Skip to main content
bar talk

Norton Rose Canada has been on a hiring spree.

This week, the firm announced that Wylie Spicer, a prominent specialist in maritime, energy and Arctic law and a former managing partner of McInnes Cooper in Halifax, was joining Norton Rose's Calgary office.

Mr. Spicer will be helping Norton Rose's energy clients as Ottawa auctions off 900,000 hectares in the Arctic for offshore development, the firm said.

"We will soon be launching a dedicated Canadian North and Arctic law team to support our clients' growing interest for this part of the world, and Wylie will be an important part of it," Norton Rose Canada managing partner John Coleman said in a statement.

The firm also recently formally announced six new hires with a focus on Chinese corporate deals. All were defectors from Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP: David McIntyre, Robert Mason, Janet Howard and Janet Lee in Toronto, and Chinese lawyers Yufei Luo in Ottawa and Lei Huang in Beijing.

Norton Rose Canada was created in the merger of Ogilvy Renault, and later Macleod Dixon, with the London-based Norton Rose Group, a global law firm.

Mr. Coleman credits the Canadian firm's transformation to one with a global reach as a magnet for legal expertise: "These hires also show how being part of Norton Rose Group and its international platform enhances our ability to attract and retain top legal talent."

Meanwhile, Torys LLP has added two more prominent lawyers to its young and growing office in Calgary: Lou Cusano and David Wood, both from Stikeman Elliott LLP. They both focus on administrative and regulatory law, as well commercial litigation, acting for energy companies.

The Torys team in Calgary has grown from seven to 20 lawyers, and the firm says it plans to keep expanding.

Interact with The Globe