Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP

Adam's practice covers all aspects of pensions, benefits and executive compensation law, including plan administration, governance, investment, design and taxation. Adam regularly advises jointly sponsored and single employer pension funds on their real estate, infrastructure, private equity and other investments in Canada and abroad. He also advises on the pensions and employee benefits aspects of corporate transactions. Adam provides legal services to both public- and private-sector pension plan sponsors and administrators.

Aimee Yee

Aimee's practice focuses primarily on domestic and cross-border financing and restructuring transactions. Aimee has advised lenders, borrowers, underwriters and issuers on asset-based financings, acquisition financings, equipment financings, inventory financings, warehouse financings, project financings, high yield offerings, debtor-in-possession financings and exit financings. Aimee has been involved in a number of financing and restructuring transactions and high-yield offerings in a variety of industry sectors, including forestry, telecommunications, transportation, manufacturing, aviation, construction and power and energy. A selection of Aimee's representative transactions includes acting for: the administrative agent for the DIP lenders in the Eastman Kodak Company restructuring proceedings; the administrative agent for the lenders in the exit credit facilities to Resolute Forest Products Inc. (formerly, Abitibibowater Inc.) and certain of its subsidiaries; and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), as agent, on its $400-million revolving credit facility to Manitoba Telecom Services Inc.

Alain Massicotte

In addition to general business law, Alain specializes in project financing, construction law, infrastructure and P3s projects. He has been involved in all major infrastructure projects, including P3 transactions in Quebec and heads Blakes' Montréal Infrastructure-P3 Group. He has acted as counsel for the governments or for agencies of Morocco, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, the Solomon Islands, Ivory Coast, Congo (Brazzaville), Chad, Cameroon, Senegal, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, India and Guinea.

Alexandra Luchenko

Alexandra has expertise as lead counsel in complex commercial and transactional matters before all levels of Court in Canada, a number of administrative tribunals and arbitration proceedings. She utilizes her litigation experience to lead internal investigations and to guide companies through crisis management situations, including assisting clients experiencing a data breach or cybersecurity incidents, with a view to proactively mitigate litigation risk. A considerable amount of Alexandra’s experience involves multifaceted legal and reputational issues that require coordination of numerous areas of specialization, including regulatory compliance, forensic investigation and media relations. She has significant experience working on behalf of private equity clients and financial institutions as well as mining, resource, health sciences and technology companies. At all times, Alexandra’s goal is to develop creative solutions and execute legal strategy with a view to advancing client objectives. Alexandra serves as the chair of the Equity and Diversity Committee of Blakes’ Vancouver office, serves on its Associate Committee and is the co-Chair of the Vancouver Chapter of the Women’s White Collar Defence Association. She is also a Certified Fraud Examiner.

Alyssa Duke

Alyssa has a broad corporate commercial litigation practice and has experience in class actions, construction, and oil and gas litigation, as well as securities regulation and securities litigation. Prior to joining Blakes, Alyssa practised at an international law firm with an emphasis on professional liability and director and officer disputes. She gained experience in construction litigation over the course of representing engineers and architects named in multi-party commercial disputes. Alyssa has appeared in the Alberta provincial court, the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench, the Alberta Court of Appeal and was second chair in a Supreme Court of Canada matter. She has also participated in regulatory interviews with the Alberta Securities Commission, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada. Alyssa has extensive experience managing large-scale e-discovery for complex commercial matters and working with oil and gas, construction, and accounting experts.

Alyssa Shivji

Alyssa has over 10 years of experience practicing exclusively in the areas of public procurement, infrastructure, and construction law. She regularly acts for procuring entities on complex procurements and provides advice on procurement planning and structuring, trade agreement compliance, best practices for conducting a successful procurement process, fairness issues and conflicts of interest and often leads the drafting of all procurement and contractual documentation. She has also helped numerous organizations with the development of template procurement documents, standardized commercial and construction agreements and the delivery of associated training and implementation tools. She also acts for bidders, providing advice on avoiding compliance issues and strategies for success. Alyssa acts for clients in a wide range of sectors, including transit and transportation, civil infrastructure, roads and bridges, water and wastewater, health-care services, information technology, gaming, energy and mining. Alyssa has extensive expertise in the procurement of mega infrastructure development projects and alternative finance and procurement projects across multiple jurisdictions and has been at the forefront of many municipal PPP projects across Canada. Alyssa has played a key role on numerous high-profile procurement and infrastructure projects across Canada, including VIA Rail’s acquisition of a new fleet, the Toronto Transit Commission’s Bloor Yonge Capacity Improvements Project, Marine Atlantic Inc.’s Ro-Pax Vessel procurement and the City of Calgary’s Green Line LRT Project.

Andrea York

Andrea is the Practice Group Leader of the Blakes National Employment & Labour group and Co-Chair of the Firm's Privacy group. Andrea is an experienced advocate with over 20 years of practice devoted to advising corporations and other employers on employment and privacy law matters. With a practice that predominantly focuses on providing practical day-to-day advice and defending employers when employee disputes arise, she works with clients in a variety of sectors, including banking and financial services, retail, manufacturing, health-care products, technology, and marketing and advertising. Andrea also advises on the employment and privacy law aspects of commercial transactions, reorganizations, insolvencies and outsourcing transactions.

Andrew Spiro

Andrew regularly advises on complex transformational transactions for public and private companies, and is a trusted Canadian tax advisor to domestic and foreign clients alike. Andrew is particularly well known for his expertise in matters involving REITs and other real estate investment vehicles, linked notes and other structured products, mandatory disclosure and tax insurance. Andrew is a member of the partnership committee and legal personnel committee at Blakes, and the Regional Vice-Chair, North America for the Lex Mundi Tax Practice Group.

Anne Glover

Anne Glover is a partner at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP and a member of the Litigation Group. Anne is known for her expertise in e-discovery and records retention and has led some of the most complex document review projects in Canada. As the founder and head of inSource, Anne has been at the forefront of integrating machine learning technology within the Firm, driving innovation and efficiency in legal processes. Her vast experience in utilizing AI in the legal sector has positioned her as a leader in exploring how AI can transform legal work, offering insights into both its advantages and challenges. Anne's expertise extends beyond internal operations; she is a trusted advisor to clients on the strategic use of AI, including the emerging field of Generative AI. Her guidance helps clients navigate the complexities of AI implementation, ensuring they leverage technology effectively while understanding potential risks. Through her leadership, Anne has not only advanced the Firm's technological capabilities but has also contributed significantly to the broader discourse on AI in law.

Anne Drost

Anne Drost is a Partner in the Business Law Group with over 30 years of experience in working with clients in the railway and energy industries. Anne’s practice focuses on commercial transactions, project development and regulatory compliance matters and proceedings before administrative tribunals. She has been involved in significant and complex transactions including cross-border rail acquisitions and mergers. Anne provides legal and practical advice to clients at all stages of project development, including obtaining regulatory approvals and permits, and devising and implementing land acquisition strategies. She also advises clients on matters relating to Indigenous law, such as consultation requirements, as well drafting and negotiating agreements with Indigenous communities. Anne represents clients in regulatory proceedings before the Canadian Transportation Agency and the Canadian Energy Regulator.

Ariane Bisaillon

Ariane's practice covers various aspects of civil and commercial law, with a particular focus on commercial litigation, class actions, product liability and consumer contracts. Her practice also covers shareholders' disputes, arbitration and extraordinary proceedings. She advises national and foreign clients, including pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers, banks, transportation companies, and local businesses. Ariane is fluent in French and English and has a practical knowledge of Spanish.

Ashton Menuz

Ashton's practice focuses primarily on advising clients within the energy industry on a diverse range of transactional, corporate and commercial matters. She has experience assisting clients with mergers and acquisitions, project development, joint ventures, complex commercial arrangement and cross-border transactions. Ashton advises strategic clients and private equity investors, with a particular emphasis on all aspects of the energy value chain, including upstream oil and gas, pipelines, midstream, downstream and marketing, power and renewables, and carbon capture, storage and utilization. In 2017, Ashton received the Horace Harvey Gold Medal for achieving the highest standing in her graduating class. In 2018–2019, Ashton worked as a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada for the Honourable Justice Russell Brown. In 2017–2018, Ashton completed articles of clerkship at the Court of Appeal of Alberta, where she articled to the Honourable Justice Brian K. O'Ferrall.

Auriol Marasco

Auriol’s expertise on aircraft finance, aviation commercial and regulatory law matters has made her the “go-to” trusted counsel to the leading lessors and financiers who support the Canadian commercial aircraft and airline industry. She regularly advises on related matters including in respect of airline work-out and loan restructuring and insolvency and bankruptcy related matters. Auriol also has considerable experience with regulatory issues relating to UAV operations and airport privatization and is the Co-Chair of the Blakes Drone Group. Auriol gained industry experience while working for a Canadian airline and is heavily involved in the Canadian aviation industry, including as the Chair of the Board of Directors for Hope Air, a Canadian charity which arranges free air transportation for Canadians travelling for medical reasons who have a financial need.

Ben Rogers

Ben is Office Managing Partner of Blakes Calgary office and Co-Practice Group Leader of the Energy - Oil & Gas group, and acts for energy companies on all types of commercial matters across Canada and internationally. He has considerable experience in a diverse range of energy-related matters, including acquisitions and divestitures, mergers and acquisitions, the structuring of joint venture agreements, midstream matters, project development, and the management of the legal aspects of day-to-day oil and gas and commercial matters. Ben also has considerable experience in both conventional and non-conventional oil and gas development, as well as in the East Coast offshore.

