Insolvency boutique TGF is hot
Daryl-Lynn Carlson, Financial Post
Published: Wednesday, November 14, 2007
With a roster of just 15 lawyers, the insolvency and litigation boutique ThorntonGrout-Finnigan may show on the radar as comparably modest amid Toronto's Bay Street milieu. But peruse the sheer heft of the firm's files and it's quickly evident that TGF is on one mighty roll.
The highly focused and energetic team has achieved a leading presence at the table of almost every major insolvency and restructuring proceeding in Canada since its inception in 1998.
From counsel for General Electric Capital Aviation Services during the multi-billion-dollar Air Canada restructuring, to its current litigation on behalf of Bell Canada bond holders, the lawyers of TGF are at the fore.
"We've had a hell of a run the last few years," concurs founding partner John Finnigan. "We've been very, very fortunate."
Along with Mr. Finnigan, TGF was co-founded by Robert Thornton and James Grout.
Two of the founding three, Mr. Finnigan and Mr. Thornton, attended University of Western Ontario law school together and were mooting partners back in 1979. They, along with Mr. Grout, started their law careers at what was then called Fasken Campbell Godfrey, establishing their practices and camaraderie. The three then joined five other Fasken lawyers to set up shop as Kelly Affleck Greene in 1992.
Still, they sensed even greener pastures. With Mr. Finnigan's expertise in litigation, and Mr. Thornton and Mr. Grout focusing on insolvency law, they saw a niche opportunity.
Familiar with the start-up process at Kelly Affleck Greene, the three pals set out again this time with confidence. "I think the bigger jump for us was when we left the large national firm that we all had been hired at," says Mr. Thornton reflecting on leaving Faskens. "We were leaving the mother ship and hoisting our own flag to see if anyone was around to salute it."
But around that time was the collapse of Olympia & York, creating huge insolvency work. "We were lucky enough in that when we left Faskens, one of the biggest files in the country, O&Y happened," remembers Mr. Thornton. "Both Jim and I got significant mandates from that file."
They also noticed an increasing sophistication by high-end creditors in the marketplace, emerging as entities such as Sunlife or KPMG rather than the usual complement of traditional banks that kept insolvency lawyers busy chasing bad loans.
So they responded by setting out a mandate to pursue and serve those clients, focusing tightly on limiting their practice to insolvency and related litigation. They've also established industry-specific expertise, with major clients in the steel and automotive sectors.
"When Jim and I started practice, one of the most important features clients shopped for was the law firm name," shares Mr. Thornton. "But as clients became more sophisticated, they tended to start to focus on, 'What individuals do I have as lawyers?' The firm name didn't count for as much, what really mattered was, 'Who do you have in the boots on the ground dealing with the file'," he says.
"Clients realized with a boutique, they knew exactly who was working with the file and it wasn't being kicked around to a whole bunch of people."
As well, TGF has "just built on our successes one day at a time, one file at a time," he adds.
To date, that has meant "almost anything going on in the insolvency world, either Jim or I would have a slice of it and as we've gained a profile and experience, our mandates have gotten bigger and bigger culminating in the recent run we've had."
That run has included major insolvencies and restructuring involving Stelco, Air Canada, Norshield, Hollinger Inc., Calpine, Bell Canada -- to name some -- along with Canada's largest hedge fund scandal in Portus for which Mr. Finnigan and Mr. Grout were instrumental in facilitating accused fraudster Boaz Manor's return to Canada from Israel this week to face charges.
Mr. Grout attributes the firm's success to a work environment unique to most firms.
"As a group, we do not compete with one another," he explains. "When Stelco came in the door, Bob was very tied up on Air Canada so for the first year of the Stelco brief, I was the partner in charge. Then Bob freed up when Air Canada closed and the Portus brief came in, so Bob took over Stelco, while I ran Portus," says Mr. Grout. "There aren't many law firms where partners can move cases within the firm the way we can do it because we just don't compete," he says. "And all the younger lawyers get it; the partners don't compete, so they don't compete."
The boutique focus also enables associate lawyers to get hands-on experience with major files they otherwise might not at large, full-service firms.
When additional expertise is required, the firm contacts large law firms to assist. Jonathan Levin, "an old friend" from Faskens is working with Mr. Finnigan on the Bell Canada file, while tax lawyers at Mc-Carthy Tetrault contributed to unraveling complexities in Portus.
"We really have enjoyed working with lawyers at the other firms," Mr. Finnigan says. "It's worked really, really well. The clients love it because they're getting the exact expertise they need."
To what extent the firm will continue to grow is uncertain. "We're jealous about our collegiality," Mr. Thornton says of the firm's environment. "How we go about finding new people and who we bring in, we're very careful. We will be as big as we think we should grow in order to serve our client's needs the best that we can."
For the lawyers immersed in the TGF culture, the acronym is far from TGIF as in "Thank god it's Friday; there have been few weekends off for the hardworking litigators.
The work has its cost. "There's no question that this comes at a great deal of sacrifice," Mr. Thornton says. "It poses a burden on those around us. We've all paid a price on a personal level, but there's no royal road to get there. When we work around the clock, we really work around the clock."
For now, he says "it's great to come to work with like-minded people. It's a very fun environment to be a part of." But, he adds with a hint of irony of the firm's success, "as we've often said, be careful what you wish for."
© National Post 2007
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