It is no surprise that it is the “express zone” elevator, that whisks you to the offices of Power Budd on the 72nd and top floor of Toronto’s First Canadian Place. Things happen fast at Power Budd which, after all, did not even exist a year ago. But since the firm’s inception last April, founding partners Robert Power, Peter Budd and Martine Band have parlayed their expertise and connections into a 15-lawyer firm of “cherry-picked” specialists in energy law, environmental law, regulated industries and government relations. Currently growing at more than a lawyer a month, the firm anticipates between $4 million and $5 million in first-year billings. Clients include energy industry heavyweights such as Trans Canada Energy, Pan Canadian Energy, Tractebel, U.S.-based GPU, Hydro Mississauga and Detroit Edison.
Add to this impressive growth the firm’s exclusive affiliation with Cameron McKenna (a major London, England-based international law firm with offices throughout Europe, the former Soviet Union, as well as in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific), and there’s a ring of truth to Power’s claim that their entrance to the Canadian legal market poses a “significant competitive threat” to the country’s big firms. “They just won’t be able to compete in our areas of specialization,” says Power. “With Cameron McKenna behind us, we’ve got too much of a head start.” Adds Budd: “There’s not a single firm in Canada that has a reputation in all three areas of electricity restructuring law, gas-related issues and environmental law, but we do.”
That UK -based Cameron McKenna is formidable is undeniable: the firm, rated among the top legal advisers in the United Kingdom in private finance initiative work, recently took the first step to implementing its goal of forming a single pan-European law firm by integrating its Brussels office with its CMS European alliance partner Dersk Star Busmann Hanotiau. The CMS group, formed in 1998 by Cameron McKenna and four European firms, expects to fully merge within three years. (See U.K. Law Firms Invade Europe in this issue of Lexpert.) Also in August, Camerons announced an alliance with Singapore insurance law specialists Niru & Co. as a move towards its goal of building an international insurance practice.
But it was Cameron McKenna’s fifteen years of experience in energy-related work worldwide that prompted Budd to approach Fiona Woolf, head of the firm’s Energy & Projects Practice in the fall of 1998. Woolf had been a policy advisor to Ontario’s Ministry of Energy, Science & Technology, providing consulting services on the Tories’ plan to convert Ontario’s electric public utility commissions to corporations under the Business Corporations Act. “I went to England and got in touch with Fiona, who had a real interest in opening a Canadian office because of this country’s history and experience in energy deregulation and management, but she didn’t know how to do it expeditiously unless it was through someone who was thoroughly entrenched in the energy industry,” says Budd.
Budd certainly was “entrenched”. Earlier in 1998, while still at Bennett Jones, he’d been appointed to the Ontario government’s Market Design Committee, which preceded the passage of Bill 35 and received Royal Assent as the Energy Competition Act on October 30, 1998. His experience and fascination with energy issues started at age 13 when he watched Union Gas build a pipeline through his parents’ farm (where he still visits with his sons most weekends). At university, he took a summer job with Trans Canada Pipelines, then attended law school and articled at the Ontario Energy Board, which was in the throes of gas deregulation in Canada following the Halloween Accord of 1985. Before co-founding Power Budd LLP, Budd spent his entire legal career with Bennett Jones, working from both the Calgary and Toronto offices. “I’ve done everything from sitting on a drill rig and getting a bottle of crude oil out of the ground, to working at the regulatory end,” Budd says. “My belief was that I couldn’t serve my clients unless I sat out there and heard the noise and smelled the smell.”
Power and Budd became fast friends after Budd hired Power’s wife, lawyer Judy Goldring, to work at Bennett Jones. Then an environmental, energy and government relations lawyer at Toronto’s Outerbridge Miller Sefton, Power’s skills were the perfect complement to Budd’s energy background, while both had an interest in policy and political strategy. “We both wanted to operate in a non-hierarchical, focused environment that was pleasant and informal, where the distinctions between partners and associates were not great,” Budd says. Budd, with a more external focus, chairs the firm, while Power’s management strengths made him a natural for managing partner. Power brought associates Adam Chamberlain and Lisa Davies from Outerbridge’s office, while Budd brought Erik Goldsilver from Bennett Jones.
