The economic climate in Alberta over the past several years has made things “both hot and cold” for lawyers, depending on their practice areas, Colin Feasby, Managing Partner of Osler’s Calgary Office, tells Canadian Lawyer. In his article, author Anthony Davis describes the economic impact of slumping oil prices on Calgary’s economy in 2014 and beyond. The article explores how the oil & gas sector in Alberta has been affected by the fluctuations in oil and the regulatory climate, and how this in turn has affected the legal sector. Colin, a corporate and commercial litigation expert, says that Osler’s Calgary Office managed its best year post-2014, despite the uncertain economic landscape.
“Despite some of these challenges in the industry, it was a reasonably strong year because a lot of those headwinds actually create legal work,” Colin tells Canadian Lawyer.
The article explains that many businesses in the oil & gas sector have reinvented their businesses to adapt. The article also describes how under the NDP government, there has been a renewed focus on wind and solar energy, which Colin says has led to different opportunities.
“Renewables is absolutely a big area, not just for us, but for a number of our competitors,” Colin says. “I think a lot of people see it as a new opportunity.”
Colin explains the overall impact on different legal practice areas and various sectors.
“The big change in the market in Calgary is historically there were lots of junior oil and gas companies, many of them public,” Colin tells Canadian Lawyer. “And later on, there were income trusts. That generated a lot of junior corporate finance activity.”
For more information, read author Anthony Davis’s article “A light in the oil slump tunnel” on April 15, 2019 in Canadian Lawyer.
