12 Corporate UK 44 (June 2007).

In a recent interview given to Corporate UK Magazine, managing partner Carol Kerfoot discusses Canada’s legal environment and the International Alliance of Law Firms:

Kornfeld Mackoff Silber provides clients with the level of expertise and sophistication that is found in a practice group at a large local or national law firm, (the partners all having practised successfully in those environments) while offering the streamlined service, hands on partner attention, and value that can be delivered from a smaller firm structure.

The Canadian legal environment varies considerably from province to province, as it relates to business and commerce. Activity levels vary from a high in Alberta, followed by Ontario, and then British Columbia, to lower levels in other provinces. In B.C., we have historically seen higher levels in dollars, volume and complexity in Vancouver and the surrounding lower mainland area, than we have seen in the interior or elsewhere in the province. Not surprisingly legal work in the commercial and business sectors, and the number of lawyers in commercial practice, follow a similar pattern.
The appetite for investment risk in British Columbia at present is high, based on local experience over the past decade, but not as high as seen in the USA. Real estate activity, a growing population base and the upcoming Olympic Games are big drivers of the local economy.
There is also a high level of interest from Canadian firms in the UK markets. Many of our clients look to the UK as the gateway to Europe. They see AIM as an attractive funding alternative, and find the legal structure familiar and easy to navigate. It has become recognised as the successful alternative to the USA as a source of business investors.
Despite the differences that exist between legal frameworks in different Canadian provinces, we don’t view acquisitions of Canadian companies by foreign investors as significantly challenging in comparison to acquisitions elsewhere. The regulatory framework is well understood and foreign lenders are, by and large, willing to accept the security that can be provided on Canadian assets.
The rules applicable in British Columbia and some other provinces to purchasers as successor employers can come as a surprise for any purchaser from a jurisdiction where a different approach to labour is taken. Environmental liability has become a significant concern, here as elsewhere, and while B.C. has a relatively short commercial history, many decades of mining and timber production activities, initially the province’s two principal industries, have left their mark.
The International Alliance of Law Firms has benefited our firm in several ways. The availability of inbound referral opportunities is not as sizeable as it might be in larger commercial centres, but we have been enlisted to serve clients with business activities here, who might not otherwise have retained our firm. Information regarding practice activities is shared, perhaps more readily, among group members, than it would be among direct competitors in local markets. The opportunity for worldwide meetings brings likeminded groups together in diverse places, and local host firms offer insights into their commercial environment that we might otherwise be unable to access.