The firm’s nucleus wasn’t complete, however, until Martine Band, whom Power calls the “unsung hero” of the firm, agreed to come on board. Band, seconded from Stikeman Elliott had, like Budd, been working with the Market Design Committee. Nowadays, she’s busily engaged in designing rules for the $10 billion a year electrical market that the Energy Competition Act has created. “Martine’s developing an expertise that very few people understand,” Power says. “And that gives her specialized knowledge that will be invaluable to clients who are ultimately concerned about making or losing money in the new marketplace.”
Power, Budd and Band had the foresight to see that there would be no shortage of clients in that new marketplace. “We’re dealing in a sector that is broader than traditional energy and environment practice,” Budd says. “Our expertise is also in the policy, strategy and economics of production, emissions, dumping, pollution and global warming. It’s an area that, from a holistic perspective, is not being properly served in the Ontario market.” That market will doubtlessly explode when the conversion of public utility commissions to corporations culminates next November, representing the largest privatization in Canadian history.
Ultimately, the legislation is intended to provide more options for financing, partnerships and joint ventures involving municipal electrical utilities (MUNI). Municipalities will be the initial shareholders of the new corporations, and will be required to split their current operations into competitive and non-competitive subsidiaries. The non-competitive subsidiaries will be monopolies confined to transmitting and distributing electrical power, with billing and collection functions. The Ontario Energy Board will regulate these entities, essentially as common carriers, subject to access rules that are non-discriminatory and open. The competitive subsidiaries will engage in activities like buying and selling electricity through the Independent Electricity Market Operator (IMO), created under the legislation to operate Ontario’s wholesale electricity market; selling telecommunications access; or offering retail products such as electric fireplaces.
In this new marketplace, Power Budd say they are way ahead of the pack. Deeply involved in various aspects of Bill 35’s development and implementation, they’ve acted as counsel to the legislature’s Select Committee on Ontario Hydro Nuclear Affairs, as senior advisors to the Minister of Energy in drafting Bill 35’s basic principles, and they are currently counsel to the IMO. Budd is also a Director of the Ontario Natural Gas Association.
Perhaps more exciting than the purely local possibilities are the international opportunities for legal work in the new regime. Ontario Power Generation Inc. (formerly Ontario Hydro) President Ron Osborne has already expressed the view that he expects a “seamless northeast continental (energy) marketplace” to evolve rapidly. Indeed, British Energy PLC, and American-based Pec Energy Co., American Electric Power Corp., GPU Service Inc. and Enron Corp. have all indicated that they’re interested in expanding into Canada.
And Power Budd is ready for the invasion. In anticipation of cross-border energy trading, the firm has solidified its connection with Cameron McKenna’s 35-lawyer Washington office. “As we speak,” Budd says, “we’re acting for US clients interested in pursuing opportunities in the Ontario energy market.” And Fiona Woolf has included Power Budd lawyers on Cameron McKenna teams involved in the South African, Indian and Mexican energy restructurings. “The advantage of having Canadian lawyers is that the situation in many countries [regarding electrical restructuring] is analogous to the situation in Ontario,” says Woolf. Canada, Budd notes, has set an example for the world in its introduction of a regulated gas market, and Ontario is admired for the speed at which it has implemented its electrical privatization strategy.
Power Budd LLP expects to approximate its current rate of expansion for at least five years, at which time Budd predicts the firm will support 60 to 70 lawyers as it broadens its scope in regulatory areas. The firm has already targeted telecommunications work, an area in which Woolf is looking to the Canadians for professional assistance.
Woolf has no doubt her new colleagues will achieve their goals: “They are excellent, motivated young lawyers with whom our association will continue to grow incrementally whenever we need their skill sets or they need the skill sets we can provide.” It is a relationship—and an attitude—that other ambitious Canadian law firms may find worth watching.
