Top legal performances in the Chambers Canada 2024 Guide
Discover the firms and lawyers that came out on top in this year's Chambers Canada guide.
Firms with the most department and lawyer rankings in Chambers Canada
Aside from overall guide statistics, one thing that we are always very keen on as a company is recognising those firms that have made great strides in terms of their presence in the market and consequently, their representation in the rankings. In terms of number of departments ranked, McCarthy Tétrault LLP retain their place as the firm with the most department rankings with a total of 66, but we have seen movement elsewhere within the top ten, with Blake, Cassels & Graydon moving to 2nd, Stikeman Elliott to 5th and Dentons to 9th.
We are also able to pick out some interesting statistics when we analyze the firms with the highest number of ranked lawyers in the guide. For the first time ever, two firms have surpassed the 200 mark, with McCarthy Terault and Blake Cassels & Graydon retaining 1st and 2nd place with 222 and 218 ranked lawyers respectively. Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, Torys and Borden Ladner Gervais all move up one place within the top ten to 3rd, 6th and 7th place respectively.
When we isolate the firms with the most top-end rankings, the most noteworthy takeaway is that 3 firms are in joint first place, with Blake, Cassels & Graydon and Osler Hoskin & Harcourt joining McCarthy Tetrault with a market-topping 68 lawyers recognized in either band 2, band 1 or as a star individual.
The most impressive performance in the Chambers Canada 2024 Guide
Elsewhere in the market, we saw a number of firms drastically improve their recognition within the guide. Stockwoods LLP, Crawley Mackewn Brush and Torkin Manes were all firms to see a strong uptick in the number of lawyers they have recognized in the guide, as noted on screen now.
However, arguably the most impressive performance this year came from a pair of Toronto-based class action specialist firms, Rochon Genova and Orr Taylor, who both tripled the number of lawyers recognized in the Canada Guide this year.
We regarded this as particularly noteworthy in the context of developments in the class action landscape in Canada, with Ontario perceived as an ever-increasingly plaintiff-friendly jurisdiction and there being an accompanying shift to class action proceedings being brought in Alberta, Saskatchewan and in particular British Columbia. It will be fascinating to see how the law in this area continues to develop and its knock-on impact on our rankings.