Birch Miller

Birch practises employment, privacy and cybersecurity law. She is the Practice Group Leader of the Blakes Employment and Labour group in Calgary, Alberta. Birch has established a known and respected profile among clients and peers through her extensive transactional experience; practical advisory work; civil and administrative (human rights, privacy and labour) litigation; executive positions with the Canadian Bar Association, including a four-year term as Chair of the Privacy and Access Law section; mentorship of junior lawyers in the employment, labour and privacy law sphere; involvement in the mentorship and support of women in private practice; and pro bono work with women's shelters and related organizations. Birch provides advice to clients in respect of all laws relating to workplace issues, including recruiting, hiring, discipline, terminations, employment and labour standards, human rights, disability and benefits, and alcohol and drug testing. She also advises on the collection, use and disclosure of personal, health, sensitive, technological and other types of information. Birch is a member of Blakes’ cybersecurity group and has extensive experience advising clients with respect to cybersecurity privacy guidelines. Birch has extensive transactional experience, regularly advising on the privacy, labour and employment aspects of high-profile transactions.

Bob Wooder

Bob practises in the areas of mergers & acquisitions and corporate finance with a focus on the mining sector. He advises public and private companies and financial institutions. Bob has extensive expertise in advising on take-over and issuer bids, private equity financings and as independent counsel to board of directors.

Bonny Murray

Bonny’s practice is focused on the financial services industry. She provides regulatory advice to Canadian and foreign financial institutions and service providers on all aspects of their business. She specializes in insurance and banking, payments and payment technologies, and merchant acquiring Bonny has significant experience liaising with federal and provincial regulators on behalf of clients on regulatory approval applications, compliance issues and questions of statutory interpretation. She advises on transactions involving financial services clients including corporate mergers and acquisitions, reinsurance transactions and pension de-risking, including longevity insurance transactions.

Bradley Berg

Brad brings a broad perspective and practical approach for our clients. He is widely recognized as one of Canada’s leading litigators with experience in courts and arbitrations across the country and appearing regularly at the Supreme Court of Canada. Brad's practice includes both complex commercial cases and precedent-setting public interest litigation. He was the practice group leader for Blakes Litigation in Toronto for 11 years (2010-21).

Brady Gordon

Brady is a disputes and international trade lawyer serving Canada’s leading businesses. Brady has represented clients at the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, the Federal Court of Canada, the ICC International Court of Arbitration and other arbitral tribunals, and all levels of court in British Columbia. His focus is on cross-border disputes, cross-border regulatory controversy, trade remedies, contractual disputes, public and administrative law, and complex international trade and sanctions issues. Brady has a PhD in law from Trinity College, the University of Dublin, and is a former adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia. He currently sits on the Export Committee of the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters, and the Executive of the International Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association.

Brendan MacArthur-Stevens

Brendan specializes in complex commercial disputes, deal litigation, and public law matters. He has significant trial, appellate litigation, and arbitration experience across a variety of industries and practice areas, including transportation (air and rail), large infrastructure projects and construction, energy, insurance, procurement, administrative law, and constitutional law. Brendan has appeared before the Alberta Court of King's Bench, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Federal Court of Canada, the Court of Appeal of Alberta, and the Supreme Court of Canada. He also teaches Administrative Law at the University of Calgary Faculty of Law and is part of Avenue Calgary Magazine's Top 40 Under 40 Class of 2022. Before joining Blakes, Brendan clerked for the judges of the Court of Appeal for Ontario and the Honourable Justice Andromache Karakatsanis of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Brian Facey

Brian is one of the world's most highly regarded lawyers and a trusted advisor to senior counsel, management and CEOs. He is sought after for his judgment, experience, connections and ability to execute on complex matters. Recognized at the top of all the major ranking services, including as one of Canada‘s 25 most influential lawyers and as Competition Lawyer of the Year, Canada. Competition and Antitrust Laws in Canada: Mergers, Joint Ventures and Competition Collaborations; Competition and Antitrust Law: Canada and the United States; Investment Canada Act: Commentary and Annotation; Competition Act: Commentary and Annotation. Repeatedly cited by the Supreme Court of Canada and other leading Courts.

Brock Gibson KC

Brock is Chair of Blakes and practises in the area of corporate commercial law with a focus on mergers & acquisitions, corporate finance, and private equity transactions. He has advised on some of the largest commercial transactions in Canada. Brock is also a member of the advisory board of the Canadian General Counsel Awards. He is recognized as one of the leading lawyers in Canada by all major legal directories and ranking publications.

Bryson Stokes

Bryson is the Practice Group Leader of the Firm’s national Gaming group and also serves as the Firm’s National Managing Partner. Bryson has been advising clients in the Canadian gaming sector for 30 years and has extensive industry experience and knowledge. He regularly advises gaming operators, governmental organizations/crown corporations and other businesses operating in or servicing the gaming industry (such as payment processors, financial institutions and suppliers) in both land based and online markets on a wide range of commercial, operational, and transactional matters. Bryson has extensive experience dealing with gaming regulatory matters, including gaming registration, licensing and compliance issues, responsible gaming programs and advising on the application and interpretation of federal and provincial legislation affecting the gaming sector. In the energy sector Bryson’s work includes power M&A, JVs, development work PPAs, and providing regulatory and strategic advice. He also has specialized expertise in the area of district energy and cogeneration, having advised district energy companies and customers in respect of all aspects of district energy developments, projects, operations and energy supply agreements. He has acted for key stakeholders across the country, including power producers and investors and has also advised government on transformative legislation and is at the forefront of legal developments in the power industry.

Caitlin McIntyre

Caitlin's practice focuses on insolvency litigation, financial restructurings, debt enforcement and general insolvency advice. She has represented debtors, monitors, receivers, secured creditors, debtor-in-possession lenders and additional clients in both formal insolvency proceedings and out-of-court restructurings and has developed a particular expertise in cross-border mandates.

Caroline Biron, Ad. E.

Caroline is a leading litigator with over 30 years of practice in commercial law, corporate law, employment law, civil litigation (including defamation issues), privacy and professional liability law. Caroline frequently handles governance cases, including human resources issues and those involving internal investigations. She also has litigation expertise regarding fraud and cybersecurity issues, shareholder disputes and estate law. She has significant experience defending class actions in the fields of contractual and extra-contractual liability, product liability, competition law, consumer law, privacy and personal data protection law and regularly intervenes in seizures and injunctions. She has appeared before all levels of court in Canada, including the Supreme Court of Canada and the Federal Court, as well as before several administrative tribunals and arbitration boards. Furthermore, Caroline advises companies and their boards of directors on risk management, ethics and corporate governance. She provides strategic advice in critical situations such as whistleblowing, security breaches, Privacy Commissioner investigations, Public Sector Integrity Commissioner investigations and class actions. In addition to her work as a lawyer, she works closely with her clients’ communications teams and public relations agencies. Before joining Blakes, Caroline was the managing partner of a boutique litigation law firm. Caroline is fluent in English and French.

Cassandra Brown

Cassandra is a Partner in the Competition, Antitrust & Foreign Investment Group at Blakes. She advises on all aspects of competition law, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, distribution practices, criminal and civil investigations, compliance, as well as foreign investment transactions under the Investment Canada Act. Her clients span a variety of industries, including energy, mining, technology, pharmaceutical, consumer products, agricultural, telecommunications, transportation, aviation, financial services, manufacturing, automotive and real estate. She has completed secondments to Coca-Cola Limited, a major international law firm based in London and the Blakes New York office. Cassandra is co-author of leading treatises including Competition Act: Commentary and Annotation; Competition and Antitrust Laws in Canada: Mergers, Joint Ventures and Competitor Collaborations, and The Foreign Investment Regulation Review (Canada Chapter), Third Edition. Cassandra is recognized as a leading lawyer in Chambers Canada: Canada's Leading Lawyers for Business 2022; Who’s Who Legal: Competition 2021 (Future Leaders – Partners) and The Legal 500 Canada 2021 (Next Generation Partner).

Catherine Beagan Flood

Cathy is the co-Practice Group Leader of the Toronto Litigation group and also leads Blakes National Cybersecurity Working Group. Cathy has appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada in 18 appeals and has appeared before the courts of every province, the Federal Courts, the Competition Tribunal and other tribunals. She litigates complex commercial and regulatory cases and defends class actions with a regulatory component. In particular, she is currently defending clients in multiple privacy, antitrust, product liability and consumer protection class actions. Cathy previously served on the Blakes Executive Committee.

Catherine Youdan

Catherine’s practice focuses on equity and debt capital market transactions, and mergers & acquisitions. She has acted for issuers and underwriters in initial public offerings, secondary offerings and private placements, and for purchasers and target companies in public company acquisitions and purchasers and vendors in asset and share purchase transactions. Catherine also has experience representing special committees in connection with M&A transactions. Catherine has experience in industries such as financial services, healthcare, consumer/retail, and real estate. Catherine also provides ongoing advice to public issuers in various industry sectors with respect to corporate governance requirements, continuous disclosure obligations and stock exchange matters.

Céline Poitras

Céline practices commercial and regulatory law with a focus on the technology, communications, media and life sciences sectors. She guides communications companies in connection with their Canadian regulatory obligations and provides advice in relation to technology-driven commercial arrangements. Céline routinely assists telecommunications, data service, broadcasting, digital media and satellite companies navigate Canada’s communications regulatory regimes. She provides practical compliance advice to communications companies and interacts with the relevant regulators in connection with licensing matters, regulatory proceedings, and annual filings. Céline also advises on a range of other regulatory matters, including in relation to online sales, product labelling, advertising and language requirements. As part of her commercial practice, Céline assists companies with the drafting and negotiation of complex commercial agreements for the licensing, distribution, commercialization and transfer of technology. She also provides support to clients in the context of corporate transactions involving significant technology, communications or intellectual property assets. Céline is fluent in French and English.

