Love Hurts: Family Lawyers in B.C.
Meet the Rodney Dangerfields of the legal profession – the smart, tough practitioners of family law just looking for a little respect.
Every practitioner knows the refrain: no one likes lawyers, but everyone loves their lawyer. As a young litigator I learned this first-hand every Christmastime as I would receive a steady stream of snowy cottage cards from the coterie of insurance adjusters, in-house counsel and construction and oil executives. It always made me feel good – until I noticed the bounty that was being delivered daily to my family-law colleague down the hall. Crates of wine, works of art, Cirque du Soleil tickets and gift baskets overflowing with tins of salmon terrine seemed to be on a conveyor belt to her office. The truth is, everyone loves his or her family lawyer the best.
It’s hard to begrudge them for, in a lot of ways, family lawyers are the unsung heroes of the profession. They have to navigate the myriad rules of civil procedure on the fly, such as when a custody dispute erupts at 4:15 p.m. on the Thursday before Easter. They have to deal with clients who are actual people facing, in divorce, often the worst financial and emotional crisis of their lives. “For the vast majority of families, a divorce means a significant and immediate drop in the entire family’s standard of living,” notes Dinyar Marzban, a family lawyer with Vancouver-based Jenkins, Marzban & Logan LLP. Just take the example of Ian MacDonald, a vice-president of RBC Dominion Securities living in North Vancouver who was initially ordered by the court to pay $59,500 a month in child support. Luckily his clever lawyer had it reduced to $20,000 a month, saving MacDonald $474,000 a year.
And even at the top tier, family practitioners are often charging significantly less than their corporate colleagues, who are sticking BC Hydro or Goldcorp or any number of deep-pocketed corporations with six-figure legal bills (don’t pass the hat yet; all the practitioners here charge north, some way north, of $350 per hour). And not only do family lawyers have to know the rules of court; they also have to have both the Divorce Act and the Family Relations Act memorized and understand trust law, tax law and how to read an expert valuation like an accountant. Yes, it would be a charmed life if you never needed their services – but if, God forbid, you do, here are five of B.C.’s best.
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The Carriage Trade Lawyer
JEFF KAY, QC,Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy LLP Years practicing: 28 Hourly rate: Declined to answer Accolades: Appointed Queen’s Counsel, 2004. Martindale-Hubbell rating: AV |
Kay is one of the rare top practitioners who practices in a large firm – in this case, Farris, the lawyers to Vancouver’s establishment for the last century. His clients come from the top tiers of industry or are married to them, and the last thing they need is to have their pals down at the Vancouver Club or the tennis club reading about their dirty laundry in the paper. Plus, this sort of publicity can be bad for the stock price, so Kay keeps it tough but always discreet. He is one of the few family lawyers who comfortably cross into the commercial litigation realm, most notably representing tobacco companies R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and JTI-MacDonald Corp. in their death match with the province dealing with the ability to claim recovery for health-care costs – a massive case that will have huge repercussions throughout Canada. Hire him if: Your family owns a large forestry company and your youngest daughter is hell-bent on marrying an 18-year-old anarchist bass player and some marriage agreements are in order to ensure that family stock doesn’t fall into “questionable” hands. Latest book read: The Given Day by Dennis Lehane Song that best describes his approach to family law: “Help” by the Beatles.
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