Julius Melnitzer is a Toronto legal affairs writer.
Add to this impressive growth the firm’s exclusive affiliation with Cameron McKenna (a major London, England-based international law firm with offices throughout Europe, the former Soviet Union, as well as in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific), and there’s a ring of truth to Power’s claim that their entrance to the Canadian legal market poses a “significant competitive threat” to the country’s big firms. “They just won’t be able to compete in our areas of specialization,” says Power. “With Cameron McKenna behind us, we’ve got too much of a head start.” Adds Budd: “There’s not a single firm in Canada that has a reputation in all three areas of electricity restructuring law, gas-related issues and environmental law, but we do.”
That UK -based Cameron McKenna is formidable is undeniable: the firm, rated among the top legal advisers in the United Kingdom in private finance initiative work, recently took the first step to implementing its goal of forming a single pan-European law firm by integrating its Brussels office with its CMS European alliance partner Dersk Star Busmann Hanotiau. The CMS group, formed in 1998 by Cameron McKenna and four European firms, expects to fully merge within three years. (See U.K. Law Firms Invade Europe in this issue of Lexpert.) Also in August, Camerons announced an alliance with Singapore insurance law specialists Niru & Co. as a move towards its goal of building an international insurance practice.
But it was Cameron McKenna’s fifteen years of experience in energy-related work worldwide that prompted Budd to approach Fiona Woolf, head of the firm’s Energy & Projects Practice in the fall of 1998. Woolf had been a policy advisor to Ontario’s Ministry of Energy, Science & Technology, providing consulting services on the Tories’ plan to convert Ontario’s electric public utility commissions to corporations under the Business Corporations Act. “I went to England and got in touch with Fiona, who had a real interest in opening a Canadian office because of this country’s history and experience in energy deregulation and management, but she didn’t know how to do it expeditiously unless it was through someone who was thoroughly entrenched in the energy industry,” says Budd.
Budd certainly was “entrenched”. Earlier in 1998, while still at Bennett Jones, he’d been appointed to the Ontario government’s Market Design Committee, which preceded the passage of Bill 35 and received Royal Assent as the Energy Competition Act on October 30, 1998. His experience and fascination with energy issues started at age 13 when he watched Union Gas build a pipeline through his parents’ farm (where he still visits with his sons most weekends). At university, he took a summer job with Trans Canada Pipelines, then attended law school and articled at the Ontario Energy Board, which was in the throes of gas deregulation in Canada following the Halloween Accord of 1985. Before co-founding Power Budd LLP, Budd spent his entire legal career with Bennett Jones, working from both the Calgary and Toronto offices. “I’ve done everything from sitting on a drill rig and getting a bottle of crude oil out of the ground, to working at the regulatory end,” Budd says. “My belief was that I couldn’t serve my clients unless I sat out there and heard the noise and smelled the smell.”
Power and Budd became fast friends after Budd hired Power’s wife, lawyer Judy Goldring, to work at Bennett Jones. Then an environmental, energy and government relations lawyer at Toronto’s Outerbridge Miller Sefton, Power’s skills were the perfect complement to Budd’s energy background, while both had an interest in policy and political strategy. “We both wanted to operate in a non-hierarchical, focused environment that was pleasant and informal, where the distinctions between partners and associates were not great,” Budd says. Budd, with a more external focus, chairs the firm, while Power’s management strengths made him a natural for managing partner. Power brought associates Adam Chamberlain and Lisa Davies from Outerbridge’s office, while Budd brought Erik Goldsilver from Bennett Jones.
The firm’s nucleus wasn’t complete, however, until Martine Band, whom Power calls the “unsung hero” of the firm, agreed to come on board. Band, seconded from Stikeman Elliott had, like Budd, been working with the Market Design Committee. Nowadays, she’s busily engaged in designing rules for the $10 billion a year electrical market that the Energy Competition Act has created. “Martine’s developing an expertise that very few people understand,” Power says. “And that gives her specialized knowledge that will be invaluable to clients who are ultimately concerned about making or losing money in the new marketplace.”
