Law’10’s Alex Patrick followed the stardust to help build one of Canada’s most successful TV production companies.
Few people would have guessed why this Bay Street lawyer heard the siren call of St. John’s, NL, but the journey that found Alex Patrick, Law’10, heading one of Canada’s most productive TV and film production companies has had all the drama, entertainment and celebrities of one of its best series. Eight years ago he went from Goodmans LLP in Toronto to a two-month secondment with Take the Shot Productions Inc. (TTS), hobnobbing with the colourful local talent and the cream of North America’s TV industry – all in arguably the East Coast’s most welcoming city.
Definitely not a lawyer’s typical career path – but then he had always told people, “If I’m going to be a lawyer, I’d like to be a lawyer for athletes or artists.” Fortunately, Goodmans had a top-notch entertainment law practice and provided the mentorship he hoped for. Those two months on “The Rock” turned into a career. Hired as TTS’s General Counsel and VP of Legal and Business Affairs in 2011, he’s now a partner in the company and is in his sixth year as its President and Executive Producer. Actor Allan Hawco (Republic of Doyle heart-throb) is one of his business partners.
TTS has produced shows like Caught (also starring Hawco), the Discovery Canada/Netflix Original series Frontier, starring Game of Thrones’ and Aquaman’s Jason Momoa, musician-actor-writer Alan Doyle’s Great Big Sea documentary, plus several Shaun Majumder comedy specials.
And yes, the whole experience does feel very Canadian, Patrick muses. “I’ll go out for a coffee with Allan Hawco, and then Alan Doyle will pop by to say hello, and then along comes Mark Critch with the whole cast of This Hour Has 22 Minutes.”
It’s also a rewarding experience, literally, in terms of Canadian and international nominations and awards for the company, its various series, and individual stars.
Any part of Patrick’s heart that doesn’t belong to his wife and two children clearly belongs to Newfoundland, and he recalls fondly “how cool it was, going from that buttoned-down corporate Bay Street experience to living an artist’s somewhat bohemian lifestyle.”
The variety of his work still taps all his legal skills – “running the gamut from the earliest deal-makings with rights holders and writers, financing strategies, where to shop projects and who the potential buyers are, assessing a script’s creative merits, and considering what actors, directors or other elements could make our package more attractive. I’m always juggling projects in development, production or post-production, steering them towards successful completion,” he says. “I get to see the full life cycle of a project from the kernel of an idea to planning the premiere party.”
He needs spontaneity and vision, too. For instance, Frontier, now in its third season and having already generated $106 million in economic activity, evolved after a Discovery executive suggested to him a scripted series set in the 18th century fur trade. “The next thing you know, we’re shooting with Jason Momoa (“I’m not a small man, but he dwarfs me significantly”) on a snowy Newfoundland set. Things like that keep me hooked on this business!”
It was two Queen’s Law professors who initially hooked Patrick on taking the legal road-less-travelled: Art Cockfield, Law’93 (“he took time to share his views on career choices and help me realize I didn’t need to be a Bay St. partner to be successful”) and Nick Bala, Law’77 (“he pushed me out of my comfort zone in terms of academic rigour”). “So … I found a very interesting way to use my legal training without really practising law all the time,” he laughs.
As for his company’s future ventures, he’ll only offer, discretely, that he has a robust slate of projects at various stages of development. Based on his success so far, you can bet they’ll be coming to a screen near you sometime soon.
By Georgie Binks