Cozen Builds Canada Footprint With Growing Vancouver Outpost

Philadelphia-founded Cozen O’Connor is looking to be a “full service business firm” in Canada, a firm leader said after a team of 22 joined its Vancouver office.

“From that perspective we need to bulk up and look at different areas,” said Rory Godinho, a member of Cozen’s Canadian executive committee and co-chair of its capital markets and securities practice group.

The firm ballooned its Vancouver footprint, poaching 13 lawyers in finance, mergers and acquisitions, family office and other practice areas. The additions—along with nine support staff—join from Clark Wilson.

The Vancouver office has increased to 28 from three in the past two and a half years, according to Cozen. The incoming team is led by international finance and M&A lawyers Virgil Hlus and Cam McTavish and family attorney Chantal Cattermole.

Last year brought challenging market conditions, including expensive credit, geopolitical tensions and regulatory roadblocks, which slowed down transaction volumes. That pushed several law firms to cut back teams, rescind associate offers or push start dates.

Firms still grappling with impacts of such setbacks present fertile grounds to poach. “If you’re doing well and people are happy, it’s so much more difficult to convince people to move,” Godinho said. “In good times, it is more difficult to recruit, whereas when times are a little tougher, it’s not.”

Cozen, which has more than 850 attorneys and placed 75th on the American Lawyer’s 2024 Am Law 200 ranking by revenue, does not require capital contributions from its new shareholders. The firm also employs a director of lateral integration to ease the process of adding new lawyers and staff.

The Vancouver market provides an alluring option for Canadian lawyers. “It is diversified and industry agnostic,” McTavish said.

“It doesn’t have a lot of head offices, but we do have entrepreneurs and companies based on the East Coast or in Toronto,” he said. “But people live there for lifestyle.”