Chad Schneider

Chad focuses on corporate and securities matters, particularly in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, private equity, restructurings, corporate governance, continuous disclosure compliance. Chad has assisted buyers and acquired companies in M&A transactions involving domestic and foreign parties and complex joint venture and similar arrangements, and has extensive experience representing public issuers listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the New York Stock Exchange and the TSX Venture Exchange, as well as private companies and private equity investors. He has acted on behalf of underwriters and dealers in domestic and foreign public and private offerings of equity and debt. Chad also assists clients with general corporate and commercial matters and his practice involves a variety of industry sectors, including the oil and gas industry.

Cheryl Satin

Cheryl's practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, private equity investments and commercial arrangements, with a particular focus on the life sciences industry. She has substantial experience in negotiating and advising in connection with acquisitions and divestitures of businesses and product lines in the pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer health sectors. She also routinely acts for private equity focused on life sciences investments, and manufacturers and distributors of pharmaceuticals and medical devices in connection with their product licensing, marketing, distribution, and supply arrangements.

Chris Harris

Chris is a corporate lawyer with a practice focused on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and complex commercial arrangements. He primarily advises strategic clients and private equity investors, with a particular emphasis on all aspects of the energy value chain, including upstream oil and gas, pipelines, midstream, downstream and marketing, power and renewables, and carbon capture, storage and utilization. A substantial portion of Chris's work involves cross-border transactions. He also has significant experience in other industries and markets including technology investment, agribusiness and industrial services.

Chris Hewat

Chris practises securities and business law, with focus on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and private equity transactions. He also advises on securities regulatory and corporate governance matters. He has particular expertise in advising issuers, investment dealers and investors in the technology sector. Chris has also been involved in the development of securities regulation in Canada, having advised the Ontario Securities Commission in connection with its rules reformulation project, and the Toronto Stock Exchange in its review of rules governing listed companies.

Chris Burr

Chris' practice focuses on corporate restructuring, insolvency litigation, debt enforcement, including CCAA proceedings, complex receiverships and proposal proceedings, as well as advising on domestic and cross-border debt financing, distressed mergers & acquisitions, financial restructurings, and debtor-in-possession (DIP) financings. He regularly acts for secured creditors, court-appointed officers, debtor companies and other stakeholders in multi-party insolvency matters, with significant experience as counsel to lenders and other creditors in complex debt restructurings. Chris has taken a lead role in several important matters, both in and out of court, and is highly regarded by his peers in the legal and financial advisory community as an emerging leader.

Chris Hunter

Chris is the Practice Group Leader of the Intellectual Property group. He represents clients in the acquisition, enforcement and exploitation of all forms of intellectual property, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, industrial designs and trade secrets. His practice focuses on providing strategic advice to clients concerning their intellectual property portfolios and providing litigation support for infringement and misappropriation actions. In particular, he devotes a significant part of his practice to negotiating the intellectual property aspects of corporate mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic licensing. Chris is also a registered patent agent. He drafts and prosecutes patent applications for electrical, mechanical (including medical devices), business method, financial services (fintech), software and information-technology-related inventions and, more recently, cannabis. As a trademark agent, Chris prosecutes applications and manages brand strategy globally. He also specializes in industrial designs.

Christine Milliken

Christine's practice focuses primarily on mergers, acquisitions and divestitures and project development within the oil and gas and renewable energy industries. She has been involved in a broad range of transactions for private and public entities, including domestic and cross border M&A transactions, share and asset purchase and sale transactions, joint ventures, pipeline and midstream facility development and commercial arrangements and corporate reorganizations. Christine has significant experience advising clients with general corporate and commercial matters and all aspects of conventional and unconventional oil and gas matters, including liquefied natural gas (including all project development agreements and LNG offtake arrangements). She also advises on pipeline and other midstream project matters, share and asset purchase and sale transactions and reorganizations. Christine also has an active technology practice, assisting start-up technology companies (in various stages) with various commercial transactions (including mergers, acquisition and divestitures), private equity and venture capital investments, licensing and general commercial matters. She has a strong working knowledge of French, Cantonese and Mandarin. Christine is co-head of the Firm's Corporate Commercial group in Calgary.

Christopher DiMatteo

Christopher's practice includes complex commercial litigation and class action defence, with a focus on cybersecurity. He also practices public law, with expertise in administrative, constitutional and regulatory law. Christopher's experience includes a wide range of business disputes, contract cases, media and defamation cases, insurance law, and procurement matters. In addition, he has experience in pension matters before both the Financial Services Tribunal and the courts. Christopher has appeared before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Divisional Court, the Court of Appeal for Ontario and the Supreme Court of Canada. Before joining Blakes, Christopher was a law clerk for the Honourable Justice (now Chief Justice) Richard Wagner of the Supreme Court of Canada and for judges of the Court of Appeal for Ontario.

Claude Marseille

Claude's practice focuses on corporate and commercial litigation, class actions, and product liability. He has appeared before the courts of all levels in Québec, the Federal Court, and the Supreme Court of Canada. He is involved in commercial arbitrations and has appeared before various administrative tribunals. He represents a wide range of clients including pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers, financial institutions, franchisors, telecommunications companies, and public bodies.

Claudie Imbleau-Chagnon

Claudie has nearly 20 years of experience in infrastructure. She has worked for major law firms and with institutional investors and a public body, including as vice-president of legal affairs (investments) at a Canadian-based global real estate leader. Claudie has represented government, contractors, sponsors and lenders on project developments in a broad range of areas, including collaborative partnerships, procurement, joint-ventures, concession contracts and construction. She has experience with the life cycle of projects and has been instrumental in the delivery of an array of growth-generating projects. Examples include hospitals, power projects, transportation, maintenance of train facility centres, correctional centres, water and waste water systems, entertainment venues, professional sports facilities, life science buildings, retail redevelopments, mixed-use projects and affordable housing. Claudie also has extensive experience in cross-border transactions in the United States, Brazil, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.

Daniel Jankovic

Dan has a combined tax planning and tax disputes/litigation practice. Dan practises corporate income tax law and advises on domestic and international tax planning matters, with a particular focus on M&A, corporate reorganizations, financings, debt restructurings, resource taxation and investments by private equity and pension funds. He also advises international clients looking to invest, commence or acquire business operations in Canada, especially in the oil and gas, renewable and emerging energy, technology, infrastructure and service industry sectors. He has provided structuring advice in respect of numerous complex and customized joint venture and partnership arrangements. Dan frequently represents domestic and international clients in tax disputes with Canadian revenue authorities. His practice encompasses all stages of tax dispute resolution, from dealing with tax audits to litigating in court.

Daniel Ferreira

Daniel's practice covers all aspects of real estate transactions, with emphasis on acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures, financing and development, involving major commercial real estate properties of various classes. He is also experienced in commercial leasing, having acted for both tenants and landlords in leasing transactions, in the pharmaceutical, banking services, food and retail industries. He regularly speaks at conferences and has authored and co-authored several articles on a variety of real estate topics.

Daniel Kofman

Daniel's practice encompasses all aspects of commercial real estate, including acquisitions, dispositions, leasing, development and financing. He is regularly consulted by both foreign and domestic real estate investors and represents several banks/financial institutions and borrowers on real estate financing transactions. Daniel also acts for clients in the renewable energy and hospitality industries and has experience with developing, buying, selling and financing renewable energy projects (including solar and wind farms) and hotels.

David Kruse

David is the Practice Group Leader of the Corporate & Commercial group in Toronto. He also leads the Firm's Automotive group. His practice focuses primarily on mergers and acquisitions and corporate law, providing strategic advice on many of Canada's largest and most complex asset and share transactions. David has over 20 years of experience advising clients on complex regulated transactions. He also regularly advises foreign companies on establishing and structuring their Canadian operations. David's industries of focus include private equity, technology, financial services and sports.

David Tupper

David's practice involves all aspects of corporate/commercial litigation with an emphasis on securities law, construction law, insurance law, environmental law, and oil and gas law. He regularly appears before all levels of courts in Alberta as well as in the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal. He also maintains a considerable advisory practice in connection with environmental issues, property and liability policies, and reinsurance losses. He acts as counsel in an array of high-value and high-profile matters.

David Feldman

David is a Partner at Blakes, based in Toronto. David specializes in negotiating complex commercial arrangements relating to payments and other financial products and services, technology and digital transformation, outsourcing, and strategic partnerships. David has experience working with clients in a variety of different industries, including banking and financial services, insurance, power, oil and gas, mining, and retail.

Dufferin Harper

Duff practises in all areas of environmental law, including environmental civil litigation, defending clients charged with environmental infractions, regulatory law, and drafting environmental provisions and indemnities in commercial agreements. He routinely acts on the purchase and sale of clean fuel compliance-credits, greenhouse gas emissions offsets and credits, and other environmental attributes in regulated and voluntary markets both within Canada and internationally. He also advises on environmental due diligence and liability matters, especially pertaining to brownfield redevelopment, contaminant releases, regulatory approvals, environmental audits and transportation of dangerous goods. Duff provides strategic regulatory environmental compliance and environmental impact assessment advice to industrial clients, such as conventional oil and gas companies, mining companies, companies operating in the oil sands, and liquefied natural gas proponents. Duff has acted as lead counsel in several litigation cases involving contaminated sites and has appeared before numerous levels of courts, regulators and assessment tribunals.

Eric Goneau

Eric's aviation practice focuses on a broad range of matters related to aviation finance, leasing and regulatory compliance. Eric also acts as Secretary for the Canadian Bar Association’s Air & Space Law Section. Eric is a member of the Association des juristes d’expression française de l’Ontario, and co-teaches an intensive business law class in the Law Practice Program (French) at the University of Ottawa.

Eric Moncik

Eric's practice focuses primarily on public and private financings, and mergers and acquisitions. He also provides ongoing advice on general securities and corporate law matters to a variety of issuer clients. Eric has acted as counsel to issuers, underwriters and selling shareholders in a significant number of public financings and private placements of equity and debt securities. He has also acted for purchasers and vendors in a wide range of asset and share purchase transactions, and for many issuers in connection with statutory arrangements, take-over bids and reorganizations. These transactions have primarily involved REITs as well as issuers in the financial services, communications and media and technology sectors.