Power, Budd and Band had the foresight to see that there would be no shortage of clients in that new marketplace. “We’re dealing in a sector that is broader than traditional energy and environment practice,” Budd says. “Our expertise is also in the policy, strategy and economics of production, emissions, dumping, pollution and global warming. It’s an area that, from a holistic perspective, is not being properly served in the Ontario market.” That market will doubtlessly explode when the conversion of public utility commissions to corporations culminates next November, representing the largest privatization in Canadian history.
Ultimately, the legislation is intended to provide more options for financing, partnerships and joint ventures involving municipal electrical utilities (MUNI). Municipalities will be the initial shareholders of the new corporations, and will be required to split their current operations into competitive and non-competitive subsidiaries. The non-competitive subsidiaries will be monopolies confined to transmitting and distributing electrical power, with billing and collection functions. The Ontario Energy Board will regulate these entities, essentially as common carriers, subject to access rules that are non-discriminatory and open. The competitive subsidiaries will engage in activities like buying and selling electricity through the Independent Electricity Market Operator (IMO), created under the legislation to operate Ontario’s wholesale electricity market; selling telecommunications access; or offering retail products such as electric fireplaces.
In this new marketplace, Power Budd say they are way ahead of the pack. Deeply involved in various aspects of Bill 35’s development and implementation, they’ve acted as counsel to the legislature’s Select Committee on Ontario Hydro Nuclear Affairs, as senior advisors to the Minister of Energy in drafting Bill 35’s basic principles, and they are currently counsel to the IMO. Budd is also a Director of the Ontario Natural Gas Association.
Perhaps more exciting than the purely local possibilities are the international opportunities for legal work in the new regime. Ontario Power Generation Inc. (formerly Ontario Hydro) President Ron Osborne has already expressed the view that he expects a “seamless northeast continental (energy) marketplace” to evolve rapidly. Indeed, British Energy PLC, and American-based Pec Energy Co., American Electric Power Corp., GPU Service Inc. and Enron Corp. have all indicated that they’re interested in expanding into Canada.
And Power Budd is ready for the invasion. In anticipation of cross-border energy trading, the firm has solidified its connection with Cameron McKenna’s 35-lawyer Washington office. “As we speak,” Budd says, “we’re acting for US clients interested in pursuing opportunities in the Ontario energy market.” And Fiona Woolf has included Power Budd lawyers on Cameron McKenna teams involved in the South African, Indian and Mexican energy restructurings. “The advantage of having Canadian lawyers is that the situation in many countries [regarding electrical restructuring] is analogous to the situation in Ontario,” says Woolf. Canada, Budd notes, has set an example for the world in its introduction of a regulated gas market, and Ontario is admired for the speed at which it has implemented its electrical privatization strategy.
Power Budd LLP expects to approximate its current rate of expansion for at least five years, at which time Budd predicts the firm will support 60 to 70 lawyers as it broadens its scope in regulatory areas. The firm has already targeted telecommunications work, an area in which Woolf is looking to the Canadians for professional assistance.
Woolf has no doubt her new colleagues will achieve their goals: “They are excellent, motivated young lawyers with whom our association will continue to grow incrementally whenever we need their skill sets or they need the skill sets we can provide.” It is a relationship—and an attitude—that other ambitious Canadian law firms may find worth watching.
Julius Melnitzer is a Toronto legal affairs writer.
Lawyer(s)
Robert G. Power
Martine M.N. Band
Fiona Woolf
Judy Goldring
Adam Chamberlain
Lisa Davies
Erik Goldsilver
Firm(s)
Hydro Mississauga
CMS Cameron McKenna LLP
Derks Star Busmann
Ministry of Energy & Infrastrucutre (ON)
Bennett Jones LLP
Outerbridge Miller Sefton
Stikeman Elliott LLP
Ontario Energy Board
Hydro One Networks Inc.
British Energy plc
Enron
CMS Cameron McKenna LLP