CHOOSING CIVIL LITIGATION COUNSEL

Firms

Litigation lawyers can be found in every context from sole practices, where they literally are the firm, to large departments ensconced in nationally based, and even internationally based, multiple office firms.

Large Firms
Large firms are typified by big resources. Big resources have advantages and disadvantages.

A typical nationally based law firm in Canada will have several offices in major centers, with at least one and sometimes several very large offices. There will be a concentration of expertise in different areas that can be called upon with minimal inconvenience in the context of any given case that may require it. Lawyers from offices practicing in different jurisdictions may be able to collaborate easily on matters that require activity in different parts of Canada. Within any given office, there may be a substantial number of litigation lawyers that can pitch in and help on any given problem. In the right case, that conglomeration of resources can make a difference.

What goes along with that is a lot of infrastructure that isn't necessary in smaller firms. Big firms have larger management needs, usually a large and integrated computer network, and bigger administrative structures. Just having a partnership meeting can mean flying a lot of partners across the country to get them all in one spot. Lawyers practicing in big firms practice in a big firm environment.

One question you have to pay attention to when dealing with a big firm is who is going to do your work? It is an advantage to have a lot of people around who can pitch in when help is needed, but that same advantage can mean that a lot of different people work on your file in any given case. That can be done efficiently or inefficiently. If you are working with a large firm, you still want to pay a lot of attention to who your individual lawyer is. If the file is largely going to be handled by others, you should know that. You also should consider whether all of those resources and infrastructure are really needed for your case. They can have an impact on the cost of your legal services, and you need to keep in mind that good litigation lawyers can be found in small and mid-size firms as well. If large firm resources are not required, smaller firms may prove a cost-effective solution.

Mid-size firms
A mid-size firm is anything between a big firm and a small firm, and typically it will be characterized by features of both - more people and resources than a small firm and less than a large firm. More expertise will be gathered under one roof but not necessarily the same range of expertise as a large firm might have.

Mid-size firms can be a good choice where more resources are required than would be found in a small firm, but the case still doesn't have the features that require a very large team or inter-jurisdictional capability that a large firm can provide. As is the case with both large and small firms, you still need to know about who is actually going to do your work - so you know what resources will be brought to bear and what they are going to cost.

Small Firms
Small firms typically mean one or a few lawyers and they can be more streamlined and cost effective because they require a lot less infrastructure to run. Some are boutiques that focus upon a particular area of the law and others are more generalized, even with only a few lawyers. Small firm litigators can often do many of the same things that large firms do, but they don't always do things the same way.

For example, a small firm litigation lawyer may not have an expert in a particular area of law down the hall or in the office in the next province. However, that doesn't mean the expertise is unavailable. Often where additional expertise is required, a small firm lawyer can team up with an expert outside his or her firm, with a resulting collaboration that is just as effective as working with the expert as part of one's own firm. The difference is only that the lawyer and the expert work together for the purposes of that particular file and otherwise go their separate ways. Similarly, where administrative resources are required, they can be, and often are, contracted out. That means they are paid for when they are needed, not because they are there all the time as they might be in a larger firm context.

While small firms also often have a team approach - more than one lawyer will work on your file - there is less likelihood any given file will get lost in a bureaucratic shuffle, simply because there are less people for the file to shuffle around to. That said, you still need to ask who is actually going to do your work - whether inside or outside the firm - so you know what resources will be brought to bear and what they are going to cost.

Lloyd's view: Great litigators exist in every type of firm. The first, most important issue when it comes to selecting counsel is that you have confidence in the individual counsel you select. The size of firm can have an impact in some cases on what resources are brought to bear, on who is doing your work, and on what it's going to cost, but you can't assume that any particular firm is good or bad or expensive or efficient just because of it's size. There is very little I have done in my large firm experience that I can't do in my small firm. In any given case, the important thing is to understand by whom and how the work will be done, and to be comfortable with the costs that go along with that. Having that understanding is an important part of intelligent litigating.

Back to Top