Fiona Legere

Fiona is a dynamic litigator who provides strategic advice on intellectual property (IP) matters to businesses in the life sciences, telecommunications and technology industries. She advises on IP strategy, patent and Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) proceedings, and regulatory, trademark and copyright issues. Fiona has a significant trial and appellate litigation practice, focusing almost exclusively on complex commercial intellectual-property litigation. Fiona is a trusted advisor to a number of the world’s largest pharmaceutical and technology companies. She has managed and coordinated multi-jurisdictional patent enforcement actions and successfully acted as counsel in groundbreaking patent cases, including the first biologics case and non-practising entity (NPE) case in Canada. Fiona has a record of success in many significant cases before the Ontario Superior Court, Ontario Court of Appeal, the Federal Court of Canada, and the Federal Court of Appeal.

Garth Anderson

Garth focuses on the acquisition, development and financing of commercial real estate and infrastructure projects. He advises numerous Canadian and foreign-based institutional clients, including banks, pension funds, life insurance companies, real estate investment trusts, utility companies and Crown corporations, in connection with the acquisition, disposition, leasing and financing of their commercial and industrial properties. Garth is qualified as an expert witness in the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta regarding solicitors’ standard of conduct in real estate transactions. For his infrastructure practice, Garth assists clients in structuring major design-build-finance-operate projects in the transportation sector as public-private partnerships, and on the real estate and construction aspects of various energy-related infrastructure projects.

Geoff Adair

Geoff specializes in corporate and commercial litigation. He has experience advising clients from a wide range of industries, with a special focus on complex construction disputes, negligent design and manufacture litigation, financial services litigation, and oil and gas litigation. Geoff has significant trial, appellate, and arbitration experience. He has served as counsel before the Alberta Court of Justice, the Court of King's Bench of Alberta, the Court of Appeal of Alberta, the Federal Court of Canada and the Federal Court of Appeal. Geoff also has experience in alternative dispute resolution, including arbitration, mediation, and judicial dispute resolution.

Geoffrey Belsher

Geoff is Chair of Blakes and one of Canada’s leading M&A, corporate governance, and corporate finance lawyers. As Chair, he is responsible for the Firm’s overall strategic vision, market strategies and significant client relationships. In his practice, Geoff advises Canadian, U.S. and international public and private companies, investment dealers, private equity, venture capital and alternative investment funds, and family offices with respect to Canadian law matters. Geoff frequently acts as special counsel to boards of directors and special committees in M&A, governance, shareholder activism and internal investigation matters. He advises clients operating in a range of industries, including financial services, mining, energy, media, life sciences, technology and gaming. Geoff has worked in the Firm’s Toronto, Vancouver and New York offices.

Gordon McKee

Gord is a leading lawyer in class action and product liability defence, and life sciences product liability litigation. He has defended leading multinational manufacturers and their Canadian affiliates in class actions, mass torts and serious personal injury claims across the country involving a variety of products including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, medical devices, automotive equipment and fire protection systems, consumer protection matters, toxic torts and Competition Act matters. Gord has considerable class action trial experience, and manages litigation nationally for some of the world's largest manufacturers of pharmaceutical medicines, medical devices, consumer goods and heavy equipment. Gord leads the Blakes Class Actions team.

Greg Umbach

Greg is recommended by domestic and international property owners, developers, investors and lenders in all matters relating to real estate in British Columbia, Canada. He has experience in transactions involving buying, selling, leasing, financing and development of commercial real estate relating to shopping centres, hotels, apartment buildings, office buildings, industrial properties and resource development in power and mining projects. Greg also acts for developers of commercial developments and large projects. He also provides day-to-day legal advice for landlords and tenants.

Henry Bian

Henry provides strategic intellectual property advice for a wide variety of clients, including cannabis clients, in the acquisition, enforcement and exploitation of all forms of intellectual property, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, industrial designs, trade secrets and plant breeders’ rights. He is also a registered patent agent, and assists his clients in obtaining patents in areas such as synthetic biology, extraction and purification processes, chemical synthesis, consumer packaged goods, and software patents. He is also a co-inventor on a patent family related to the use of the rare cannabinoid cannabichromene (CBC). Henry previously worked as an in-house counsel at Cronos Group Inc., a NASDAQ-listed cannabis company, where he provided strategic advice on advertising issues, IP licensing, evaluating IP risks, protecting technologies and brands in a complex and dynamic regulatory environment. He worked extensively with the research and development team there and has gained extensive technical insights into science of cannabis, including biosynthesis, plant breeding and propagation techniques, chemical synthesis and extraction, product development and formulation (such as vapes and edibles), and device design. Henry was a featured speaker at the Global Cannabis Intellectual Property Symposium 2023, where he spoke on intellectual property issues facing in-house counsel.

Holly Reid

Holly has over 20 years of experience as a specialist in employment law, providing timely and practical advice to clients in respect of all laws relating to workplace issues. Holly regularly advises large private and publicly listed companies on matters of significant legal and reputational importance, including the negotiation of executive contracts, transitions within executive leadership teams, class action and other risks relating to changes to compensation and benefit plans, and incidents of sexual harassment, workplace violence and bullying. Holly provides advice on complex accommodation requests and disputes and has a particular expertise in accessibility law. Holly regularly coordinates employment law advice among employment lawyers in various Canadian jurisdictions for clients with employment law needs across Canada. She speaks and provides client training sessions on executive compensation, human rights, accessibility and employment law topics. As an advocate, Holly regularly represents employers in wrongful dismissal actions and human rights applications. A significant portion of Holly’s practice is devoted to advising on the employment and labour aspects of complex corporate transactions, including the drafting and negotiation of purchase agreements, retention and transaction bonus agreements, and commercial and employment restrictive covenant agreements. Holly also advises on post-closing human resources integration matters.

Iris Fischer

Iris’ practice includes complex commercial litigation, internal and government investigations and white-collar matters, constitutional and other public and administrative law cases, and competition and regulatory matters. Iris is a leading media & defamation lawyer, with related experience litigating privacy and access to information matters. Canadian and international media organizations frequently rely on Iris’s expertise in free expression and court openness matters, including defending libel claims, opposing publication bans and getting access to court documents. More generally, she specializes in cases in which online speech intersects with commercial, privacy or other interests. She also regularly deals with evolving laws around social media, technology, and online information. Iris represents multinational clients on government and internal investigations, including in fraud, anti-corruption and Competition Act matters, as well as in matters involving public-sector laws, such as conflict of interest, lobbying and elections finance legislation. She also advises clients in a range of industries on domestic and international anti-corruption legislation and related compliance programs, and assists with anti-corruption due diligence for commercial transactions. Iris is the co-Practice Group Leader of the Toronto Litigation & Dispute Resolution group, leads the Blakes Media & Defamation practice and is also the co-leader of the Firm’s Public Sector Crisis & Compliance group.

Jacqueline Shinfield

Jacqueline is co-lead of Blakes Financial Services Regulatory group. Jacqueline's practice focuses on all aspects of regulatory compliance in the retail financial services and payments industry at both the federal and provincial levels. She provides advice to regulated financial institutions, non-bank institutions, pay day loan companies, money services businesses, foreign exchange dealers, mobile payments service providers, and digital currency exchanges. She has extensive experience providing advice in respect of Canada's anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing legislation and Canadian sanctions legislation.

Jake Gilbert

Jake has a top tier M&A and commercial practice and advises domestic and international clients on domestic and cross-border deals and complex commercial arrangements. Jake's primary area of focus is financial services, and has advised on deals and collaborations in the following industry sectors: banking, credit cards/payments, loyalty, insurance distribution and manufacturing, wealth management and mutual funds and has worked on some of the largest Canadian deals in these sectors. He also regularly advises private equity clients on technology deals and also advises clients in the consumer goods, pharma, manufacturing and gaming sectors.

Jason MacIntyre

Jason's practice focuses primarily on secured lending and structured finance transactions, with a particular emphasis on aviation, infrastructure and defence. He is Chair of the Firm’s Aviation & Aerospace group. Jason has represented various aircraft lessors, manufacturers and financiers on aircraft finance and commercial aviation matters. He regularly advises clients on aviation regulatory matters including Transport Canada audits and certifications as well as Canadian Transportation Agency matters relating to foreign investments. He has also represented both lenders and borrowers in domestic and international transactions, which have included asset-based lending, project finance, public-private partnerships and both public and private debt and capital markets offerings. He co-leads the Firm’s Drones initiative, advising clients on investment, certification and other regulatory matters.

Jean-Simon Lamarre

Jean-Simon's practice encompasses a vast array of commercial and transactional operations in real estate law. His practice covers transactions such as sales and acquisitions of properties and portfolios, real estate financings, real estate and project developments, infrastructure projects, project financing, commercial leasing, and all related matters. He also assists and advises clients on various projects and ventures, such as co-ownerships, joint ventures and real estate investment funds, and their creation, structuring and governance. Jean-Simon acts for a diverse range of leading clients, including private and public companies, institutions and funds. He has acted in some of the most sizeable real estate transactions in Quebec over the last several years. Jean-Simon also regularly advises clients in the transportation, energy and hospitality sectors in connection with their real estate operations and developments.

Jeff Bakker

Jeff has a strong solutions-orientated practice and has represented clients in corporate and securities law, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, corporate governance and continuous disclosure compliance. Acting on numerous domestic and cross-border transactions, Jeff represents both publicly traded issuers listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the New York Stock Exchange and the TSX Venture Exchange and private companies. As a trusted adviser, Jeff has acted on behalf of issuers, underwriters and dealers in both public and private M&A transactions as well as offerings of equity, debt and hybrid securities, including sustainable finance structures, as well as assisting clients with corporate governance matters and continuous disclosure compliance obligations with a focus on sustainability and inclusion related disclosure and governance.

