Businesspeople in Atlantic Canada can choose between large interprovincial firms and smaller boutique firms. Each has benefits that may attract different clients, depending on their needs. The big regional firms can draw on a large pool of experienced lawyers who together cover almost every area of legal practice. Stewart McKelvey’s Maureen Ryan says this gives clients access to a broad range of services. “At our firm we have depth in pretty much everything, which I think gives businesses a lot of comfort because they may come to me on a particular contracts issue, for example, but then if a labour and employment issue comes up, they don’t have to go somewhere else and re-educate another team of lawyers about their business.”
On the other hand, there are also clients who may prefer to deal with a more locally based and smaller firm. David Melvin is a lawyer who practices corporate and commercial law in the Dartmouth-based firm of Livingstone and Company. He says clients who choose a smaller firm often get to work more closely with their lawyers than clients in interprovincial firms. “Smaller firms can offer more one-on-one contact,” says Melvin. “Clients are able to interact directly with the main lawyer on the file as opposed to aralegals or junior lawyers.”
Kenneth Godfrey, who practices business law with the Charlottetown firm of Campbell Lea, agrees. “What we offer clients is a more personalized service and, perhaps more importantly than that, the assurance that our focus is on local business. In a small market such as PEI, conflicts can become a problem for the regional firms and no one wants to be bumped because their lawyer has concerns that are more focused on their national clients, or their regional clients, or interests that are at the regional and national level. I think the main thing we offer is that independence.”
Melvin also adds that many clients may find it more economical to turn to a smaller firm for advice instead of an interprovincial one. He says the smaller firms tend to have fewer overhead expenses and can therefore charge lower hourly rates. They also have a more flexible fee structure and may be able to provide a fee for a service instead of by the hour.
Both men, however, say that the regional firms also have their advantages. “Larger firms have far more resources and tend to be more specialized in areas like tax law, for example,” says Melvin. “They may have a core of expertise that other firms may not. If I don’t have that expertise, I’ll refer a client to one of my colleagues in a larger firm.”
“There’s a place for both in the Maritimes,” says Godfrey. “For clients that want a job done that needs to be done across the country, then they might prefer the one-stop shopping aspect of a regional firm.”
Legal Tips to Help Your Business Although different businesses will encounter different problems and regulations, there are some general legal tips that can be applied to most companies. First and foremost is to keep a paper trail of every deal and transaction that takes place during the life of your business and to maintain orderly files so you can retrieve information fast. It sounds simple, but lawyers know that too few businesses keep good corporate records. Not only is this an avoidable problem, but it’s one that can hurt business owners years down the road when they try to sell their company.
Stephen Winter, who practices corporate law with Stewart McKelvey, saw this first-hand while working with a company that had no documents in place to identify its shareholders. “Down the road, when the company went to sell some shares and the buyer wanted to see what had transpired – who are the shareholders? how much did they acquire the shares for? – those records weren’t in place. There was a complete lack of documentation,” says Winter. “These people buying the shares needed to know that the people they were giving money to owned these shares and that wasn’t something that was easily ascertained. We had to do a lot of work to rectify these problems.”
It is also critical for companies to remain financially responsible – this means keeping your liabilities down and paying all of your taxes and debts in a timely fashion. Godfrey says the single-most important piece of advice he gives all business owners is to get a good tax accountant or tax lawyer. “Most businesspeople understand the business nature of the transaction, they often do not understand the tax details,” he says. “That is the number one item that causes pitfalls and problems later on.”
Post secondary business education models should be incorporating the relevant areas of legal studies into curriculum to ensure at least some level of awareness of the possible consequences.