Adam Pekarksy Click here to see full sized version.

In the natural order of the Canadian legal world, Toronto has historically led the pack with Montreal and Vancouver close behind. For years and for some, Calgary wasn’t even on the national radar.

But, oh, how times have changed.

Though some are loath to admit it, there is general agreement among the legal community that Calgary has eclipsed Montreal and Vancouver – at the very least is planetarily aligned – as it now constitutes the second-biggest capital market in Canada.

Calgary’s new stature on the legal scene is evidence in the number of national firms that have set up offices here, the increase in in-house legal departments and staff, the dizzying pace of lawyers “crossing the street”, and the continued expansion of the legal industry in this market.

The city’s leap-frogging from clerk to senior partner is not hard to surmise in the face of the cranes and skyscrapers that dot the skyline, the abundance of luxury cars that line the streets and, of course, Alberta’s most frequently cited barometer: the price of oil, which broke $70 a barrel this past summer.

“I think the best way to describe it, is that Calgary has come of age,” said Adam Pekarksy, with Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP. “It’s almost like you can’t have a conversation in Calgary these days without talking about how bullish it is, and how optimistic people are.”

Pekarsky’s recent hiring with Fraser Milner as a full-time, in-house Director of Professional Development for the firm’s Calgary and Edmonton offices is yet another affirmation of Calgary (and Alberta’s) elevated position on national scene.

“It’s a perfect example that a firm of this size would dedicate resources to a person of my position,” said Pekarksy, who spent four years working as a legal recruiter for Robert Half Legal, before being recruited himself by Fraser Milner.

Non-billing, resident lawyers exclusively dedicated to recruitment and retention of talent are practices normally reserved for the big markets like Toronto, and New York.

However, with a dearth of national firms setting up shop in Calgary and dozens of new and veteran lawyers flocking in to join the action, the big guns, like Fraser Milner Casgrain, are rolling up their sleeves.

“There isn’t a big firm in Calgary that isn’t looking for good people from Calgary,” said Pekarsky. “As much as we see highly qualified applicants from Toronto, Vancouver, Europe and the U.S., Calgary is the place to watch right now.

“It’s still on the supply/demand curve, and they’re still much more demand than there is supply.”

In the last six months alone, Fraser Milner, a firm with roots dating back more than a century, has grown by 10 per cent.

It’s not alone. Relative newcomers to the Calgary market like Davis & Company LLP, Lawson Lundell LLP and Stikeman Elliott LLP, are also expanding at a phenomenal rate.

Then Toronto-based firm, Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt LLP opened its doors 10 years ago in Calgary. In that time, the firm has grown from five to 35 lawyers and is planning a move this fall to accommodate the expansion.

Managing partner Tris Mallett oversees the Calgary office and sits on the firm’s executive committees at a national level.

He says Calgary was a natural move for Osler.

“There are markets in Canada you have to be in ... to be a leading national law firm you have to be in the markets that matter to your clients and the markets that matter in this country are Toronto, Montreal and Calgary in terms of where the greatest concentration of head offices are.

“We came here with some existing client relationships with a view to growing those relationships and growing new relationships and we’ve been quite pleased with how it’s gone.”

Mallett says the firm grew its office with a mixture of local Calgary talent, both in terms of strategic lateral hires and people who moved West from other Osler offices.

The western pull has been a strong one — and not just for Osler.

Dozens of firms have taken similar steps over the last 10 years and with 90 per cent of Calgary’s law offices jammed into a three square-block radius in the city’s downtown core, the legal presence is hard to miss.

“You can’t get a coffee at Starbucks without bumping into half a dozen lawyers,” said Pekarsky. “It’s the smallest big city in the country right now.”

This is driving up legal fees. Ten years ago, Pekarsky says you wouldn’t have anyone billing over $500. Five years ago, it became common for several lawyers to bill for that amount.

Now, according to Pekarsky, it’s not unheard of for the industry’s top billers to be billing “north of $500.”

Five years ago, one of Calgary’s legal stalwart’s, Bennett Jones LLP, reconfigured the pay scale overnight when it boosted salaries for articling students from $30,000 to $55,000.

“What that did was force all the other firms to fall into line,” said Pekarsky.

Though factors other than Calgary’s rising prominence were also at play, Pekarsky says Calgary’s influence on the legal landscape was key.

Naturally, the city’s meteoric rise hasn’t been without any bumps along the way.

“There’s been a slight negative perception at times for the firms moving in, you know in that ‘are you here taking advantage of the economic upturn,’” said Greg Turnball, managing partner for McCarthy Tétrault LLP. “But at the same time there’s also a pride in that Calgary now attracts the top legal markets, top legal professionals from across the world.”

Pekarsky said newcomers have had to tread carefully.

“People who try to hang their shingle up and use their Toronto reputation don’t always succeed. If they don’t have their Alberta roots and don’t have their Alberta stories to tell, it’s an uphill market,” said Pekarsky.

Overall though, Turnball says Calgary has been welcoming and adaptive.

“Calgary has always been very open to the new upstart firm because part of the history of Calgary is that ‘do something for me today and I’ll use you or not use you, it doesn’t matter what your background is.’”

Judging by the number of firms and volume of lawyers, there’s apparently enough work to go around.

The downside according to some of the firms that have come and conquered and those homegrown success stories is having talent plucked from under one’s nose.

“We seem to lose a lot of lawyers to London, England, firms, and I know our offices in the East lose lawyers to New York,” admits Turnball.

“So it’s a source of pride but also frustration when the world comes knocking on your door to steal – or hire – your lawyers away.”