Beyond the Law: Lawyers and Business in Canada, 1830 to 1930

Charlotte Neff is an associate professor of law at Laurentian
University.

This collection of essays about individual lawyers and law firms across
Canada from 1830 to 1930 begins with the influence of Montreal’s
Torrance-Morris law firm and of George-Йtienne Cartier in building the
foundations of legal and political structures in Quebec conducive to
business and industry. The last study considers the indispensable role
of lawyers in the late 1920s in overcoming “serious legal, political
and bureaucratic problems” in the promotion of the Beauharnois power
project on the St. Lawrence, considered at the time to be “the largest
proposition any Canadian government has been called upon to deal
with.” In between, the book treats the careers of lawyers and law
firms in Halifax (Harris, Henry, and Cahan); Toronto (E.E.A. DuVernet
and Robert Home Smith); Winnipeg; and Alberta (including R.B.
Bennett’s early career). The final two essays provide points of
comparison with lawyers in the United States and England during the same
time period.

The essays explore the role lawyers played in Canada’s economic
development, not only as advocates for clients but also as direct
participants. As advocates, lawyers not only provided traditional legal
services but also acted as promoters and managers of—and lobbyists
for—their clients’ businesses. They also participated directly as
entrepreneurs and investors in their own right, as elected and appointed
officials promoting business interests, and as lobbyists for legal
changes that would facilitate economic growth.

While the emphasis is on how lawyers affected society, their own
personal economic successes and failures are also highlighted. The
essays reveal that many ambitious lawyers were attracted to the law as a
profession not for the opportunity to serve the narrow legal needs of
clients, but for the variety of opportunities to achieve wealth and
influence that were opened to them.