McMillan LLP

McMillan LLP is a Canadian business law firm with offices in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Montréal, and Hong Kong. The firm specializes in business law, financial services, commercial real estate, competition/antitrust, corporate restructuring and insolvency, bankruptcy and natural resource law. The firm has approximately 400 lawyers.

The brand "America's Canadian Law Firm" is used in marketing in the United States. McMillan's business south of the border began in the 1940s when Bill Binch travelled the Midwest soliciting mid-sized companies expanding into Canadian markets.

History

Founded in 1903 by Newton Rowell and together with the leadership of Gordon McMillan and Bill Binch, McMillan LLP has been providing legal services for over 100 years. In 2005, McMillan Binch LLP in Toronto combined with Mendelsohn LLP in Montréal to offer national legal services under the name McMillan Binch Mendelsohn LLP.

In 2009, McMillan LLP and Calgary’s Thackray Burgess LLP combined and rebranded to create McMillan LLP.

McMillan LLP and Lang Michener LLP announced that they had reached an agreement to combine on January 1, 2011. The new firm operates under the single name, McMillan LLP. Lang Michener dated back to 1926 in Toronto, Ontario where Rhodes Scholar Roland Michener and Osgoode Hall graduate Daniel Lang formed Lang & Michener. That same year, in Vancouver, British Columbia, the firm of Lawrence & Shaw was formed by partners James Lyle Lawrence and Alistair Shaw. These two firms merged in 1989 becoming Lang Michener Lawrence & Shaw. The first Lang & Michener office was in the Canadian National Building at 347 Bay Street. It was one of the first "Bay Street" law firms in Canada.

The firm played a leading role in Canada's political and legal landscape. Founding partner, Roland Michener was appointed Speaker of the House of Commons by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and later Governor General of Canada by Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson. Daniel Aiken Lang, son of firm founder Daniel Webster Lang, was appointed to the Canadian Senate also by Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson. The Right Honourable Jean Chrétien practiced with Lang Michener from 1986–1990, and Michel Bastarache, of the Ottawa office, was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada in 1997.

References

• Hasselback, Drew. "McMillan and Lang Michener to merge", National Post.
• Crosariol, Beppi. "McMillan Binch plans to merge with Mendelsohn", The Globe and Mail. Accessed April 5, 2007.
• Marlin, Beth. Central Canadian Law Firm Rankings, Canadian Lawyer Magazine, September 11, 2006. Accessed April 5, 2007.