In 1882, Zebulon Aiton Lash joined Blakes and began building a corporate law practice.

[3] By 1885, with 15 lawyers, Blakes was among the largest corporate law firms in the young Canadian Confederation.

[6] In 2003, Blakes created the Daily Bread Toronto Law Firm Challenge,[7] which engages a number of Toronto law firms to raise money for the Daily Bread Food Bank.

In 2012, Blakes donated C$383,000 to the Fondation du Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM) and the McGill University Health Centre Foundation's (MUHC) joint corporate campaign to raise funds for university hospitals.

[8] In 2013, Blakes assisted the 160 Girls project, an initiative promoted by non-profit organization The Equality Effect, achieve a landmark victory where Kenyan law enforcement officials were ordered to investigate and prosecute crimes of sexual violence.