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The end seemed inevitable this week. Employees and support staff in the Montreal office, where Roy Heenan, Donald Johnston, and Peter Blaikie established the firm in 1973, were told to start packing up their things on Tuesday. “Unbelievable,” said one lawyer familiar with the scene at the firm. By Wednesday lunchtime, a trickle of staff were leaving the executive offices, some exchanging final farewells. “You’ve always been good to me, thank you,” said one woman to a colleague. Another staffer complained of having been strip searched.

Firm management has contacted other Canadian law firms to ask if they might take on the articling students who were supposed to have started working at Heenan Blaikie later this year.

Not every partner has stuck around for the announcement. Senior lawyers from Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto left Heenan Blaikie in droves on Wednesday to take up positions with other firms. At least eight former Heenan Blaikie labour lawyers had accepted or were expected to accept positions with Fasken Martineau Dumoulin LLP in Montreal. Five other Heenan labour lawyers were expected to move to Fasken’s office in Toronto. Meanwhile, in Montreal, Dentons Canada LLP confirmed that it has hired five real estate experts and two financial services lawyers from Heenan Blaikie.

Since it was founded in Montreal 40 years ago, Heenan Blaikie has grown into one of the country’s largest and best known law firms, with 500 lawyers working out of nine offices across Canada and one office in Paris. Former prime minister Pierre Trudeau worked there after he left politics in 1984. Former prime minister Jean Chrétien works as counsel in the firm’s Ottawa office, as does former Supreme Court of Canada judge Michel Bastarache. Former Quebec premier Pierre Marc Johnson works as counsel in the Montreal office.