In honor of the 100th anniversary of its Calgary office, the law firm of Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP is sponsoring a chuckwagon in this year’s Rangeland Derby celebration. This proves to all of the doubters that chuckwagons and lawyers actually do mix well together. The law firm specializes in business law and litigation and is celebrating its frontier roots along with the Stampede.
“We’re very proud of being a member of this community and all that Calgary is,” says Tamela Coates. Coates is the managing partner at Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP. “That’s one reason we’re so happy our anniversary coincided with the centennial of the Stampede.”
The firm has offices in Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto. The office in Calgary opened back in 1912 when two lawyers from Nova Scotia went west to find their fortune. Those two lawyers were Lloyd Hamilton Fenerty and Henry Phipps Otto Savary. The move made by the lawyers was an excellent decision since the company they created grew as the oil industry grew in Alberta. The Calgary office still focuses on the energy sector but has diversified itself with the economy of Alberta. Some of the clients of the Calgary office include members of the financial services, telecommunications and building and construction industries.
The law firm created by Fenerty and Savary employed 60 lawyers in 1985. The firm, known as Fenerty Robertson Fraser & Hatch, merged with the Edmonton firm of Milner & Steer in 1991 to become Milner Fenerty. Milner Fenerty was the largest firm in Alberta at the time of the merger. The firm went through two more mergers until it became Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP.
The very first office constructed by Fenerty and Savary was located on the Elma Block at 8th Avenue and 1st Street S.E., which is now the site of the Telus Convention Centre. The current offices for the Calgary location are located at the Bankers Court building at 850 2nd Street S.W. Coates began with the firm 23 years ago as an articling student and never left the firm. She said she found it very interesting when reading about the firm’s history.
“For us, it’s like going back into your family tree,” she says. “I think one thing that is very much part of who we are is that spirit of entrepreneurship that has its roots in our two founders and has permeated all of our time here in Calgary.”
Coates said that this is the first time the firm is sponsoring a chuckwagon. “We’re extremely excited,” she says. “We’ve even got a chuckwagon in our lobby.”