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Tough days ahead for Heenan Blaikie’s junior associates

As partners exit the firm in large numbers, young lawyers with fewer contacts and clients face an uncertain future
As partners exit the firm in large numbers, young lawyers with fewer contacts and clients face an uncertain future

After Heenan Blaikie LLP’s announcement this Wednesday, it will cease operations over the next few months, the eyes of the legal profession have centred on the firm’s upper brass: where are top partners headed? Which offices are setting up new firms? Will a group of Heenan lawyers merge with global powerhouse DLA Piper?

Meanwhile, uncertainty has rippled all the way down to the firm’s junior associates, who will soon be forced into a narrow job market.

Heenan Blaikie said in a recent statement that it intends to serve its remaining clients until it can transfer that work to other firms — so in the short term, it needs junior lawyers to stay. But the end is coming.

As Heenan Blaikie plans its eventual dissolution, it will likely put its associates on working notice, says Andrew Pinto, a Toronto employment lawyer. In this scenario, he explains, young lawyers would continue working, generating revenue for the firm, and receiving paycheques until a set date in the future.

Unlike partners, associates with just a few years in private practice don’t have the stable of clients needed to transition smoothly to another firm, says Emily Lee, a partner at ZSA Legal Recruitment.

As a result, most will continue working for the firm as it slowly bleeds out. Then, when their inevitable end date arrives, associates will find themselves in a tough job market.

In Toronto, for instance, where Heenan Blaikie employs 151 lawyers, associate-level hiring has been slow, says Lee.

Two groups of associates, she says, will have the best chance of finding work: those who have a good relationship with a Heenan Blaikie partner who might hire them after landing at another firm, and those willing to move in-house, where there continues to be some growth.

Still, most employers will want mid-level associates with four to seven years of experience, says Mitch Kowalski, a Toronto lawyer and legal writer, leaving those in their first three years of practice in a tight spot.

According to Heenan Blaikie’s online directory, it employs 96 associates called to the bar in the last three years, with 25 of those based in Toronto.

Small firms formed out of the wreckage left by Heenan Blaikie might provide some opportunities, but Kowalski says they’re unlikely to accommodate everyone — and junior associates least of all.

“This is a huge wake-up call for a lot of young lawyers who thought, ‘If I end up at a big national Canadian firm, life is good,’” says Kowalski. “I think there’s probably a lot of really shell-shocked people at Heenan right now in the junior ranks. I think they’re completely freaked out because they never thought this would happen. Ever.”