Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP is an integrated firm of more than 250 lawyers with offices in Toronto, Montréal, New York and an affiliate in Paris.  The firm is focused on business law and is consistently at the heart of the largest and most complex commercial and financial matters on behalf of its clients, regardless of borders.

As a firm, Davies is a market leader in each of its core practice areas.  The 2008 Lexpert/American Lawyer Media Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada  ranks Davies as the leading Canadian firm in corporate transactions (including banking, competition law, corporate/commercial law, corporate finance & securities, corporate tax and mergers & acquisitions) in Toronto.  Davies is recognized as the leading firm for corporate transactions in Montréal, relative to firm size.

We act for a wide range of leading industrial and commercial companies and financial institutions, both public and private, in Canada, the United States and abroad. As well, our clients include governments, regulatory bodies, charitable organizations, international agencies, educational institutions, individuals and trusts and estates. Many clients are directed to us for special-purpose engagements by other North American and international law firms.

All law firms are not created equal.  The difference at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg is we consistently produce superior results for our clients.

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There is no "B" team at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg.  In both Chambers Global's The World's Leading Lawyers and in LEXPERT/American Lawyer Media Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada we consistently have the highest percentage of our lawyers ranked of any major firm in Canada.  This year we are at the centre of the bullseye in both Toronto and Montréal.  It's not by accident.  The rankings reflect a conscious focus, over a long period, on consistency and depth of exceptional talent – attracting and retaining lawyers at all experience levels who have the ability and the motivation to be among the very best in their chosen fields of practice.

At entry level the firm hires approximately 18 graduating law students each year, selected from more than 1,000 applicants.  We invest heavily in the training and continuing education of our young lawyers, exposing them to increasing levels of responsibility in a wide range of sophisticated and complex matters and teaching them to approach legal issues in the context of the client's business objectives.

Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg has the highest ratio of partners to associates of any major Canadian law firm.  Talented, hard-working young lawyers are admitted to partnership at a far earlier stage than their contemporaries at other firms.  As a result, very early in their careers they learn to act like owners, rather than employees, and to view the firm's relationships with its clients from that perspective.

Not all our growth has been organic.  We also have a proven track record of attracting to our firm leading practitioners who have been successful elsewhere in private practice or in industry or government.  They bring to our firm the strength and diversity of their talents and backgrounds.

We believe that achieving uniform excellence also requires focus. Our focus on business law, limiting ourselves to practice areas where we can be best-in-class, and not pursuing growth for its own sake, has allowed us to maintain consistently high quality. Perhaps that's why the National Post wrote: "When it comes to strength, pound for pound Davies has no peer."

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The needs of the client are paramount.  Our partnership philosophy and our uncommon compensation system remove the barriers to effective collaboration and provide the foundation for client, rather than individual, focus. We place great emphasis on team work, cooperation and the firm as a whole, rather than on individual effort or self-advancement. Internal competition and self-promotion are counter-cultural and are not tolerated.

We are a highly integrated organization operating as "one firm", drawing on exceptional lawyers from a range of disciplines across all offices of the firm. The client's needs drive the make-up of the team working on a file, ensuring that the right people, at the right time, at the right cost are engaged.

Other law firms typically base lawyer compensation and advancement on objective measureables, in particular on billable hours, which are not always aligned with clients' interests. At Davies, lawyer compensation and partnership admission are determined through a subjective process of peer review whereby members of the firm rely on being fairly assessed by their colleagues. A lawyer's contribution is measured against a broad range of non-objective criteria, including the lawyer's practice skills and capabilities, the willingness to place a high priority on the interests of the firm and its clients, the commitment of the lawyer to actively supporting the philosophy that our clients are firm clients, how well the lawyer recognizes, anticipates and responds to client needs and the variety of other ways in which the individual lawyer supports the firm's commitment to excellence in practice. This approach aligns the interests of the lawyers and the client, promotes efficient, effective service, encourages our lawyers to work collaboratively – within and among practice groups and offices  – in our clients' interests and fosters the development of sustainable, mutually supportive relationships between the firm and its clients.

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We were the first Canadian firm to open an office in Europe; we were the first Canadian firm in New York to practise U.S. law; we were the first Canadian firm to open an office in Beijing.  Our presence in Paris dates back to 1961.  Today, through our correspondent office there, Reinhart Marville Torre, the firm provides a vital link for many Canadian businesses seeking to operate in France and the European Union as well as assisting in meeting the European needs of our international transactions.

We meet our clients' needs wherever in the world they may exist.  We have assisted clients in such countries as Argentina, Australia, Belize, Brazil, Chile, China, France, Germany, Ghana, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Panama, Russia, Singapore, South Africa and the United Kingdom to name a few. Some of the clients we have acted for internationally include Alimentation Couche-Tard, Amcor, Barrick Gold, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Celestica, Masonite, PetroKazakhstan, Reichmann International/IPC and Trizec Hahn. In some cases, there has been no Canadian component to the transaction.

Our New York office, opened in 1984, consists of 18 lawyers practising U.S. law, focusing on corporate/commercial, finance/securities, tax, commercial real estate and trusts and estates law.  The lawyers in New York work seamlessly with their colleagues in Toronto and Montréal to provide truly integrated North American service, efficiently and cost-effectively.

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Our commitment to our clients is to work together to ensure that our fees represent good value and our services are provided in a cost-effective manner.  Our approach to providing our clients with maximum value rests on several principles of practice:

• Develop a clear understanding as to client objectives at the outset.
• Ensure the firm has a thorough knowledge of the client's business, the environment in which it operates and other relevant factors.
• Staff to the needs of the file, making appropriate use of younger lawyers.
• Eliminate redundant staffing at meetings.
• Avoid duplication of effort between the firm and the client’s internal resources.
• Use technology to reduce costs.
• Provide timely reports on costs.
• Control out-of-pocket costs and disbursements.

Efficiency is encouraged by our compensation philosophy which also removes incentives to overstate hours or overstaff files.

Our traditional practice, which most of our clients prefer, is to bill based on time incurred for a particular file. In many cases though, we have worked with clients to create alternative arrangements appropriate to the particular circumstances, based on the principles outlined above and solid communication.

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