Firms Remain Optimistic Despite Unstable Moscow Market

Lawyers Weekly:

Growing up in Halifax, John Place always wanted to visit Russia. But he never expected the country would figure so prominently early in his career.

The 32-year-old lawyer with the Toronto office of Heenan Blaikie LLP got to finally visit Russia when he was halfway through law school at the University of Victoria.

Then, within a week of graduating law school in 2001, he was on a plane headed back to Moscow. This time, it was to take a job with the U.S.-based international firm, White & Case LLP, which at the time had more than 50 lawyers in its Moscow office.

His first client meeting was with a Russian entrepreneur. His first time in court was to observe a Russian trial. The first contract he drafted was a Russian pledge agreement.

He spent three years in Moscow, then articled with Aird & Berlis LLP in Toronto. In 2005, he moved over to Heenan Blaikie in Toronto.

But while he’s back in Canada, his corporate, securities and international business law practice remains largely focused on the Russian market, which finds him working within a group that includes former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, who serves as counsel with Heenan Blaikie primarily in Ottawa.

Based on his experience, Place is arguably the firm’s man on Moscow.

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