Each year ICBC releases financial information. One of the printouts that are of much interest is called “The Amount Paid to Suppliers for Goods and Services”. Basically, that document shows how much ICBC is paying various companies or individuals such as their defense lawyers each year.
The numbers underestimate the amount of defense work a particular law firm does because the numbers do not include work for other insurance companies. Therefore, when you look at the below chart, the numbers represent the minimum amount of defense work that a particular law firm does in any one year:
| Law Firm | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aikenhead Moscovich Jones | 671,255 | 831,110 | 864,209 | 1,291,745 | 1,344,120 |
| Alexander Holburn | 3,791,877 | 3,821,130 | 3,042,852 | 3,684,471 | 4,197,376 |
| Baker Newby | 2,877,508 | 3,562,712 | 4,217,490 | 3,901,065 | 3,678,592 |
| Brown Benson | 1,572,813 | 1,676,820 | 1,843,913 | 1,896,575 | 1,806,270 |
| Campbell Learn Zenk | 760,736 | 806,314 | 711,864 | 658,787 | 574,959 |
| Cassady & Company | 851,337 | 899,322 | 1,123,962 | 1,101,722 | 887,437 |
| Davidson & Co. | 842,155 | 728,263 | 877,420 | 944,222 | 916,651 |
| Doak Shirreff | 589,115 | 257,644 | 358,044 | 281,734 | 269,727 |
| Dumoulin Boskovich | 1,107,941 | 1,119,878 | 1,367,381 | 1,181,632 | 1,398,738 |
| Fasken Martineau | 1,553,388 | 1,232,503 | 1,731,818 | 925,858 | 1,468,237 |
| Graham & Frame | 870,691 | 1,048,685 | 1,131,019 | 852,025 | 708,768 |
| Grant Kovaks Norell | 1,837,736 | 2,305,686 | 2,657,207 | 2,893,164 | 2,933,873 |
| Grey Robinson & Associates | 406,145 | 424,508 | 525,095 | 541,590 | |
| Hamilton Ducan | 511,492 | 878,489 | 1,043,075 | 1,169,677 | |
| Harper Grey | 779,970 | 1,056,547 | 866,100 | 1,022,546 | 699,845 |
| Harris & Braun | 2,303,116 | 2,015,027 | 2,594,761 | 3,275,297 | 3,255,207 |
| Hartshorne Mehl | 2,443,636 | 2,563,135 | 3,007,870 | 3,305,167 | 3,897,026 |
| Heath & Co. | 1,036,215 | 1,533,484 | 2,025,423 | ||
| Heather Sadler Jenkins | 1,171,930 | 1,156,978 | 1, 152,667 | 1,287,256 | |
| Hemmerling & Associates | 792,489 | 871,186 | 963,150 | ||
| Horne Marr Zak | 836,793 | 842,619 | 379,827 | 418,470 | |
| Hungerford Tomyn Larwenson and Nichols | 735,506 | 432,581 | 404,687 | 454,461 | |
| Jones Emerly Hargreaves | 533,955 | 871,942 | 686,916 | 834,765 | |
| Kane Shannon & Weiler | 4,845,756 | 5,511,510 | 6,967,691 | 6,090,284 | 5,867,120 |
| Lindsay Kenney | 2,206,218 | 3,239,894 | 6,179,904 | 6,331,149 | 6,821,130 |
| McQuarrie Hunter | 2,083,199 | 1,818,638 | 1,695,154 | 1,564,039 | 1,253,552 |
| Murchison Thomson & Clarke | 822,637 | 906,172 | 1,151,780 | 1,121,647 | 1,337,360 |
| Pacific Law Group | 693,072 | 2,433,811 | 3,566,309 | 4,194,877 | |
| Paine Edmonds | 1,229,735 | 1,097,723 | 1,047,332 | 1,045,584 | 792,299 |
| Pihl & Associates | 1,676,760 | 1,807,415 | 1,571,945 | 1,773,942 | |
| Pryke Lambert Leathley Russell LLP | 1,053,056 | 1,310,198 | 1,555,471 | 1,775,662 | |
| Race & Company | 833,403 | 827,019 | 1,025,114 | 1,126,321 | |
| Robert Lawler | 476,097 | 519,491 | 507,957 | 585,552 | |
| Robertson Down & Mullally | 2,416,901 | 3,052,173 | 3,261,241 | 2,385,484 | 2,321,801 |
| Scarborough Herman & Harvey | 175,402 | 241,618 | 167,898 | 345,801 | |
| Singleton Urquart | 1,04,692 | 1,834,228 | 2,868,722 | 3,510,176 | 4,000,481 |
| Somers & Co. | 2,465,259 | 2,560,056 | 3,096,092 | 4,108,003 | 4,594,366 |
| Stevens Virgin | 2,098,179 | 2,772,346 | 2,804,298 | 3,995,603 | |
| Stewart & Co | 3,744,904 | 3,413,439 | 4,070,653 | 4,486,577 | 4,368,736 |
| Swadden & Co. | 1,533,356 | 1,390,889 | 1,576,884 | 1,930,994 | |
| Webster Hudson & Coombe | 1,514,258 | 1,964,203 | 2,038,211 | 2,807,047 | 2,914,804 |
| Wilson King & Company | 298,532 | 421,245 | 584,598 | 385,846 | |
| Young Noble | 1,998,755 | 500,900 | 755,062 | 681,554 | 716,653 |
If you are planning on hiring a lawyer for you to fight ICBC check out if he/she works at one of the above defense firms. The big advantage of hiring a lawyer from one of the defense firms is that there is a lot of knowledge about ICBC's internal workings kicking around the office. Also, at some of the defense firms certain lawyers only do plaintiff work and not ICBC work.
The obvious disadvantage is there may be a potential conflict. For example, any law firm that does ICBC defense work cannot sue ICBC for bad faith when ICBC's actions are inappropriate. This is because the defense firms have a contract with ICBC not to do so. Therefore, if your lawyer is from one of the defense firms, you may not get him/her taking the very difficult positions against ICBC.
