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US legal eagles spread wings to Canada
A large US firm has spread into Canada, with a new office opening in Toronto.
The New Lawyer
A large US firm, Miller Canfield, has spread into Canada, with a new office opening in Toronto.
The firm, which has offices in China, Poland and the United States, has merged with local firm Gaertner Tobin to establish its Canadian outpost. The majority of the firm's 370 lawyers are located in Michigan, which is Toronto’s major trading partner. Miller Canfield is the second Michigan firm to move to Toronto in the past year. Last November, the 260-lawyer firm Dickinson Wright wooed Michael Lipton, Kevin Weber and Elliot Rand from Elkind Lipton to start its office there. Both firms merged with smaller Toronto practices, as opposed to larger firms. Former director of Gaertner Tobin and new principal, Dennis Tobin, said: "We come from a very entrepreneurial background. This gives us an opportunity to have the resources and backing of a larger firm." Tobin said the opportunity to join a firm that already has a footprint throughout the United States and into emerging economies was too good to pass up. "We've been approached by other firms before. Part of the attraction is that they [Miller Canfield] were not in Toronto." “Our strategic growth in Toronto will allow us to provide seamless legal representation to clients with operations or doing business throughout North America,” said Michael Hartmann, CEO of Miller Canfield. “The experienced lawyers from Gaertner Tobin will help Miller Canfield’s global clients with mounting financial, insolvency, litigation and corporate transaction needs in Toronto, while expanding the scope of legal services available in the U.S., E.U. and China to our Canadian business clients.” Tobin said the opportunity to join a firm that already has a footprint throughout the United States and into emerging economies was too good to pass up. "We've been approached by other firms before. Part of the attraction is that they [Miller Canfield] were not in Toronto." Miller Canfield boasts a blue-chip client base, including Comerica Bank, Ford Motors and Deloitte.