Jeff Galway

Jeff is a senior trial and appellate counsel whose practice focuses on corporate/commercial, securities, competition and pension law matters. A significant aspect of Jeff's practice involves class action defence. He also regularly acts as counsel in constitutional and administrative/regulatory proceedings. Jeff has appeared as counsel before courts in five Canadian provinces as well as before the Federal Court of Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada and various administrative tribunals.

Jeffrey Sommers

Jeff has practised exclusively in the area of pensions, benefits and executive compensation for over 25 years. He frequently advises on pension and benefit issues arising in the context of corporate transactions, loan agreements, insolvencies and compliance disputes. His practice also focuses on pension investment, governance and fiduciary matters. Jeff has extensive experience assisting clients with pension plan mergers, as well as de-risking strategies, including buy-in and buy-out annuities and longevity insurance arrangements. Jeff's clients include both public and private sector plan sponsors and administrators and a wide range of financial institutions and service providers.

Jeffrey Trossman

Serves as Senior counsel in the Blakes Tax group; previously led the group as National Practice Group Leader for over 15 years. Over his career, Jeffrey has provided strategic tax advice and assisted clients in managing tax audits and resolving tax disputes. Jeffrey is widely known and respected by advisers and government officials in the Canadian and international tax communities. Writes/speaks frequently for the Canadian Tax Foundation, C.D. Howe Institute, University of Toronto, Osgoode Hall Law School; Editor - Perspectives on Tax Law & Policy.

Jeffrey Shafer

Jeffrey practises in all areas of Canadian domestic and cross-border income tax law, with a particular focus on mergers and acquisitions, international transfer pricing, private equity investment, domestic and international corporate and trust reorganizations, and the taxation of various investment vehicles. His practice also includes acting for taxpayers at all levels in the tax appeals process.

Jeffrey Merrick

Jeff is the Chair of the Infrastructure group and the head of the Vancouver Real Estate group. He has expertise in developing, buying, selling, leasing and financing major commercial real estate and infrastructure projects. He also has expertise in P3s and AFPs, including all aspects of major design, build, finance and operate projects working with private partners and governments. Jeff is also the Managing Partner of Blakes Vancouver Office.

Jeffrey Lloyd

Jeff is widely recognized as one of Canada’s leading M&A lawyers. He has advised purchasers, targets and special committees on many of Canada’s most significant M&A transactions, and has extensive experience in both negotiated and unsolicited transactions. He also advises public companies on corporate governance, shareholder activism, restructurings and securities law matters, and in connection with public offerings of equity and debt securities. He has experience in a wide range of industries, including mining, media and telecommunications, real estate, financial services, power generation and retail/consumer products.

Jeremy Forgie

Jeremy advises some of Canada’s largest pension plans and pension funds managers on plan and fund governance, pension fund investment, divestiture, acquisition, funding and de-risking issues. He works with numerous private- and public-sector employers, Canadian and foreign consulting firms and financial institutions on cross-border, pension, tax, trust and benefit issues. Jeremy also advises several large professional sports leagues on their players, officials and other employee pension, benefit and cross border compensation plans.

Joanna Myszka

Joanna focuses primarily on domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, share and asset sale transactions, and general corporate matters. She takes part in several aspects of managing the M&A process, from due diligence to transaction closing, including drafting and negotiating the purchase agreement and other transaction documents. In addition, Joanna advises companies on a wide range of commercial transactions involving information technology and intellectual property, including relating to the acquisition, licensing, development and disposition of intellectual property assets. She assists companies in the drafting and negotiating of license agreements, development agreements, implementation agreements and other technology-related agreements. Joanna also has an active life sciences practice and has worked for some of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies on a wide array of operational matters, including the drafting and negotiation of clinical trial agreements, product listing agreements and consulting and advisory board agreements as well as the establishment of patient support programs, among others.

Joe McArthur

Joe practices as counsel in domestic and international arbitration proceeding and Canadian court proceedings. As an experienced trial and arbitration counsel he has represented both public and private companies in various industries, including mining, infrastructure, utilities, financial services and technology. In addition to his arbitration counsel work Joe sits regularly as arbitrator in domestic and international arbitrations.

John Hutmacher

John works on acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures, financing, development, condominium and leasing transactions involving major Canadian commercial real properties, including many of the country's most prominent retail, office and industrial developments. He is particularly experienced in helping U.S. and European clients and lawyers understand the legal and practical differences in conducting real estate transactions in Canada. John is Co-Practice Group Leader of the Firm's Real Estate Group, made up of approximately 40 lawyers.

John Wilkin

John's practice focuses on domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions and capital markets transactions for public companies, and advising Canadian and international companies on a wide range of corporate governance and securities law compliance matters. He is regularly engaged by special committees of public companies to advise on complex change of control transactions and also advises on alternative forms of financings including royalty and streaming transactions. John has deep experience in the mining and power and utilities industries, and an active international practice advising clients in Australia, Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America.

John-Paul Bogden

John-Paul (J-P) is a partner in the Blakes Corporate group and focuses on M&A and private equity transactions. He serves as regular M&A counsel to leading financial and strategic acquirers in Canada, the US and abroad, and is also frequently engaged as special sellside M&A counsel in competitive auction processes. A significant portion of his practice involves working with private equity funds and their portfolio companies. J-P currently serves as co-head of the national Private Equity group, co-head of the Vancouver corporate group and as a member of the Firm’s compensation committee.

Jonathan Kahn

Jonathan is Chair of the Blakes national Environmental group and is widely regarded as one of Canada's leading environmental lawyers. He has, for more than 30 years, provided representation and advice on a broad range of environmental and natural resources law issues. Jonathan represents clients on the purchase, sale, and remediation of contaminated land, mining regulation and permitting; management of natural resources; the transportation, chemicals management; handling and disposal of hazardous substances; environmental permitting; air, water and waste regulation; lender liability; ESG and sustainability and other environmental matters. He has represented corporations in significant environmental prosecutions, acted for proponents in major mining, renewable energy and infrastructure projects and provided environmental law advice on significant transactions. Jonathan is immediate past Chair of the American Bar Association's Section of Environment, Energy and Resources Law (the first non-American to serve on the Executive Committee), and is a former Chair of the Canadian Bar Association National Environment, Energy and Resources Law Section.

Jonathan Bitran

As a Partner in Blakes’ Competition, Antitrust & Foreign Investment group, Jonathan is known for his expertise in advising clients on competition, antitrust and Investment Canada Act review clearances for their mergers and acquisitions. He has advised on some of the most complex and high-stakes domestic and global mergers across a diverse array of industries, including retail, energy, communications, consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, and building products. Jonathan is also a trusted advisor to those seeking advice regarding compliance with the Competition Act (such as trade practices, advertising, competitor collaborations) and the Investment Canada Act, including national security. Additionally, he acts for clients in investigations and litigation relating to the Competition Act. He recently completed a two-year secondment at the Canadian Competition Bureau with the Competition Bureau Legal Services of the Department of Justice. While there, he litigated major merger cases in the telecommunications sector and waste management industry on behalf of the Commissioner of Competition. This is experience is invaluable in helping clients navigate the regulatory landscape.

Joseph Grignano

Joseph practises real estate law with a specialization in commercial leasing matters. He acts for several prominent owners, developers and tenants, and has worked on transactions that have been awarded "Deal of the Year" honours by the National Association of Office and Industrial Properties (NAIOP). He has also worked on transactions that have been reported as the largest commercial lease transactions in the city of Toronto for the year in which they were completed.

Julie Soloway

Practice Area: Julie is Co-Chair of the Competition, Antitrust & Foreign Investment group. Julie provides advice on all aspects of competition law with a particular emphasis on cross-border merger transactions. She is also a leading expert on securing approvals under the Investment Canada Act for foreign investors in Canada’s key industries. Julie is ranked in all leading directories as one of the top competition lawyers in Canada, and Global Competition Review consistently recognizes her as one of the world’s top 100 Women in Antitrust. Clients value her concise and pragmatic approach, praising her “truly international practice” and “fantastic legal mind,” and further commenting that “she is a real star – commercial, clever and knows her way around the authority”. Julie is co-author of the ground-breaking book: Leading the Way: Canadian Women in the Law (LexisNexis), which documents the inspiring journey of 50 Canadian women who, like Julie, have lead the way for women in the legal profession and shaped Canadian society while promoting greater diversity.

Karishma Prasanna

Karishma’s practice focuses on large-scale complex public procurement, infrastructure and construction projects and she advises clients on the development, preparation and ongoing administration of public tenders and complex procurement processes, trade agreement compliance, and the development and negotiation of contract agreements for the design, construction, financing and maintenance of infrastructure. Karishma acts for clients in a wide range of sectors, including transit and transportation, civil infrastructure, water and wastewater, health-care services and information technology and has extensive expertise in the procurement of infrastructure projects and alternative finance and procurement projects across Canada. Karishma has played a key role on numerous high-profile procurement and infrastructure projects across Canada, including Metrolinx’s GO Rail Expansion Project and Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx on the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension Project – Stations, Rail and Systems.

Kathleen Keilty

Kathleen advises on corporate, securities and mining laws, with a focus on corporate finance and mergers & acquisition transactions. She has extensive experience acting for companies involved in mineral exploration, development and production, who have projects throughout the world. She has a deep knowledge of alternative finance arrangements in the mining sector, including metal streams, property options, earn-in agreements and royalties. Kathleen is also frequently engaged to assist in negotiating joint venture and co-ownership agreements in the mining sector. Kathleen is recognized as a leading lawyer in The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, IFLR1000, The Legal 500 Canada, The Best Lawyers in Canada, and the Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada.

