Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Vol. 7: Inside the Law: Canadian Law Firms in Historical Perspective

Christopher English is a professor of history at Memorial University of
Newfoundland.

Eleven of the 15 essays in this volume examine 12 law firms in six
provinces from Halifax to Vancouver. Most are success stories,
describing the emergence in this century of large urban corporate firms,
some of which have become national and international in scope. These are
complemented by the editor’s comprehensive overview of the factors of
continuity and change to which law firms in Canada have been forced to
adapt over the past 150 years. In contrast to the case studies, two
thematic essays offer sobering conclusions: one examines the dominant
role played by large corporate law firms within the legal profession in
Manitoba, while the other exposes gender imbalances and inequalities
that continue to characterize Ontario firms. For the most part, the
essays are based on an impressive amount of original research, and
signal the willingness of the profession to open its archives to the
scrutiny of legal scholars.

The emergence of corporate giants is a feature of the period since
1950. Three essays remind us that sole practitioners were the norm
before the middle of the 19th century. The next century was dominated by
partnerships of two or three men. Beamish Murdock’s practice in
mid-19th-century Halifax—an example of the former type of firm—is
the subject of a fascinating study that is the first to reconstruct
daily office practice from a gold mine of letter books, account books,
day books, and ledger books. A second essay shows how Aemilius Irving
challenged convention by becoming in-house counsel to the Great Western
Railway in the 1850s, setting an example that many lawyer-entrepreneurs
have emulated, with profound implications for the profile and practice
of Canadian law. Finally, a study of Toronto-based Raymond and
Honsberger provides suggestive insights into the successes and
challenges facing “a small firm that stayed small.” These three
perspectives caution that the mega-firms are recent arrivals; historical
continuities favor those modestly sized firms that remain flexible and
innovative.

The histories of new areas of law practice—for government
departments, nongovernmental organizations, charities, public-advocacy
groups, and legal-aid schemes—remain to be recorded. This series, now
into its seventh volume and moving from strength to strength, can lead
the way.