This is a legal matter (7 photos)

Wishart Law Firm is a Sault Ste. Marie company which can trace its roots back to 1900, when brothers Moses and Uriah McFadden set up a law office at Queen and Brock Streets.

The firm is currently run by senior partners Orlando Rosa and Gord Acton, with six associate lawyers bringing additional legal expertise to the picture in a number of areas.

“We found ‘yes, we’re a prestigious law firm’, but you’re only as good as your last court case, your last file, your last client,” Rosa told SooToday.

Orlando Rosa, a Sault native, studied law at the University of Ottawa and has been practising law in the community for nearly 35 years, specializing in civil litigation on behalf of companies, involved in commercial transactions (making sure the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed in the purchase and sale of businesses), franchise law, rail law and other areas.

The firm is well-known locally, but Rosa said a good part of Wishart’s work is for out-of-town clients.

“We find with computers and the internet, the computer programs we have, we can serve clients outside the Sault, in smaller northern municipalities.”

“There’s a transition and a metamorphosis in every law firm. When I became senior partner with Gord we really tried to modernize, keeping our technology in good stead.”

“For the most part I enjoy law because there’s a bit of a rush when you do good work for a client and they’re happy.”

Gord Acton, a Kirkland Lake native, was called to the bar in 1980, joining Wishart that same year.

Acton balanced his law school studies, first at the University of Guelph and later the University of Ottawa, while travelling as a member of Canada’s Alpine Ski Team.

Through his skiing travels, Acton learned of the Sault through meeting family members of former Wishart partners, articling at Wishart, he and his wife Diane Pratte deciding to settle down in this community.

Acton and Pratte (who competed as a skier in the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan) are the proud parents of three grown children, one of whom is Brigitte Acton, who also competed in skiing for Canada at the 2006 and 2010 Winter Games.

Acton said what he likes about law is what he calls “the deal” for the clients.

“In my area of law (working in business and institutional transactions), there is a seller, a buyer, a developer, and out of that transaction something very concrete, something visible, something active, is going to be created for the region.”

“It’s complex…but at the end of it, it’s a very positive activity for the whole region and that’s what’s exciting about the areas I practice in.”

As for Wishart Law Firm’s history, when lawyer Moses McFadden was appointed to the bench in 1915, Ernest McMillan, a young Prince Edward Island lawyer, joined the firm.

When Uriah McFadden became a judge in 1931, Ernest brought his brother Gordon to the Sault to join him in law.

The firm became known as McMillan and McMillan until 1939, when New Brunswick-born Arthur Wishart left his law practice in Blind River and moved to Sault Ste. Marie.

The name of the firm was changed to Wishart and McMillan, but by the end of the Second World War, Gordon McMillan had to leave the firm due to illness.

Wishart brought on lawyers Patrick Fitzgerald and Derek Holder, the firm becoming solicitor for the city of Sault Ste. Marie.

Arthur Wishart, a former Blind River mayor and later a Sault Ste. Marie city councillor, left the practice in the hands of Gerald Nori and Bruce Noble when he entered provincial politics.

Elected as Sault Ste. Marie’s Progressive Conservative MPP in 1963, Wishart served as Attorney General of Ontario from 1964 to 1971.

“We’ve worked very hard at it (continuing the Wishart tradition),” Orlando Rosa said.

“You’ve always got to be on top of the game.”