38 LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
APRIL/MAY 2017
GLENN LEUNG
Office: Vancouver
Focus: Commercial Real
Estate Law
| BOUTIQUES & SPECIALTY FIRMS |
BUILD IT AND
THEY WILL COME
TERRA LAW CORP.
Glenn Leung and three fellow commercial real estate practitioners had
been practising at a large national firm when, aer 20-plus years there,
they le to form Terra Law in 2013 with a clear strategy: to offer Van-
couver's red-hot commercial real estate market a dedicated boutique
with "the same size and bench strength as a big-firm commercial real
estate practice group." Task one? Check. Today Terra has 12 commer-
cial real estate lawyers, which is "as big as any big-firm real estate group
in town," says Leung, one of Terra's founders.
Terra also decided to offer that same expertise at a lower cost. e
move was welcomed by clients, he says, with many national law firms
having jacked up their rates in the booming mid-2000s. When Terra
was formed, the lawyers dropped their fees by 15 to 20 per cent across
the board, says Leung, "so they were getting the same lawyers, the same
bench strength, but for significantly less." Terra also makes it a point to
staff files leanly, generally with just one senior lawyer and one junior.
Did the strategy work? Of their clients at the big firm, "I'd say 90 per
cent moved with us to the boutique venture and have stayed."
Commercial real estate, unlike many other areas of law, involves a
lot of repeat business. "If you have a bunch of developer clients you've
worked with for 20 or 25 years, they do four, five or six projects a year
kind of thing, so you get to know them really, really well," Leung says.
"e relationship is different than litigation or securities, for example.
ere's way more integration with the client."
e bottom line? "Our clients have been our champions in this
thing. e clients were so happy that they went out and told people,
and we got a lot of traction in this market. We've actually grown our
market share."
MICHELINE GRAVELLE
Offices: Toronto, Mississauga,
Waterloo region, Montréal
Focus: Intellectual Property Law
KEEPING THE INTELLECTUAL
IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
BERESKIN & PARR LLP
With 73 lawyers, Bereskin & Parr is larger than many mid-size firms. But make no
mistake, it's actually a boutique. e firm practises only intellectual property law. Its
strategy, consistent over the past 52 years, has been to hire really intelligent, well-
educated people with the proper technical background to serve the clients, and keep
them engaged.
"I think the depth we have in terms of our technical abilities just can't be matched
by the big firms," says Micheline Gravelle, the boutique's managing partner. "You go
on our website and see all those degrees — you just don't see that at most big firms.
ey may hire one PhD, but they don't have the depth of people to train them."
e firm has eight PhDs and six Master's with law degrees just in their life-sciences
practice group, "so we get excellent candidates who want to do the interesting work," such
as working directly with the inventors, writing and filing worldwide patent application,
and remaining involved in their global strategy. A lot of big firms get incoming work —
