After announcing record turnover of £238 million (around CA$407.6 million) for the recent financial year, the global law firm Kennedys has now revealed that it is forming an association with Canadian insurance specialty law firm, Dolden Wallace Folick LLP. This latest association will increase the number of Kennedys’ offices, associations, and co-operations around the world to 63. However, this is the firm’s first association with a Canadian firm.
The partnership will be beneficial since the firms already share a number of clients around the world, and particularly in London and the US, and have also worked together previously, according to a press release. Moreover, Canada is an important insurance market for many of Kennedys’ clients, considering that in 2018 there were close to 200 P&C insurers writing $60 billion in direct premiums in the country. Meanwhile, Toronto is an insurance hub in Canada while Vancouver has become an underwriting centre.
Dolden Wallace Folick was founded in 1994 in Vancouver, and has doubled in size during the past six years. It now counts 135 employees, including 20 partners, and has offices in Toronto, Calgary, and Kelowna, giving it a national reach.
“There is a very strong connection between our firms in terms of purpose, specialist focus and client base,” commented Nick Thomas, senior partner of Kennedys. “It’s a very good fit. We recognize a great deal of ourselves in Dolden Wallace Folick so we are very pleased to be formalizing our relationship.”
He continued: “At Kennedys, our growth has, and will continue to be, predicated on client need. Through this association, not only can we now support clients across another major and growing insurance market, we do so with a trusted partner who also brings extremely strong connections with the London Market.”
Lorne Folick, one of the three co-founding partners and CFO of Dolden Wallace Folick, added: “Kennedys is a giant of the insurance law world and we are proud to say that there is a really strong affinity between our firms. We have a shared focus on the insurance market and creating this formal association enables us to provide an even stronger offering to our clients. Like Kennedys, we support our clients with coverage issues, policy drafting and the defence of claims for property and casualty, financial and professional risks, environmental, cyber and many other specialty lines.”