Katie Slipp

Katie advises and represents oil and gas developers, pipeline companies, electric generation and transmission companies and renewable energy companies in respect of regulatory and environmental approvals and compliance issues, public consultation matters, Indigenous issues, and surface land rights and compensation matters. Katie has assisted clients before provincial regulators in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories, the Canada Energy Regulator and a Joint Review Panel, as well as all levels of courts in Alberta and at the Federal Court of Appeal.

Keith Marlowe

Keith has over 14 years' experience in corporate/commercial litigation with a special focus on all aspects of class actions, product liability disputes, insurance coverage and defence, and franchise disputes. In addition to his work on insurance disputes, Keith also maintains an active advisory practice in connection with the procurement and renewal of insurance programs for clients, including conducting independent program reviews regarding the comprehensiveness and appropriateness of insurance coverage and recommended enhancements. Keith has been listed in several legal directories for his litigation work, including The Best Lawyers in Canada, Benchmark Canada, and Thomson Reuters. Keith has appeared as lead counsel at all levels of court in Alberta, including on trials, appeals, and chambers applications. He has also appeared as lead counsel in Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Ontario. Prior to joining Blakes in 2012, Keith was an associate at a leading firm in the United States. While there, Keith appeared as counsel in New York (state and federal courts) and Texas (federal courts). Keith has extensive litigation expertise in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario in the defence of class action claims. Keith also regularly advises clients about risk management and class action avoidance. In 2020, Keith successfully defeated a proposed class proceeding in Alberta prior to certification in a decision that The Advocate’s Society named as one of their “Top 10” class action decisions of 2020. Keith received his King's Counsel designation in Alberta in 2022.

Keith Byblow

Keith's experience encompasses a diverse range of corporate commercial matters. In the area of mergers and acquisitions, he advises across a broad scope of industries. These include the oil and gas and power sectors in the context of domestic transactions, inbound investments by strategics and private equity firms, as well as in the context of insolvencies and restructurings. Keith also has a range of experience with the extraction, processing and sale of natural-gas liquids, carbon capture sequestration and storage, and hydrogen production. In addition, Keith has advised on some of the most significant and strategic transactions. He has also been counsel on the structure of numerous complex and customized joint venture and partnership arrangements. These deals involved facilitating the acquisition, development and financing of and the investment in various infrastructure projects and assets in upstream and midstream oil and gas energy transportation, including pipeline and crude by rail, and natural gas and renewable power generation and transmission. Keith is the Practice Group Leader of the Firm's Corporate Commercial group in Calgary which has particular expertise in the renewable and emerging energy and resource sectors.

Kelly Bourassa

Kelly is an experienced insolvency lawyer who advises clients in all aspects of complex corporate restructuring, including both the litigation and commercial aspects of workouts, reorganizations, corporate arrangements, receiverships and other enforcement of security, both domestic and cross-border. For over 20 years, Kelly has acted as strategic counsel to financial institutions, debtors, court-officers and other stakeholders across a broad range of industries. Kelly is recognized by her peers and various publications as a leading lawyer in restructuring and insolvency in Canada, and a market leader in Calgary and nationally.

Kevin Rusli

Kevin is the Managing Partner of the New York office for Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP. Kevin’s practice encompasses Canadian cross-border corporate and securities law and advising on market-leading transactions and regulatory developments. Drawing on his extensive experience of business issues and market practices across industries, Kevin regularly acts as trusted legal adviser to numerous Canadian and U.S. investment dealers, private equity sponsors, asset managers, banks, credit unions, pension plans and corporations on a variety of cross-border corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions matters, including leveraged buyouts, equity investments, co-investments, secondaries, restructurings and fund formation. Prior to assuming his role in the New York office, Kevin was the Practice Group Leader of the Capital Markets group in Toronto.

Kevin MacDonald

Kevin is a Partner with the Competition, Antitrust & Foreign Investment group, widely regarded as one of the leading competition law practices in Canada. He advises on all aspects of competition law, including mergers and acquisitions, marketing and distribution practices, abuse of dominance, criminal and civil investigations, and compliance matters. He also advises on foreign investment merger review under the Investment Canada Act and is co-author of The Investment Canada Act: Commentary and Annotation (LexisNexis, 2021). Kevin has advised international and Canadian clients on a wide variety of competition law matters in a broad range of industries, including insurance, chemicals, technology, oil and gas, financial services, consumer products, and healthcare.

Kiran Patel

Kiran has a broad commercial litigation practice with a particular focus in the areas of restructuring, construction and complex corporate/commercial disputes. He has been involved in a variety of cases including litigation relating to major construction projects, technology, shareholder disputes, public procurement processes, performance management, supply contracts, transportation, leasing, competition and securities class actions. Kiran has represented clients at all levels of courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as before administrative tribunals and international commercial arbitration panels. Prior to joining Blakes, Kiran spent three years as a management consultant at a global consulting firm, where he provided strategic advice to clients in a variety of industries. Kiran uses his commercial experience to deliver practical and timely advice that is aligned with clients' overall legal and business objectives.

Kristopher Simard

Kris specializes in capital markets transactions, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and private equity transactions. Kris has extensive experience representing publicly-listed and private issuers and dealers in domestic and cross-border equity and debt capital markets transactions, utilizing a wide variety of products and transaction structures, including project financing and sustainable finance structures. Kris also regularly represents public and private acquirors and target companies and special committees in domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, including plans of arrangement, mergers and take-over bids. Kris also represents private equity funds and their portfolio companies with buyout, investment, add-on and exit transactions. Kris also regularly advises issuers on general corporate and securities law and ESG-related matters, including corporate governance and compliance with continuous disclosure obligations and stock exchange policies.

Kurt Sarno

Kurt is the Co-Leader of the Firm’s Private Equity Group and the co-author of the Firm’s Canadian Private Equity Deal Study. Kurt specializes in mergers and acquisitions, private equity and joint ventures. He advises buyers, sellers and targets on domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions; private equity investors and sponsors on buy-outs, investments and exits; and businesses across various industries on complex joint ventures and strategic corporate and commercial matters. Kurt is the relationship partner for a number of the Firm’s most significant private equity clients. He regularly leads large, multi-jurisdictional and interdisciplinary teams in executing complex, and often cross-border transactions.

Ky Kvisle

Ky's practice focuses on commercial transactions and project development, primarily focusing on energy and natural resources. He works extensively on power related matters, including the full life cycle of numerous types of development and operational generation projects, including natural gas, wind, solar, hydro and biomass. In addition to his work in the power sector, Ky frequently works on other matters in the energy transition, oil and gas, midstream, agriculture, petrochemical, technology and mining sectors. His experience includes working on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, power purchase agreements, commodities trading and derivatives agreements, carbon emissions and offset trading, EPC and supply chain agreements, ESG matters, corporate reorganizations, project and acquisition financings, insolvency and distressed asset transactions, and infrastructure development and operational agreements. As an associate, Ky spent time seconded to the Firm's offices in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. During that time, he acted for Canadian companies with investments in the Middle East as well as some of the largest enterprises based in the region. Prior to joining Blakes, Ky obtained industry experience working in the legal department of a large Canadian-based international oil and gas company.

Lana Finney

Lana is an accomplished environmental lawyer, litigator and a certified specialist in environmental law. She advises clients on environmental considerations in acquisition and sale transactions, provides strategic solutions relating to contaminated sites and remediation, and helps to navigate the assessment, permit and environmental approval processes. Her experience also includes advising Canadian and international companies on representation and warranty insurance in transactions. Lana regularly defends clients charged with environmental and regulatory offences under federal and provincial legislation, appeals remediation orders to the Ontario Land Tribunal (formerly the Environmental Review Tribunal), and regularly defends and prosecutes environmental litigation claims by landlords, tenants and property owners before the Ontario courts. An additional focus of Lana’s practice is on renewable-energy projects and public-private partnerships (PPPs). She has extensive experience in providing specialized environmental and regulatory advice related to project agreements, and related documentation, in a broad range of project and infrastructure mandates, the vast majority of which involve brownfield sites.

Lars Olthafer

Lars advises and represents upstream oil and gas producers, pipeline and midstream companies, and electrical generation and transmission companies on regulatory and environmental compliance and facility approval processes, tolls and tariffs, public and aboriginal consultation, and land rights acquisition and compensation, in the context of both provincially and federally regulated projects. Lars regularly appears before energy and utilities boards and commissions in Alberta and B.C. (including the Canada Energy Regulator) as well as all levels of the Alberta and Federal Courts.

Laura Cundari

Laura is an experienced advocate, appearing as lead counsel at all levels of court in Canada, as well as before arbitral and administrative tribunals. She has extensive experience litigating and arbitrating disputes in the energy, mining, cannabis, hospitality, entertainment, technology and infrastructure sectors. Laura also regularly advises or acts as dispute resolution counsel regarding disputes in the private equity and investment fund sector. Laura is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) and has extensive expertise in the arbitration of complex domestic and international disputes. She was appointed in 2021 by the Government of British Columbia to serve a five-year term as a roster member for BC's Bid Protest Mechanism and Dispute Resolution panels, which were established under the New West Partnership Trade Agreement and the Canadian Free Trade Agreement. Although she primarily acts as arbitration counsel, she occasionally serves as an independent neutral and has been appointed to the rosters of several arbitral institutions. Laura is co-chair of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR)'s Canada Advisory Board, co-lead of the North American Group of the Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Center, a member of ICDR's Canada Advisory Committee and an ICC Canada Arbitration Committee member. She also sits on the board of CanArbWeek. At Blakes, Laura is co-chair of the Vancouver Student Committee and past chair of the Vancouver Women@Blakes Committee. She also sits on the Firm's Partnership Committee.

