Best Full-Service Firms for Litigation

[jakebrigance99]

What big firms have the best and biggest reputation for litigation? I know McCarthy, but any others? 

 

Edit: sorry to say best and biggest, by this I just mean, known for litigation I guess? Firms that do a lot of litigating? 

Edited October 27, 2022 by jakebrigance99

[99problems]

Lenczner Slaght maybe?

All big firms have reputable litigation departments.

18 minutes ago, jakebrigance99 said:

the best and biggest

Just as a heads up, this language is not gonna be particularly popular in this forum, and rightfully so. I'll leave it at this. And since you are an applicant, I wouldn't ask about the best law school either...

[Byzantine]

23 minutes ago, jakebrigance99 said:

What big firms have the best and biggest reputation for litigation? I know McCarthy, but any others? 

Are you looking for any particular practice areas? Which market as well. That might help people answer 

[jakebrigance99]

2 minutes ago, 99problems said:

Lenczner Slaght maybe?

All big firms have reputable litigation departments.

Just as a heads up, this language is not gonna be particularly popular in this forum, and rightfully so. I'll leave it at this. And since you are an applicant, I wouldn't ask about the best law school either...

Sorry, just trying to say which firms are more known for litigation I guess vs firms that don't emphasize it. 

1 minute ago, Byzantine said:

Are you looking for any particular practice areas? Which market as well. That might help people answer 

Commerical lit, labour and employment, torts?! I have no idea! Honestly don't feel ready to make this decision but tomorrow is call day so here I am! 

[LMP]

25 minutes ago, jakebrigance99 said:

What big firms have the best and biggest reputation for litigation? I know McCarthy, but any others? 

 

Edit: sorry to say best and biggest, by this I just mean, known for litigation I guess? Firms that do a lot of litigating? 

Now you're asking different questions, do you want to know which full service firms does the most litigation work? Or which firms do the most litigation work? 

And if it's the former, why is the size of the firm relevant?  

In any case the firms that do the "most" litigation probably won't be the biggest. They'd be litigation botiques or small shops in lit heavy fields like PI or Crim. 

 

[jakebrigance99]

To clarify: which full service firms have reputation for litigating. Not considering boutiques. Of the "bay street/7 sisters" (to whatever extent that classification is still relevant, I really don't know) have the strongest litigation reputations. For instance, like McCarthy. Thanks! 

[Jaggers]

There are probably a dozen that are pretty much identical.

[Panda]

57 minutes ago, jakebrigance99 said:

To clarify: which full service firms have reputation for litigating. Not considering boutiques. Of the "bay street/7 sisters" (to whatever extent that classification is still relevant, I really don't know) have the strongest litigation reputations. For instance, like McCarthy. Thanks! 

https://chambers.com/legal-guide/canada-20.

This is going to be about as close to a list as you will get. Especially with litigation, it becomes very hard to judge firms against each other as the partner's name often means more than the firm. All of the downtown full-service firms will give you roughly the same experience/exposure in litigation. 

 

[helloall]

4 minutes ago, Panda said:

https://chambers.com/legal-guide/canada-20.

This is going to be about as close to a list as you will get. Especially with litigation, it becomes very hard to judge firms against each other as the partner's name often means more than the firm. All of the downtown full-service firms will give you roughly the same experience/exposure in litigation. 

 

I previously made a comment about how Chambers doesn't properly value boutiques, and this list kinda confirms my sentiment.

How are Stockwoods and Polley Faith band 5, below Dentons even lol

[Jaggers]

I think I said it on another thread, but Chambers is a fairly reliable ranking of what firms have strengths in what areas. It can be a bit imprecise ("corporate", "commercial litigation", or even "employment" are pretty broad categories), but they do give an indication about broad strokes.

1 minute ago, helloall said:

How are Stockwoods and Polley Faith band 5, below Dentons even lol

I did call someone from Stockwoods last week for a very niche question, but no one I work with would likely call them for most ordinary litigation.

[helloall]

1 minute ago, Jaggers said:

I think I said it on another thread, but Chambers is a fairly reliable ranking of what firms have strengths in what areas. It can be a bit imprecise ("corporate", "commercial litigation", or even "employment" are pretty broad categories), but they do give an indication about broad strokes.

Agreed overall, but I think it's more of a reliable ranking for bigger firms. Also their litigation rankings in general, even for the US firms, are kinda whack. Kellog Hanson in DC is band 3. In NY, Selendy Gay and MoloLamken are 6 bands behind the first-ranked firms. 

[Ben]

1 hour ago, Jaggers said:

I did call someone from Stockwoods last week for a very niche question, but no one I work with would likely call them for most ordinary litigation.

I don't think "likelihood that in-house counsel would call this firm with an ordinary question" is the first factor that comes to mind for law students or lawyers trying to inform themselves about who has a good litigation group, and probably rightly so. 

[Jaggers]

That's why I said that Chambers is a pretty good rough guide! I don't care about Chambers when I need someone with specific expertise, but it's a good indication of which firm has expertise in various areas.

[Byzantine]

Honestly not sure about the different timelines, so unsure if you still get to interview further or if you have to accept an offer tomorrow. But if you get to interview further, as a 2L going through the recruit process (in Vancouver) who was interested in litigation I struggled with differentiating firms at first. All the big firms seemed to have a decent sized litigation practice so there's not a huge difference there. I tried to ask questions/figure out the following: 

1) Do they have a practice area in the specific area of litigation that I'm interested in? 

2) What kind of formal training program do they have?

3) What kind of pro bono program do they have? For example, as an associate does pro bono count towards the billable target? 

4) What kind of practical experience would I get? For example, asking what sort of work (besides research) a summer/articling student would get to do. Do they have smaller files I can get into court on? 

5) What are the people like? What does the culture seem like? 

I was able to get some sense of these different things during interviews, receptions, etc. Talking to current students is particularly helpful if you can arrange that.