Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP (Blakes) is an international corporate law firm with offices in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

History

Blakes was launched in 1856 after Dominick Edward Blake was called to the bar and entered into partnership with Stephen M. Jarvis in Toronto. Soon it was Blake & Blake when brother Samuel Hume Blake joined. In 1867, Blakes incorporated what would become

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC; ) is a Canadian Multinational corporation, multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at CIBC Square in the Financial District, Toronto, Financial District of Toronto, Ont ...

. The bank remains one of the firm's oldest clients. In 1878, Blakes was the first business in Canada to install a telephone system that provided a direct link to the offices of the

Ontario Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal for Ontario (frequently mistakenly referred to as the Ontario Court of Appeal) (ONCA is the abbreviation for its neutral citation) is the appellate court for the province of Ontario, Canada. The seat of the court is Osgoode H ...

and the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

at Osgoode Hall. In 1882, Zebulon Aiton Lash joined Blakes and began building a corporate law practice.Christopher Moore.
The Law Society of Upper Canada and Ontario's Lawyers, 1797-1997
'. University of Toronto Press; 1997. . p. 153–. By 1885, with 15 lawyers, Blakes was among the largest corporate law firms in the young

Canadian Confederation Canadian Confederation () was the process by which three British North American provinces—the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick—were united into one federation, called the Name of Canada#Adoption of Dominion, Dominion of Ca ...

. In 1894, Clara Brett Martin articled at Blakes. She was called to the bar in 1897, becoming the first woman lawyer in Ontario and the British Empire. In 1953, the firm's name was changed to Blake, Cassels & Graydon. In 1998, the firm opened an office in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. In 2003, Blakes created the Daily Bread Toronto Law Firm Challenge, which engages a number of Toronto law firms to raise money for the Daily Bread Food Bank. In 2012, Blakes donated C$383,000 to the Fondation du Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM) and the McGill University Health Centre Foundation's (MUHC) joint corporate campaign to raise funds for university hospitals. In 2013, Blakes assisted the 160 Girls project, an initiative promoted by non-profit organization The Equality Effect, achieve a landmark victory where Kenyan law enforcement officials were ordered to investigate and prosecute crimes of sexual violence. In 2017, Blakes launched Nitro powered by Blakes, a program that provides access to legal services for emerging technology companies.Blakes launches program subsidizing legal fees for tech companies
"Canadian Lawyer", 2017 06 26

Notable members and alumni

Edward Blake Dominick Edward Blake (13 October 1833 – 1 March 1912) was a Canadian politician and lawyer who was the second premier of Ontario from 1871 to 1872 and leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 1880 to 1887. He is one of three federal perm ...

and Samuel Hume Blake - brothers and founders * Walter Cassels *

Peter Hogg Peter Wardell Hogg (12 March 1939 – 4 February 2020) was a New Zealand–born Canadian legal scholar and lawyer. He was best known as a leading authority on Canadian constitutional law, with the most academic citations in Supreme Court jurisp ...

* Zebulon Aiton Lash * Clara Brett Martin

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blake, Cassels and Graydon Companies based in Toronto Foreign law firms with offices in the United States Law firms of Canada Law firms established in 1856 1856 establishments in Canada West

History

Notable members and alumni

Further reading

References