Liam Churchill

Liam's practice focuses on cross-border and domestic mergers and acquisition and capital markets transactions. He advises Canadian and foreign companies on acquisitions, dispositions and strategic investments, public financings and private placements, and corporate governance and securities law compliance matters. Liam has deep experience across a variety of industries such as metals and mining, financial services, pharmaceuticals, technology and utilities. In recent years, he has acted for producers, investors and potential acquirers in the growing battery-metals space. His recent experience includes acting for First Quantum Minerals on its C$1.55 billion bought deal offering of common shares and for the agent in the C$575 million private placement of common shares by Ivanhoe Mines. In addition, he has acted for investors and potential acquirers of exploration-, development- and production-stage companies with copper, graphite and lithium and other projects, in addition to precious-metals producers. Liam also has extensive experience advising cross-listed issuers on Canadian considerations in the context of transactions.

Linc Rogers

Linc acts as a principal adviser to key stakeholders in some of Canada's most complex domestic and cross-border restructurings and distressed acquisitions. He is experienced in complex corporate reorganizations, financial restructurings, distressed M&A and debtor-in-possession financings. His clients include leading private equity and hedge funds, large commercial lenders, multinational corporations and prominent advisory firms acting in various court-appointed capacities.

Linda Tu

Linda's practice focuses on the areas of corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and investment funds. She advises on general corporate matters, public and private offering transactions, disclosure requirements and corporate governance matters. Linda has acted for public and private companies, underwriters, institutional and strategic investors and investment dealers in a wide range of industry sectors, including mining, agriculture, retail, financial services, technology, cannabis and renewable energy. Prior to joining Blakes, Linda practised in the Toronto office of another national firm, providing corporate and securities law advice, and completed a secondment with the Ontario Securities Commission. Linda also speaks Mandarin Chinese.

Lindsay Balson

Lindsay's practice covers a broad range of transactional and commercial matters, with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and pension fund investments. She advises clients on all aspects of complex corporate transactions, including strategic mergers, divestitures, minority investments, and cross-border transactions. Lindsay routinely provides advice to pension funds and other institutional investor clients on their private equity, infrastructure, real estate, hedge fund and other investments. In addition to her transactional work, Lindsay's experience includes advising clients on all aspects of their corporate and commercial arrangements, including reorganizations and other corporate restructurings, and complex shareholder, partnership, joint venture, and other commercial agreements. Lindsay has represented domestic and international clients in the life sciences, energy, technology, manufacturing, food, beverage and agribusiness, and retail sectors, among others. She has completed a secondment to the head office of one of the Firm's large retail clients, where she worked on a wide variety of corporate, commercial and compliance matters.

Lindsay Rowell

Lindsay's practice involves all aspects of commercial litigation and arbitration with an emphasis on contract, construction, environmental and energy disputes. Lindsay regularly acts for clients in matters at all levels of court in Alberta. She also represents clients in regulatory proceedings, including before the Alberta Energy Regulator and the Alberta Securities Commission, and in matters before the Supreme Court of Canada. Lindsay is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb). She regularly advises clients regarding domestic and international arbitration and has particular expertise in arbitrations involving major projects and the construction and oil and gas industries.

Marianne Smith

Marianne has over 20 years of experience in the areas of public procurement, public infrastructure, construction and public-private partnerships. She advises clients on the development, preparation and ongoing administration of public tenders and procurement processes, and the development and negotiation of commercial agreements for the design, construction, financing and maintenance of infrastructure. Marianne is a leading expert on the procurement chapters of the trade agreements to which Canada is a party and is routinely called upon by clients to conduct in-house training on best practices in managing procurement processes in Canada. Marianne acts for domestic and international clients in a wide range of sectors, including transit and transportation, civil infrastructure, roads and bridges, water and wastewater, health-care services, information technology, gaming, energy and mining. She also regularly acts for both procuring entities and bidders with respect to conducting a successful procurement process, fairness issues, mitigating procurement risk and avoiding compliance issues. In particular, Marianne has expertise in the procurement of mega infrastructure development projects and alternative finance and procurement projects across multiple jurisdictions, including municipal, provincial, federal and international and has been at the forefront of many municipal PPP projects. Marianne is leading the Blakes team on a number of major projects including the City of Calgary’s Green Line LRT Project, Metrolinx’s GO Rail Expansion Project, the City of Toronto’s F.G. Gardiner Expressway Rehabilitation Project, and Infrastructure Ontario on the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension Project.

Marie-Hélène Constantin

Marie-Hélène regularly provides advice in relation to marketing and advertising and has developed expertise on issues relating to e-commerce, including consumer protection issues arising in online sales, as well as electronic documents, privacy, antispam, and intellectual property matters, and the distribution and marketing of regulated products and services. Marie-Hélène regularly advises organizations with respect to compliance with Canadian legal requirements, including those specific to the province of Quebec. Doing business in Quebec raises a variety of unique issues, including in relation to the particularities of Quebec civil law and to compliance with French language requirements set out in Quebec’s Charter of the French Language, which extend to advertising through websites, social media, signage or other means. Quebec’s regulatory regime also imposes specific requirements with respect to publicity contests, advertising directed at children and to the marketing and advertising of certain regulated products or services. In the context of her practice, Marie-Hélène regularly advises organizations with respect to compliance with these requirements. Her practice also involves drafting complex commercial agreements involving the development, transfer, licensing, testing, supply, marketing and distribution of technology, including information technology, biotechnology and other products.

Mark Johnson

Mark’s practice focuses primarily on major power, infrastructure and public-private partnership projects, and related joint ventures, investments, acquisitions and dispositions. He advises clients on all aspects of design, build, finance and operate/maintain projects through all stages of procurement, construction, operations, secondary market transactions and refinancing. He has led significant transactions in a variety of industry sectors and asset classes, including social and defence infrastructure, transportation, nuclear, clean hydrogen, renewables, battery storage, manufacturing and telecommunications. Mark has extensive experience acting for domestic and international clients on a full range of commercial matters, including procurement processes, offtake agreements, engineering, procurement and construction agreements, major equipment supply agreements, and operations and maintenance agreements. Mark has also worked as in-house counsel on long-term secondments with a Canadian resource company and an international infrastructure developer. Prior to joining Blakes, Mark was law clerk to The Honourable Madam Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Mark Morrison, K.C.

Mark is the National Practice Group Leader of the Business Crimes, Investigations & Compliance group. He regularly leads international internal investigations and defends clients faced with government investigations and charges on white-collar, anti-corruption and regulatory enforcement matters.

Mark Tonkovich

Mark Tonkovich’s practice focuses exclusively on resolving Canadian tax disputes. He represents many of Canada’s and the world’s largest and most sophisticated businesses in tax-related civil litigation, administrative appeals, audit defence, and in proactively managing tax dispute risks. Mark has successfully acted for taxpayers at all levels of court, with the Federal Court of Appeal describing his work as "exemplary" in a 2013 judicial review application. He draws on Blakes' top-tier national tax practice to develop and execute comprehensive and practical strategies for resolving tax disputes as efficiently and favourably as possible, both within and beyond the courtroom. Mark frequently writes and presents on tax issues for leading professional and industry organizations. He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Tax Litigation, and he previously chaired each of the Tax Court Bench and Bar Committee and the Ontario Bar Association’s Taxation Law Section. He has written dozens of articles on Canadian tax matters, including in the peer-reviewed Canadian Tax Journal and the National Journal of Constitutional Law. Earlier in his career, Mark served as an appellate judicial clerk and as a tax litigator with the Department of Justice. He is recognized in every major Canadian tax/tax litigation lawyer ranking.

Matthew Liben

With over 20 years’ experience, Matthew practises commercial litigation with a focus on insurance and reinsurance, construction and real estate, restructuring and insolvency, and class actions. He has appeared before the Superior Court of Quebec, the Quebec Court of Appeal and the Federal Court of Canada. Matthew represents insurance companies and syndicates in North America and Europe, all well as major policyholders, on matters ranging from complex insurance coverage disputes to liability defenc and subrogated actions. In the construction and real estate sector, Matthew represents developers and property owners with respect to alleged latent defects, construction defects, servitudes and other property issues. Regarding restructuring and insolvency, Matthew acts for debtors and creditors in major reorganizations and bankruptcy proceedings under the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act and the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. Matthew has also acted in numerous international commercial arbitration matters, pursuant to the ICC, UNCITRAL and AAA arbitration rules. Matthew is fluent in English and in French.

Matthew Merkley

Matthew is the co-head of Blakes Toronto's Corporate Governance practice. He represents clients in a wide variety of capital markets transactions and securities regulatory matters. He has acted for issuers and underwriters in initial public offerings and other Canadian and cross-border public offerings of equity and debt. He also has expertise in advising public issuers and their boards on various matters, including with respect to: governance, compensation and disclosure; normal course, program share repurchase and substantial issuer bids; and dual-class share structures.

Meaghan Parry

Meaghan’s practice focuses on large-scale complex public procurement, infrastructure and construction projects. She has over 8 years of experience providing advice to procuring entities on projects with various structures, including P3s, traditional construction contracts and collaborative contract models, as well as dealing with commercial issues and agreements. Meaghan has played a key role on a variety of matters, regularly advising clients on developing and administering procurement processes, complying with trade agreement and other legal requirements, including with respect to fairness and conflict of interest issues, and preparing and negotiating contract documents. She has also developed template procurement documents and related template commercial and construction agreements for multiple organizations, and has provided training and implementation guides with respect to the use of such documents. Meaghan acts for a diverse client base on projects across Canada and in multiple industries and sectors, including transit and transportation, civil infrastructure, water and wastewater, health-care services and information technology. While she works primarily for public-sector entities, she also has considerable experience advising the private sector. Meaghan has been at the forefront of numerous high-profile procurement and infrastructure projects across Canada, including VIA Rail’s acquisition of a new fleet, the Toronto Transit Commission’s Bloor Yonge Capacity Improvements Project and Metrolinx’s Hamilton LRT Project.

