Western Canada chooses Montreal | The Press

Over the years, Montréal has succeeded in developing a certain ability to attract large international companies to establish themselves there. Today, the Quebec metropolis is also of interest to the rest of Canada, as evidenced by the opening of an office by the major Alberta business law firm Bennett Jones, which is setting up shop downtown.

Historically, Canadian economic development has been done for centuries from east to west and expansion from west to east remains a rather rare event, especially in the field of business law.

While major Montreal firms such as Norton Rose Fulbright and McCarthy Tétrault have offices in Calgary, this is the first time that an Alberta law firm of the stature of Bennett Jones has decided to set up shop west of Ottawa River.

In this era of energy transition, the interest of the firm specializing in business law is no stranger to the expertise and capacity for innovation that Quebec has developed in the field of renewable energy.

Alberta, a major oil and gas producer, also has strong energy expertise, but the western province is committed to the energy transition and that is why the rapprochement with Quebec makes sense, according to Hugh MacKinnon, president and CEO of Bennett Jones.

“We want to support companies from the West to carry out transactions in Quebec in all sectors of activity, just as we want to do with Quebec companies that want to make acquisitions or partnerships with companies from the West” , explains Hugh MacKinnon.

Since January, the firm Bennett Jones has taken possession of an entire floor of the Maison Deloitte, 20,000 square feet, boulevard De Maisonneuve. Proof of its commitment, the Alberta firm signed a ten-year lease and even took options for a possible expansion.

Pascale Dionne-Bourassa, specialized in commercial litigation, is the first associate lawyer of Bennett Jones in Montreal and it is she who is responsible for recruiting the team in the city.

“I carried out with my firm d3b Avocats several mandates for them in Quebec and they asked me to join them. For me, it’s a turning point to join this great office. I am the first partner in Montreal and we are now looking for talent and we see that there is interest.

“We have a great culture to share and we want to participate in the revitalization of downtown. The firm has ranked for 22 years as one of the best employers in Canada. We expect to have a team of 100 lawyers in Montreal within five years,” says Pascale Dionne-Bourassa.

A century-old firm

Bennett Jones was founded in 1922 in Calgary by RB Bennett, who in 1930 would become Prime Minister of Canada. The group took off considerably during the 1970s with the oil and gas boom which caused an explosion of economic activity in Alberta.

During these years of strong growth, the firm recruited lawyers who came from all over Canada, which somewhat forged the corporate culture.

“Oil and gas were the engine of our business, but we diversified a lot afterwards in all sectors of activity. I opened the Toronto office in 1999 and there we are opening our Montreal office because we see a lot of potential in terms of commercial law, litigation, infrastructure, mergers and acquisitions”, summarizes Hugh MacKinnon.

Bennett Jones has 500 lawyers in its various Canadian offices. The firm obviously has several clients in the oil and gas sector – Total, Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus, Irving, Trans Mountain Pipeline, etc. –, but also represents many large companies in all sectors of activity, such as the Bank Royal and Ernst & Young.

It was Bennett Jones who worked with CP on its $31 billion merger with Kansas City Southern. The firm also accompanied its client Volkswagen for its project to set up a battery factory in Ontario.

Bennett Jones also has Quebec companies as clients, including Videotron, Osisko, Air Transat and Pharmascience.

Hugh MacKinnon comes to Montreal every week to support Pascale Dionne-Bourassa and discovers the city with delight. He quietly tames French by claiming to be at 1000 days of exercises on Duolingo, a language learning site.

“We thought we would set up more quickly, but there was the COVID which postponed our projects. There we come to settle for good. It’s not a satellite office,” the CEO makes clear.