Canadian Law Firm NST Celebrates 40 Years in Litigation

Four decades on, NST’s founding spirit remains its greatest competitive edge It’s been four decades since Irwin Nathanson, K.C., Stephen Schachter, K.C., and Ardella Thompson left a major Vancouver firm to set up a boutique of their own. It was at the time a risky idea, but it’s one Schachter still describes, without hesitation, as irresistible despite the unknowns. The three litigators had a clear idea of what they wanted: a small firm focused on major civil litigation, free of the administrative weight of a large partnership, and structured around a kind of collegial practice that was rare at the time. Nathanson Schachter & Thompson LLP (NST) opened its doors in 1987. “It’s never been a ‘look back and wonder,’” Schachter says, adding that it’s hard to believe forty years have passed since he and his co-founders took that leap. For the legal profession at large, watching how the boutique cemented itself as one of Canada’s premier firms for the most complex cases, hard to believe seems about right. The trio’s goal from the outset was straightforward, if easier said than done: to produce a first-rate trial, appellate and dispute resolution practice. “We loved practising law, the law itself, and where it might take one in terms of developing it,” Nathanson explains. “We felt our little group could compete with the major litigation departments in major firms.” They would look at matters critically from the very beginning, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of a client’s case and running rigorous analysis. Then they’d go forward with a strategy based on a relatively complete understanding of the dispute and the legal issues — leaving room to adjust course as needed. A judge once said that litigation is not a set-piece battle, “and we took that to heart,” recalls Nathanson. Happily surprised that the young firm was able to do some major litigation matters with its lean contingent, still the time came to expand. The partners sought like-minded individuals, seeking to attract the best and brightest, often from big firms that had led to NST’s founding in the first place. Nathanson remembers all too well interviewing at a major Vancouver firm at the start of his career and being told he’d have to carry his senior’s bag for about ten years before he’d be on his feet. He turned down the offer: it wasn’t how he intended to develop then and it wasn’t in line with what he intended to build now. The guiding philosophy was “to get the best and not make them wait as long as the major firms do; we want to commit to them and we want them to commit to us,” Nathanson explains. Associates got into the work quickly, from motions and discoveries to second or third chair at trial or other proceedings, and that approach served them well. Many of NST’s current partners grew with the firm over the years to the point where they’re now part of the engine of the firm. They learned alongside senior counsel who knew the work inside and out, making each other better lawyers. That’s attractive to people early in their careers, Nathanson says. “Today people look at our firm and see the opportunity to work not as one of multiple litigation associates — like little birds all in a nest, looking for some food to be dropped in, who gets what depending on the vagaries of who takes a shine to whom. There’s never been any internal competition here; we work as a whole. The whole firm will mentor you here and that’s a big advantage.” Schachter agrees, adding that a pension case, which Nathanson now cites as one of his career highlights, captures it perfectly. Wrestling for eight months with a tricky problem on behalf of a major mining company, at a time when pension law was still developing, four of the senior partners gathered in a boardroom, laid out th