 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(May 2017) |
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| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
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| No. of offices | 7 |
| No. of attorneys | 685 (2022) [1] |
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| Date founded | 1856 |
| Founder | Edward Blake |
| Company type | Limited liability partnership |
| Website | www.blakes.com |
Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP (Blakes) is an international corporate law firm with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, New York City, and London.
Blakes was launched in 1856 after Dominick Edward Blake was called to the bar and entered into partnership with Stephen M. Jarvis in Toronto. [2] Soon it was Blake & Blake when brother Samuel Hume Blake joined.
In 1867, Blakes incorporated what would become Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. The bank remains one of the firm's oldest clients. In 1878, Blakes was the first business in Canada to install a telephone system that provided a direct link to the offices of the Ontario Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada at Osgoode Hall.
In 1882, Zebulon Aiton Lash joined Blakes and began building a corporate law practice. [3] By 1885, with 15 lawyers, Blakes was among the largest corporate law firms in the young Canadian Confederation.
In 1894, Clara Brett Martin articled at Blakes. She was called to the bar in 1897, becoming the first woman lawyer in Ontario and the British Empire. [4]
In 1953, the firm's name was changed to Blake, Cassels & Graydon. [5]
In 1998, the firm opened an office in Beijing. [6]
In 2003, Blakes created the Daily Bread Toronto Law Firm Challenge, [7] which engages a number of Toronto law firms to raise money for the Daily Bread Food Bank.
In 2012, Blakes donated C$383,000 to the Fondation du Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM) and the McGill University Health Centre Foundation's (MUHC) joint corporate campaign to raise funds for university hospitals. [8]
In 2013, Blakes assisted the 160 Girls project, an initiative promoted by non-profit organization The Equality Effect, achieve a landmark victory where Kenyan law enforcement officials were ordered to investigate and prosecute crimes of sexual violence. [9]
In 2017, Blakes launched Nitro powered by Blakes, a program that provides access to legal services for emerging technology companies. [10]
In 2019, Blakes was recognized as "one of Canada's Best Diversity Employers" [11] for the eighth time by Mediacorp Canada Inc. (previous wins include 2008 to 2011 and 2015 to 2017). The firm was also named Canada Law Firm of the Year in the Who’s Who Legal Awards for the 11th consecutive year. [12]
Blakes was named one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers for 2022 by Mediacorp Canada Inc., an honour we have received 12 times since 2008. [13]
In 2022, the firm received the most top-tier rankings by practice area of any Canadian law firm for the sixth consecutive year in Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business. [14] In addition, the Firm’s lawyers continue to be recognized as leaders in their fields in The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, Canada's leading guide to lawyers. [15]
Dominick Edward Blake, known as Edward Blake, was the second premier of Ontario, from 1871 to 1872 and leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 1880 to 1887. He is one of only three federal permanent Liberal leaders never to become Prime Minister of Canada, the others being Stéphane Dion and the latter's immediate successor Michael Ignatieff. He may be said to have served in the national politics of what developed as the affairs of three nationalities: Canadian, British, and Irish. Blake was also the founder, in 1856, of the Canadian law firm now known as Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP.
Peter Wardell Hogg was a New Zealand-born Canadian legal scholar and lawyer. He was best known as a leading authority on Canadian constitutional law, with the most academic citations in Supreme Court jurisprudence of any living scholar during his lifetime, according to Emmett Macfarlane of the University of Waterloo.
Place Ville Marie is a large office and shopping complex skyscraper in Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada, comprising four office buildings and an underground shopping plaza. The main building, 1 Place Ville Marie, was built in the International style in 1962 as the headquarters for the Royal Bank of Canada. While RBC's corporate headquarters and the majority of its management operations have been based in Toronto's Royal Bank Plaza since 1976, Place Ville Marie remains RBC's head office, a distinct title from its corporate headquarters. It is a 188 m (617 ft), 47-storey, cruciform office tower. The complex is a nexus for Montreal's Underground City, the world's busiest, with indoor access to over 1,600 businesses, numerous subway stations, a suburban transportation terminal, and tunnels extending throughout downtown. A counter-clockwise rotating beacon on the rooftop lights up at night, illuminating the surrounding sky with up to four white horizontal beams that can be seen as far as 50 kilometres (31 mi) away. This beacon is not considered as a NAVAID for aviation purposes.
Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP (Gowlings) was a Canadian and international law firm, with about 700 legal professionals in 10 offices in Canada and as well as London, Moscow, and Beijing. The firm offered legal support in business law, advocacy/litigation and intellectual property law.
Clara Brett Martin was a Canadian lawyer. She opened the way for women to become lawyers in Canada by being the first in the British Empire in 1897.
McCarthy Tétrault LLP is a leading Canadian law firm that delivers integrated business law, litigation services, tax law, real property law, labour and employment law nationally and globally through offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montréal, Québec City, London (UK), as well as New York City. McCarthy Tétrault LLP is one of the Seven Sisters law firms. Among the Seven Sisters, the reigning top firms are McCarthy Tetrault LLP, Stikeman Elliott LLP, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, and Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP.
Goodmans LLP is a Canadian corporate law firm. First established in Toronto in 1917 by David Bertram Goodman, Goodmans LLP now has approximately 200 lawyers. The firm acts for Canada's largest corporations, financial institutions and multinationals, and was recognized two years in a row as the National Law Firm of the Year for Canada at the International Financial Law Review's Americas Awards. In September 2018, Goodmans was awarded the Americas Energy Tax Deal of the Year at the 13th annual Americas Tax Awards by International Tax Review in New York City.
Torys LLP is a Canadian international corporate law firm with offices in Toronto, Calgary, New York, Montreal and Halifax. The firm acts for a wide range of commercial clients and financial institutions in Canada, the United States, and globally.
Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP is an integrated firm of more than two hundred and forty lawyers, with offices in Toronto, Montreal, and New York City. Davies focuses on business law, including commercial and financial matters. The firm acts for a wide range of industrial and commercial companies and financial institutions, both public and private, domestic and foreign. The firm's Mergers and Acquisitions practice include most industries and service sectors and representation in transactions of every size. Davies consistently ranks in the top 20 by Bloomberg's Global Merger and Acquisitions Advisory rankings.
Borden Ladner Gervais LLP is a leading, full-service law firm in Canada. With two hundred years of history going back to the 1823 founding of McMaster Gervais, it now has offices in Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Ottawa, and Calgary. With almost 900 lawyers, intellectual property agents and other professionals are associated with the firm. BLG is governed by a national council composed of partners from across Canada. Sean Weir served as the firm's first National Managing Partner until 2018, and was succeeded in the position by John Murphy of the Montreal office.
McMillan LLP is a Canadian business law firm serving public, private and not-for-profit clients across various industries in North America and around the world. McMillan LLP is the only national Canadian law firm with an office in Hong Kong, in addition to its offices across Canada in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montréal. The firm has industry groups in different sectors such as technology, energy, oil and gas, mining, construction and infrastructure, automotive, and transportation.
Miller Thomson LLP is a national business law firm with approximately 525 lawyers across 5 provinces in Canada. The firm offers a full range of services in litigation and disputes, and provides business law expertise in mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and securities, financial services, tax, restructuring and insolvency, trade, real estate, property development, labour and employment as well as a host of other specialty areas. Miller Thomson offices are located in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, London, Waterloo Region, Toronto, Vaughan and Montréal.
The Seven Sisters refers to a historical collection of seven law firms with offices across Canada, the majority of which have head offices in Toronto, Ontario.
The Arbitration Roundtable of Toronto is made up of several litigators, academics, arbitrators, and mediators from the Greater Toronto Area. The group promotes arbitration as an alternative method of conflict resolution over litigation, especially in commercial suits. Members include commercial litigators from Toronto law firms including some of the Seven Sisters of Bay Street. Each member has experience and interest in promoting commercial Arbitration. The group dedicates its time to encouraging this form of Dispute resolution through seminars, papers, and talks.
Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP (TDS) is a Canadian, Manitoba-based law firm with its head office in Winnipeg. The firm has two full-time regional office in Brandon and Portage la Prairie and eight part-time satellite offices in Boissevain, Gladstone, MacGregor, Morden, Neepawa, Saskatoon, Steinbach, and Winkler.
Zebulon Aiton Lash was a Canadian lawyer, civil servant, and businessman.
Samuel Hume Blake was a Canadian politician from Toronto.
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