1.    Can you tell our readers about your firm and its business focus?

Fasken Martineau is an international business law and litigation firm with over 675 lawyers in offices around the world. We focus on being a full-service law firm equipped with the legal expertise and experience our clients require. Fasken Martineau provides strategic and thoughtful advice in virtually all areas of businesses law to a broad range of clients including half the Fortune 100 companies. We work with corporate clients, government agencies, regulatory authorities, non-profit bodies and individual clients. The firm’s international excellence and sector expertise continue to earn it top rankings around the world.


2.    What are your firm’s areas of legal expertise?

Fasken Martineau’s legal expertise spans across a wide range of areas, including corporate/commercial law, litigation and dispute resolution, mergers and acquisitions, international law, mining, technology and intellectual property, public-private partnerships, and labour, employment and human rights, just to name a few. Many of our practice groups and lawyers are internationally ranked and recognized for their expertise and experience.


3.    Fasken Martineau is an international business law firm with over 650 lawyers. What countries are you located in and how do your services differ from region to region?

Fasken Martineau has offices in Canada, the United Kingdom, France and South Africa. With six offices across Canada and three offices east of the Atlantic Ocean, our lawyers offer particular expertise in practice areas and business sectors which are often influenced by local economic structures. For example, while all of our offices offer legal services in all areas of business law and litigation, our U.K. office—one of the world’s major financial centers—has the broad-based capability required in commercial law. We place great emphasis on timeliness, communication, and understanding our clients' business and legal objectives at home and abroad.


4.    Your office is in Vancouver. Are your customers in Vancouver mainly German or Canadian?

Being on the West Coast of Canada, we have a strong focus on B.C. and the Pacific Rim and many of our clients have the same geographic background.  Nevertheless, B.C. has always been attractive for immigrants, businesses and investors from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.  A good number are clients of our firm.


5.    What kind of people come to you to look for advice?

Since our Fasken Martineau is a full service law firm, it serves clients from many walks of life in respect of their personal or business needs.  We advise or represent sole proprietors and large institutional clients, and everything in between, including publicly traded companies, governments and post-secondary institutions.  Speaking for myself, most of my clients are small and medium-sized companies (Mittelstand), including, of course, German companies or their local subsidiaries.

 
6.    You are from Germany. Does your background help you in this firm?

Yes.  The lawyers and staff of our firm are a diverse group of many different cultural backgrounds.  In many respects, a firm of our size is a microcosm of the Canadian mosaic. We offer expertise in both common law and civil law in English and French and many of our lawyers and staff are also fluent in other languages spoken worldwide, including German. In Canadian business hubs such as Vancouver, Toronto and Montréal, we have more than a dozen lawyers and staff members with the ability to communicate in German. Partner Peter Ascherl in Toronto is one of the individuals fluent in German. All of our lawyers bring a different perspective to the practice of law.  For foreign clients, such as those from Germany, Austria or Switzerland, a useful resource is somebody who can understand their particular needs and expectations and who can assist with bridging the almost inevitable legal cultural—and sometimes language—divide that businesses will encounter at one point or another.


7.    You studied in Bonn, Germany. Has it been difficult for you to come to Canada and to find work here?

It was not originally my plan to immigrate to Canada.  I came to Vancouver to do my Master of Laws at UBC, met my wife and the rest is, as they say, history.  The process of re-qualifying as a lawyer in Canada took some time, but it was gradual and I received a lot of support from my family (here and in Germany), the law school and my firm.  While members of other professions with a university degree from Germany face similar hurdles, the ongoing negotiations between Canada and the EU of a free trade agreement promise improvement in the long term.  Currently, it is anticipated that such an agreement would facilitate mutual recognition of professional qualifications.


8.    Are German lawyers able to practice in Canada? Do you have advice for Germans that would like to work in Canada, but do not have an accepted degree?

Nationality is generally not an obstacle to practicing law in Canada.  Professional qualifications, however, can be.  Most of Canada (other than Quebec) has adopted the common law following the English tradition.  This legal system is quite different from the “civil law” system we know in Germany.  These differences relate to structure, substance and methodology.  So, for German lawyers, and even for their U.S. or English counter-parts re-qualifying is required.   This can be done through course work or self-study.  The scope depends on how much formal education and/or years of practice the candidate has from other common law jurisdictions.  Full or abbreviated articles (comparable to our Referendariat) will also be required.  My advice to German lawyers considering practicing in Canada is to focus on goal.  Canada is a great country to live and work in and worth the effort.  I am glad I made the choices I did and I have no regrets.