Prairie powerhouse firm MLT Aikins is the product of a merger between two firms, Saskatoon’s McPherson Leslie & Tyerman and Winnipeg’s Aikins, both of whom individually held historic prestige in their respective jurisdictions before combining in 2015. The Winnipeg office received a youthful boost last year when it hired Christian Monnin, formerly the managing partner of Hill Sokalski Walsh and someone considered by peers to be “of judicial royalty.” More recently the firm’s Winnipeg received another boost of horsepower when Michael Weinstein, a partner known for a locally robust construction practice, was another former Hill Sokalski partner to join the firm within the past year. Monnin was part of a legal team representing the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, who were granted intervener status in a case about language education rights for French speakers in British Columbia. The Supreme Court has to decide what school services BC must have for its French-speaking community. While at his former firm, Monnin finished a two-week trial in November 2018 on a matter that dealt with the issue of law of chance/loss of opportunity as it relates to a failed real estate transaction. Monnin was part of a team acting for the plaintiff, a real estate and hotel developer who was relying on the assistance of a commercial real estate agent. The commercial real estate agent ultimately acted for another real estate developer who was successful in the purchase. The client pursued the real estate agent for several millions of dollars. In addition to his civil litigation practice, Monnin also has a labor (management side) practice. In this regard, he just finished a lengthy collective bargaining with a public institution while dealing with the Public Services Sustainability Act, which was introduced by the Provincial government in the Spring of 2017 and sought to freeze the wages of 120,000 public-sector workers for two years and cap their pay for another two years.
