The Legal Post was told by a managing partner from a law firm in Canada that a recent study from Deloitte Canada shows that at least one other firm in the country could close within the next year.
This would follow the collapse of Heenan Blaikie. Unnamed sources reported to the Legal Post that the unnamed firm that could close is based in Toronto, but is a national firm.
The managing partner spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying, “would not be surprising if other firms will be winding up.”
The source said that the study from Deloitte took place over an eight-month period and it involved the legal industry. It was conducted by Monitor Deloitte, which is the management consulting and strategy portion of the firm.
A spokesperson from Deloitte told Legal Post, “our policies and code of professional conduct prohibit us from discussing any information about our clients, or the work we do for them.”
The closing of Heenan Blaikie was announced on February 5 despite having 575 lawyers employed at the firm’s offices across Canada and in Paris. What caused the collapse of the firm has yet to be released to the public. The firm did have $75 million in profit at the time that it closed. It has been reported that the transactional work of the firm dropped by 85 percent in the past couple of years. This led to partners being asked to take a 15 percent pay cut.
As of right now, some 500 lawyers from Heenan Blaikie have been hired by other firms.