city began to change for the better, as steel came back "with strength. "All of a sudden there's full em- ployment in the city, the restau- rants are full, and we have seen the first real true increase in housing prices in a long time . . . It's really been, in a relatively short period of time, a good-news story. And after suffering so many years under neg- ative growth, it's just been great." Similarly, Sudbury' now booming, as evidenced by its widely publicized real estate market. "The comment we get the most, when people come into town to ei- ther work at the medical school or other areas," says Lacroix, "is, 'My God. Every house here costs half a million bucks!' And when you're average house price eight, nine years ago was $130,000, that's a huge jump." s economy is Distance is also a fact of life for lawyers in northeastern Ontario. As local law firms service a popu- lation scattered over the landscape — often with more than one * * * permanent office — daily life for a lawyer can include significant amounts of time in a car. "The distances are real," says Simmons. "We service North Bay, which is one hour and 10 minutes by car [from Sudbury], and Sault Ste. Marie to the west, which is three hours by car — and Elliott Lake, one hour west, and Timmins, which is three hours north, etc. "There's a lot of travelling with our practice," agrees Wall- bridge. "I find I'm on the road a lot, but I like that." Perhaps it is not unusual for Ontario lawyers to spend long hours in the car — it's just that the distances are longer in the north. Toronto lawyers, for example, can spend two hours in the car and not go very far at all. The trick, as always, seems to be to turn it to your advantage. Sim- mons says there is "good cellphone coverage" in northeastern Ontario, which means he can work on the road, or sometimes just enjoy the scenery and wildlife (he mentions seeing two groundhogs and a moose on his last trip). When the weather is good, Simmons really knows how to take advantage of his travel time. "I service clients in most of the centres I mention by float plane," he adds. "I tie it at my front door . . . I will fly up to Timmins and do a discovery and fly back and go back to my office in early afternoon — that's kind of fun." * * * DD LT RXQTHZG-01 Corp ad 5/14/08 11:02 AM Page 1 In addition to the unique issues of distance, boom-and-bust eco- nomics, language, and cross-bor- der issues, northeastern Ontario law firms also deal with some more typical smaller-town problems: How do you attract enough arti- cling students and lawyers? How do you keep them? If you can't, how do you deal with high turn- over? How do you attract more women lawyers? How do you deal with multiple instances of mater- nity leave in a small firm once you do get them? "We have a great deal of diffi- culty attracting students and law- yers, and a great deal of difficulty keeping them," says Simmons. "Over the years, we've had a turn- over of two to three a year, most years, which is difficult. I know we've averaged losing two to three lawyers a year every year, and we always have a position for an arti- cling student. We have a position for one to two lawyers right now." Wallbridge agrees. "We could use three or four more lawyers right now." Simmons says they advertise, use word of mouth, and offer sum- mer positions after first and second year now, in an attempt to encour- age people in law school to go to his firm. How does he sell it to them? "I take them for an airplane ride," he says, laughing. Then he pauses, waiting to deliver the sec- ond punchline. "And I bring them back as soon as they sign. "All you can do is really show them the way that the law firm works, and mention the fact of the outdoors, the freedom, and the lawyers that are currently in prac- tice, and that same bubble is evi- dence in the practitioners," says Acton. "They're all aging, me in- cluded, and in five years from now a whole bunch of people are going to be looking at retiring — and who's going to do the work?" This concern is one impetus be- hind the desire for a new law school in the north, whether in Thunder Bay or at Laurentian University in Sudbury, which could address the situation. The Northern Ontario School of Medicine, for example, uses special recruitment strategies and has a mandatory integrated or community clerkship model designed to encourage students to work in underserviced regions. At the very least, a northern law school could provide much-need- ed bilingual training and services, with a focus on French and First Nations, and general continuing legal education. "We're very much interested in developing legal skills in the north," says Lacroix. "We have to work that much harder to get something that's on-site here." * * * In the final analysis, there are significant advantages, both pro- fessional and personal, to practis- ing law in northern Ontario. For example, although gener- ally speaking the articling students and younger lawyers make a little less money than in the south (al- though this is not always the case), this is offset by the opportunity to Minute Books Corporate Supplies Minute Books, Corporate Seals, Share Certificates, Name Plates, Signs, Stamps and more. We offer the widest selection of TheDurham 784 Our most popular letter size register. Black, Burgundy or Blue Register with or without Slip Case. Pebble finish with gold tooling. 1.5" cap., 3 D-ring closing. Also available 2001 Maroon & 2001 Black A complete storage solution for corporation documents and corporate seal. The 2001 Series holds a Mark Marker or Pocket Seal. yourONE source supplier for C U PREFERRED SUPPLIER Office & Furniture Products • Corporate Promotional Products Printing & Graphic Services • Law Office Essentials Corporate Supplies • Search & Registration Services E OFFICE & FURNITURE PRODUCTS dyedurham.ca • Phone: 1-800-668-8208 • Fax: 1-800-667-3146 www.lawtimesnews.com lack of gridlock on the highway is appealing to them. That's great, but ultimately you've got to enjoy the law you're doing and the peo- ple with whom you practise." "The de-ruralization of the world is a general trend," says Ac- ton, offering an explanation for the low number of job applicants. "But as a second trend, I think northern Ontario has been looked at as sort of the Newfoundland of Ontario for a while. Where it's just not happening economically, so people would rather focus on southern Ontario where there was some tremendous growth." Perhaps, with the recent growth in cities like Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, that will change, but Acton — who notes that most lawyers who come to work in the north do so because they already have a con- nection there — wonders where the new lawyers will come from. "I see the demography of the from junior and intermediate law- yers in southern Ontario is that they're just not getting trial ex- perience," says Wallbridge. "My wife, I think her first jury trial was within six months of her call. And we accumulated a lot of experience quickly. And I think that's still a big attraction to practise up here." He adds that the three or four junior lawyers at his firm have their own cases — they're not necessarily "junioring" on bigger files. "There's a tendency to do things yourselves — to just roll up your sleeves and do it. It's a smaller-firm atmosphere." "I look at my colleagues who I graduated with in 1997, and they're all at a completely different level at other firms because they're only now just starting to develop their own client base, because they worked under people for a long time," says Lacroix. "So that ability to have an independent practice, where you can have some control as to where it's going to go, is an unbelievable luxury that I only now fully appreciate." The lawyers also seem to agree acquire more experience and have more control over their practice. "One of the complaints I hear there is a more collegial bar up north, as lawyers know they will soon see their adversaries again — and that they will not always win. Finally, and not to be over- looked, are the significant life- style advantages to living in northeastern Ontario. Although the winters aren't PAGE 17 great, says Lacroix, the quality of life is high for most northeastern Ontario lawyers. He says that the fact that most lawyers seem to live on a lake or have lakeside cottages they can reach in a half-hour must sound pretty good to Toronto law- yers who make a three or four-hour slog on the highway to the Musko- kas on summer Friday nights. This sentiment is echoed by all the lawyers. "I don't have to spend a lot of time driving in four-lane traf- fic," says Acton. "I get to the office, I get the work done, and I can be drinking a martini in my ski cha- let in 45 minutes . . . When I go home, I can walk out my front door and go for a swim in the upper St. Mary's River." "My office in Timmins, for example, is five minutes from my house," says Wallbridge. "And I'm ashamed to say that I drive it," he adds, chuckling. "It' s a beautiful place to live." LT W e ' r e a D y C S a 8 I n E 9 H a p N d & 9 i R m a 1 n C D o a A n Y M

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