Miller Thomson


Miller Thomson LLP is a full-service national law firm established in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1957. The firm provides a complete range of business law, advocacy, and personal legal services to Canadian and international corporations, entrepreneurs, institutions, governments and not-for-profits.
Miller Thomson is currently Canada's seventh largest law firm with over 550 lawyers and 12 offices located in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, London, Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, Toronto, Vaughan, Markham, and Montréal.
Notable firm alumni include former Canadian Prime Minister, The Right Honourable John Turner, P.C., C.C., Q.C. and Supreme Court of Canada Justice Russell Brown, who was associate counsel to the firm prior to his appointment.

History

Miller Thomson was founded on Canada's 90th birthday – July 1, 1957 – by six lawyers who decided to leave a large firm and establish their own firm which was then known as Miller, Thomson, Hicks & Sedgewick. The original partners were J. A. F. Miller, Q.C., J. H. Thomson, Q.C., R. V. Hicks, Q.C., R. M. Sedgewick, C. W. Lewis, and J. Wilfred Healy.
Today, their namesake has grown and evolved into one of the largest law firms in Canada. Through a series of strategic mergers, the firm has expanded to 12 offices and over 550 lawyers.

1850s

1858 – W.H. Bowlby opens his practice on King Street, in what would become Kitchener-Waterloo.

1870s

1876 – Bowlby joins with Edwin Perry Clement and Frederick Colquhoun.

1890s

1895 – Balfour Moss opens in Regina.
1898 – Robert Lachlan McKinnon begins practicing in Guelph.

1900s

1902 – John M. Kearns founds a new firm in Arthur, Ontario.
1906 – Kearns moves his firm to Guelph.

1950s

1950 – Two Guelph firms forge a partnership to become Kearns McKinnon.
1951 – A. Hans Swinton and Douglas E. Andrews open Andrews & Swinton in Vancouver.
1952 – Pouliot Mercure opens in Montréal.
1953 – Cook Duke Cox opens in Edmonton.
1957 – Miller, Thomson, Hicks & Sedgewick opens in Toronto.

1980s

1981 – Miller Thomson creates a new office in Markham, Ontario.
1981 – Balfour Moss establishes a Saskatoon office.
1987 – Cook Duke Cox opens a new office in Calgary.

1990s

1990 – Kitchener-Waterloo’s two oldest law firms —Clement, Eastman, Dreger, Martin and Meunier and Sims, McKinnon, Varey, Griggs and Trafford — merge to create Sims, Clement and Eastman.
1992 – Merger with Kingsmill Jennings
1993 – Merger with Wheatley MacPherson
1999 – Merger with Cook Duke Cox

2000s

2000 – Merger with Sawers, Liswood, Hickman, Bullivant, Dolan, Watts
2000 – Merger with Swinton & Company
2001 – Merger with Roberts & Baker
2002 – Merger with Sims Clement and Eastman
2003 – Merger with Kearns McKinnon
2005 – Merger with Pouliot Mercure
2006 – Miller Thomson establishes its London, Ontario office.
2008 – Miller Thomson celebrates 150 years of history in the Region of Kitchener-Waterloo.

2010s

2011 – Merger with Balfour Moss
2013 – Miller Thomson celebrates 115 years of history in the Guelph community.
2015 – Miller Thomson celebrates 120 years of history in Saskatchewan.
2017 – Miller Thomson opens its 12th office in Vaughan, Ontario.

Rankings & Recognition

Miller Thomson LLP lawyers are consistently ranked among the leading practitioners in the country. In the 2020 edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada, over 130 Miller Thomson lawyers were recognized for their expertise in 47 areas of law, including seven who were awarded “Lawyer of the Year”.
The firm is recognized in the 2020 edition of the highly regarded Chambers Canada Guide, earning top Band 1 ranking in Charities/Non-profits and Agribusiness: Agriculture & Food Products and noted as a leading firm in the areas of Aboriginal Law, Advertising & Marketing, Construction, Employment & Labour, Environment and Retail. The firm also ranked Band 1 for Private Wealth Management Law – Canada in the latest edition of the Chambers High Net Worth Guide.

Innovative & Leading Law Firm

Open Plan Concept Offices

Miller Thomson’s Vancouver office relocated to a hybrid open plan concept office space in 2016, located above the Nordstrom department store in the redeveloped Pacific Centre building.
Miller Thomson sought to have space reflect what the firm stands for and what sets it apart from the competition. "We see ourselves as part of the community and we take energy from collaborating with clients and from their resulting success. So our office had to cater to our clients," said Mike Walker,  Office Managing Partner for Vancouver at the time of the move. "We also wanted to be more prominent in the legal market itself with space that would get the competition talking about us and pique the interest of great lawyers at other firms with a similar perspective, energy and entrepreneurial spirit."
The firm’s newest location in Vaughan, which opened in the summer of 2017, has followed with a similar open-concept workspace.

Areas of Practice

With 12 offices across the country, Miller Thomson is built to provide the most comprehensive Canadian business and legal help. The firm provides a complete range of business law, advocacy, and personal legal services in English and French:

List of Areas of Practice

Services
Industries
Focus Areas
Miller Thomson is a member of Multilaw, a global legal network with 90 member firms in more than 100 countries.
In 2012, Miller Thomson entered an affiliation agreement with leading French business law firm FIDAL, solidifying a “best friends” relationship first initiated two years prior.