Heenan Blaikie: The Making and Unmaking of a Great Canadian Law Firm

Author:   Adam Dodek
Publisher:   University of British Columbia Press
ISBN:  

9780774870733


Pages:   396
Publication Date:   04 November 2024
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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Heenan Blaikie: The Making and Unmaking of a Great Canadian Law Firm


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Overview

In 1973, three young lawyers established Heenan Blaikie. It would become one of Canada’s highest-profile law firms, counting former prime ministers, premiers, and Supreme Court justices in its ranks. It was like a family, according to many who worked there. But it was a dysfunctional family. In 2014, the firm’s dramatic collapse became front-page news. Based on extensive interviews with firm lawyers and legal industry insiders, Heenan Blaikie is the story of a respected law firm that ultimately buckled under weak governance and management. Heenan Blaikie seemed to punch above its weight: bilingual, humane, national with international aspirations. But beneath its unique culture as a kinder, gentler law firm lay workplace bullying, challenges for women and visible minority lawyers, and sexual harassment. Adam Dodek, an unbiased outsider, situates the firm’s evolution within the context of a changing legal profession and society, producing an account that is gripping from beginning to end.

Full Product Details

Author:   Adam Dodek
Publisher:   University of British Columbia Press
Imprint:   University of British Columbia Press
ISBN:  

9780774870733


ISBN 10:   0774870737
Pages:   396
Publication Date:   04 November 2024
Audience:   General/trade ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

Preface Prologue: What a Party! Foundations 1 The Handshake: Creating a New Law Firm 2 Building a Law Firm: The First Decade in Montreal 3 The Game Changer: Pierre Trudeau Comes on Board 4 “A Different Kind of Law Firm”: Creating a Unique Culture 5 On the Verge: A Law Firm Seeking to Go Where? 6 Launching Toronto: Moving to the Centre of the Universe 7 Joe Groia: An Outsider among Outsiders 8 Toronto in the 1990s: Building an Office, Building a Brand 9 The Culture Crystallizes: “A Kinder, Gentler Law Firm” 10 Not Torys? Struggling to Define an Identity and a Vision Erosion 11 The Donaldson Interlude: Everyone Deserves a Second Chance 12 The Lure of Growth: Becoming a National Law Firm 13 The Critical Years: 1993–98 14 The New Millennium: The Culture Begins to Fray 15 A “Hotel for Lawyers”: Law Firm Partnerships 16 “A Family Business”: Governance and Management 17 Bigger than the Firm: Marcel Aubut 18 The Persistence of White Male Power: Women and Diversity in Big Law 19 The End of the Decade: End of the Dream Collapse 20 The Money Wells Dry Up: Castor Holdings and Atomic Energy 21 We’ll Always Have Paris: International Follies 22 Lawyers, Guns, and Money: African Misadventures 23 Double Trouble: Botched Succession 24 Quicksand and Crisis: Coffee and Kleenex 25 Implosion: The Final Weeks 26 Cleaning Up: When a Law Firm Fails Conclusion Notes; Selected Bibliography; Index

Reviews

""Adam Dodek tells the story of the people of Heenan Blaikie in the context of the evolution of Canadian law firms and the practice of law. The making and unmaking of Heenans provides a cautionary tale of the collision between often laudable personal goals, incoherent collective strategy and governance, and market realities. This is an interesting and instructive account.""-- ""Malcolm Mercer, chair, Law Society Tribunal (Ontario), and adjunct professor, Osgoode Hall Law School"" ""Dodek has written a very lively and readable book, full of large and colorful personalities, pithy quotations, and dramatic incident. But it does not just tell a fascinating and somewhat tragic story - it is also full of analysis of the deficiencies of governance and management that were longstanding at Heenan Blaikie but that became especially problematic after the mushroom growth of the firm in the 1990s and later.""-- ""Philip Girard, professor, Law, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University"" ""I had trouble putting Adam Dodek's book down. It is a compelling and informative read, probably the first of its kind to carefully document and critically analyze the evolution of a law firm from its origin to its eventual collapse.""-- ""Robert Lapper, KC, Professor - David and Dorothy Lam Chair, Law and Public Policy, University of Victoria""


Author Information

Adam Dodek is a professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa. Among his numerous publications are In Search of the Ethical Lawyer; The Canadian Constitution, Third Edition, named by the Hill Times as one of the top 100 books on Canadian public policy; and Solicitor-Client Privilege, which won the Walter Owen Book Prize. He is a recipient of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers Prize for Academic Excellence, the Mundell Medal for excellence in legal writing, and the Law Society of Ontario’s Law Society Medal. He is also a director of the Canadian Association for Legal Ethics and the Canadian Legal Information Institute, and a past governor of the Law Commission of Ontario.

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