40 LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
APRIL/MAY 2017
| BOUTIQUES & SPECIALTY FIRMS |
RONALD PINK
Offices: Halifax,
Fredericton
Focus: Labour and
Employment Law, Litigation
THE LABOUR
OF ADAPTING
PINK LARKIN
Ronald Pink, managing partner of Pink Larkin
LLP in Halifax, doesn't
see larger firms going aer his boutique firm's mandates — in fact, just
the opposite. "We're going aer the work that goes to big firms," says
Pink, one of the founders of Pink Larkin in Halifax. e reason why is
no mystery, he adds. "Clients are prepared to pay for expertise, but they
don't want to pay for bureaucracy." His boutique firm, with 20 lawyers,
gets requests to bid on the same work as the large Atlantic Canada firms
"all the time, and we win our fair share of them because people see us as
being practical, efficient, less costly and more nimble."
at doesn't mean his boutique doesn't face its challenges. It does.
Started 25 years ago as a pure employee-side labour and employment
firm, that practice area once accounted for 100 per cent of its work. To-
day — with no growth in the trade union industry over the past five or
10 years — it accounts for less than 60 per cent of the firm's mandates,
Pink says. at's where nimble comes in.
e strategy has been to specialize in certain areas of law that can
"generally co-exist" with what they do. e firm does employer-side
law for non-union situations. "We do a lot of employer work for trade
unions, because they're all employers too. e Canadian Union of Public
Employees, for example, has 700 employees around the country." ey
have also started to do a lot of pension and benefit work. "Pension and
benefits all come out of employees, so we get to know actuarial firms,
who say, 'ese guys are pretty capable,' so we do some work for them.
e boutique is also doing more professional regulation.
In what Pink Larkin sees as a statement move, it also recruited George
MacDonald, one of Atlantic Canada's pre-eminent litigators, when he
bumped up against his former firm's mandatory retirement age. He is
not only freed of all the conflicts at his former firm, but many of his cor-
porate clients have followed, says Pink. "So people see us as not just being
a labour and employment boutique, but a skilled group of lawyers who
do good work."
