African activities contributed to Heenan Blaikie’s demise, firm founder says

An internal email sent by Peter Blaikie, co-founder of Heenan Blaikie, says staff would "do well" to read a media report that connects the firm's collapse with controversial African business deals

Heenan Blaikie LLP founder Peter Blaikie has sent staff an internal email in which he attributes the firm’s demise to controversial business dealings in Africa.
Mr. Blaikie hasn’t been involved with the firm’s management for many years, but he still keeps a desk in the firm’s Montreal office. Apart from a one-page statement released earlier this month that expresses his sadness over the 40-year-old firm’s dissolution, he has refrained from public comment.
Yet on Tuesday, Mr. Blaikie sent staff an email in which he suggested they read a National Post report from last weekend that connects the firm’s collapse to some controversial business in Africa involving former Heenan Blaikie partner Jacques Bouchard.

“If you wish to get at least a partial understanding of why the firm you worked so hard to build was destroyed, you would do well to read the article which appeared on February 15, 2014 in the National Post,” Mr. Blaikie writes in the email to staff.
Mr. Bouchard left the firm in late 2011, shortly after the National Post first reported on Mr. Bouchard’s activities. At the time, those revelations angered many of the firm’s partners and triggered a secret internal investigation by four of the firm’s lawyers. On Saturday, National Post reported how those activities also resulted in Heenan Blaikie being “blacklisted” by clients.
Since that story emerged, other former Heenan Blaikie lawyers have confirmed that the Bouchard revelations caused them to leave the firm. “I didn’t leave because of financial difficulties. I just had an uncomfortable feeling about the way management was running the place,” a former partner now says.

Most senior lawyers have landed on their feet after the rapid collapse of Heenan Blaikie. Thursday, nine former Heenan Blaikie lawyers from Vancouver announced the formation of Michael, Evrensel & Pawar LLP, which will operate as MEP Business Counsel. The firm will specialize in full-service corporate, commercial and media/entertainment law. And in Toronto, patent litigators Jon Stainsby, Bill Mayo and Lesley Caswell will join the new Toronto office of IP litigation boutique Aitken Klee LLP.
The story is a little different for support staff, who have been told that next Wednesday will be their last day of work, and that they will be paid until April 15.
Many support staff are bitter. Just a month ago, management of the firm convened a “town hall” meeting and told staff to stick around because the firm was working on a turnaround plan. “It’s time for Heenan Blaikie to kick butt again,” staff were told by a firm manager.
Many staffers believed the firm would survive its recent business challenges. The firm was actually profitable in 2013. There was talk the firm would overhaul its cooperative partnership management structure by bringing in a CEO who would run the firm’s day-to-day affairs. Billings for December were strong. New support staff were hired as recently as December and early January. Administrators say they were still receiving supplies.
But there was a weak spot. Profits had slipped by 15% in 2013, and this caused many senior partners with long client lists to leave Heenan Blaikie for other firms. The flow of senior lawyers — described by one former Heenan Blaikie lawyer as a “run on the bank” — accelerated too rapidly for the firm to recover.
The news has been heartbreaking for Heenan Blaikie’s support staff. “It was a beautiful place to work. Every day I went there, it just felt like I was being with friends,” one staffer said. “It was a great place to work, a wonderful place. I absolutely loved it,” said another.
Staff who remain behind in Toronto say they are spending their final days boxing up files and items left behind by recently departed lawyers. They have been told Feb. 26 will be their last day, though those who need extra time to pack up personal things will be allowed back in the office on Feb. 27 and Feb. 28.
The clean-up included the firm’s marketing department. A source says the firm was selling off promotional items for the soon-to-be extinct legal brand. Items up for grabs included golf balls, maple syrup and a cheeseboard.