Mena Bellofiore

Mena’s practice spans all aspects of regulatory compliance in the retail financial services and payments industry at both the federal and provincial level, with a particular focus on consumer protection issues relating to financial services and products and the application of these laws in the online environment. Mena regularly advises financial entities and a wide variety of other regulated and unregulated financial service providers and participants in the payments card industry, including prepaid card issuers and distributors as well as fintechs, on various aspects of their business. Mena has extensive experience in developing and improving compliance programs, including internal policies and procedures, and in drafting and reviewing standard form contacts, related disclosures and other documentation. Mena works with both domestic and international clients. She has developed an expertise in legislative compliance areas that affect her clients and specializes in a wide range of regulatory issues, including federal financial institutions legislation and guidelines, payment systems legislation, AML and Canadian sanctions laws, rules affecting payment card networks, cost of borrowing legislation, provincial regulation of consumer contracts, requirements under credit reporting and debt collection legislation, payday lending legislation, mortgage broker legislation, loan broker legislation and e-commerce matters, as well as legislation affecting both commercial and consumer lenders. Over the course of her career in the financial services regulatory group at Blakes, Mena has been seconded to four different financial institutions, including two of the largest banks in Canada. During this time, Mena gained invaluable in-house experience as she worked closely with in-house counsel and directly advised the businesses on regulatory compliance matters, including in connection with the development and launch of credit products.

Michael McIntosh KC

Michael is a senior partner in the Financial Services Group in Calgary. His practice focuses on banking, corporate lending, acquisition finance, structured finance and project finance. He also has extensive experience in corporate and commercial acquisitions and regularly advises on cross-border financings. His recent transactions include major project financings, major acquisition financings and cross-border structured financings, as well as financings of pipelines, refineries, oil sands projects, conventional oil and gas reserves, petrochemical plants, mining assets and power generating assets. Specifically, Michael is lead counsel to the borrower for the project financing of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline and is lead counsel to the lenders for the financing of North West Redwater’s Sturgeon Refinery.

Michael Matheson

Michael has more than 25 years of experience in banking and financial services law, with a particular specialization in corporate and commercial finance. His practice is focused on the areas of banking, syndicated lending, leveraged finance, project finance, and mergers and acquisitions. Michael regularly advises Canadian and foreign financial institutions and borrowers with respect to the structuring and negotiation of syndicated loan transactions, acquisition financings, take-over bid financings, leveraged buyouts, corporate reorganizations, workouts, and mergers and acquisitions.

Michael Barrack

Michael is one of the leading senior litigators in Canada. In recent years, he has acted on some of the most significant litigation disputes in Canada for clients in various industries. Michael has appeared at all levels of court in Canada, as well as at proceedings in the U.S. and England. Recently he was lead litigation counsel for U.K. pension claimants in successfully obtaining a landmark "modified pro rata" allocation of US$7.3-billion raised from the sale of the Nortel Networks global business units and patent portfolio.

Michael Dixon

Michael's practice involves all aspects of corporate/commercial litigation and arbitration, with a focus on oil and gas law, contract disputes, royalty disputes, fraud claims and insurance matters. Michael regularly advises Canadian and multinational corporate clients on compliance with domestic and international anti-bribery and corruption legislation. He has conducted internal investigations in response to corruption allegations. Michael also assists clients with implementing and improving anti-corruption compliance programs and with anti-corruption diligence during mergers, financings and other commercial transactions. Michael also advises on compliance with a variety of other criminal and regulatory legislation and has defended clients charged under a variety of criminal and regulatory statutes. He also advises clients on search and seizure issues.

Michael Kariya

Michael advises companies, financial sponsors and foreign law firms on a wide variety of transactions inbound to Canada, including cross-border mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, joint venture and shareholders agreements, corporate reorganizations, and general advisory matters. Michael has particular expertise in private equity, and in the technology, mining, energy, infrastructure, and defence sectors. Early in his career, Michael was seconded to a multinational integrated energy company, providing him with valuable experience considering issues from the perspectives of business and in-house legal teams.

Michael Hickey

Michael advises clients in a wide variety of capital markets transactions and securities regulatory matters, including mergers and acquisitions, public and private financings, private equity and other business transactions, with an emphasis on the representation of public and private issuers and the investment banks advising such companies. He acts on transactions involving a wide range of industry sectors, including technology, financial institutions and financial services, health care, mining, power generation and consumer products. He provides ongoing advice to a variety of public issuers regarding corporate governance (including board advisory and special committee mandates) and continuous disclosure obligations and also provides strategic advice to clients on environmental, social and governance considerations in connection with financings, sustainable investment transactions and ongoing disclosure and reporting obligations. Michael spent over a year in the Firm's New York office, where he focused on Canada/U.S. cross-border M&A as well as corporate finance and private equity transactions, while providing Canadian corporate advice to both Canadian and foreign clients conducting business or offerings in Canada. Michael recently completed serving as a member of the Firm's Student Committee. Before joining Blakes, Michael worked in the legal department of one of the Firm's foreign investment banking clients.

Michael Elder

Michael practices in the areas of corporate and mergers and acquisitions (M&A), with a focus on financial services. Michael has advised on M&A deals, minority investments and commercial agreements in the following industry sectors: banking, insurance distribution and manufacturing, wealth management and fintech, and has worked on some of the largest Canadian transactions in these sectors. He also regularly advises clients on fund investments and acts for clients in the technology, health care and manufacturing sectors.

Michael Howcroft

Michael advises clients on a wide range of employment and labour matters, including wrongful dismissal, labour relations, human rights, employment standards, post-employment competition by former employees, and occupational health and safety. His practices encompasses dispute resolution, commercial transactions and general advice on all employment and labour related matters. Michael has appeared before all levels of courts in British Columbia, as well as the Labour Relations Board, the Human Rights Tribunal and the Employment Standards Tribunal.

Michael Gans

Michael regularly advises on many of Canada’s highest-profile merger and acquisition transactions as well as numerous middle market M&A transactions. He acts for strategic and financial buyers, targets and significant shareholders on negotiated and unsolicited domestic and cross-border acquisition transactions. Michael also has experience representing special committees in connection with M&A transactions, related party transactions and internal investigations. Michael is the former head of Blakes Toronto Capital Markets practice and one of the co-founders of Blakes New York office.

Mungo Hardwicke-Brown

Mungo advises primarily on M&A, joint ventures, corporate finance and major energy infrastructure industries with experience across all sectors, including petroleum, natural gas, oil sands, electricity, potash and other commodities, pipelines, storage, LNG terminalling and supply arrangements, power generation and transmission. Over half of these were international and cross-border and involved many specialized practice areas, including tax, regulatory, trade and competition, employment, pensions and litigation.

Natalie Bussière

Natalie dedicates her practice to employment and labour law, as well as pension, benefits and executive compensation. She has represented clients in litigation concerning surplus assets of a pension plan, the validity of contribution holidays taken by employers party to a pension plan and in litigation contesting the legality of clauses found in rules and regulations of pension plans. Natalie also counsels various boards of trustees, pension committees and plan sponsors, and acts as Quebec counsel for a few multi-employer pension plans. Natalie has worked extensively in the field of labour relations, negotiating employment contracts, collective agreements and other agreements, including issues related to the application of the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. She also advises on the transfer, hiring or termination of upper management and employees. Natalie has pleaded before the Supreme Court of Canada, the Court of Appeal, the Superior Court, the Federal Court and the Labour Tribunal, as well as before many specialized administrative tribunals. Additionally, Natalie is closely following developments on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, including with respect to employee relations and benefits management, and she advises clients in this regard.

Navin Joneja

Navin is a Partner and Co-Chairs the Competition, Antitrust & Foreign Investment group at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP. He provides strategic advice on domestic and multinational mergers, joint ventures, strategic alliances, cartels, abuse of dominance investigations, class actions and compliance programs. He is considered a leading expert on Canada's competition, antitrust and foreign investment laws and regulations. Over the past nearly twenty years, clients have valued his practical and thoughtful approach to navigating Canada’s competition and foreign investment laws, often in coordination with reviews in other jurisdictions. Notable matters include: Secure/Tervita, Superior Plus/Certarus, Praxair Inc./Linde AG; Elanco/Bayer; GSK/Novartis; Penguin/Random House; and Visa.

Neil Katz

Neil is a senior partner and an experienced real estate lawyer with a focus on acquisitions and dispositions and financing. Neil has worked on some of Quebec’s largest real estate transactions. Neil has extensive expertise in advising leading public and private companies, institutional investors, private equity sponsors, chartered banks and other financial institutions on a wide variety of transactions. Prior to his career in law, Neil worked as an analyst and appraiser for a major real estate developer, the real estate investment banking arm of a Canadian chartered bank and a leading real estate appraisal firm.

Nick Tropak

Nick's practice focuses on banking, corporate lending, acquisition finance, project finance, transactional debt-related work and ongoing advisory services on completed transactions. He regularly acts on secured and unsecured debt financing transactions, syndicated loan transactions, cross-border financings, acquisition financings, project financings, note and bond deals, debt reorganizations, asset-based lending transactions, and intercreditor arrangements. Nick works primarily in the energy, oil and gas and related service industries, power generation, renewable energy and on related construction and project development financing matters. He regularly acts on behalf of Canadian and foreign financial institutions and corporations in respect of their debt transactions.

Olga Kary

Olga is a corporate and securities law practitioner with over 15 years of experience who provides strategic and technical guidance on a wide variety of transactions. She specializes in the areas of M&A, capital markets, corporate restructuring, going private transactions, proxy contests, corporate governance and continuous disclosure. Olga has advised on a number of high-profile complex domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, as well as both public and private capital markets offerings. She is highly trusted by her clients and plays a valuable role in the success of clients’ transactions. Olga has lead a number of recent high profile transactions, including on: CDN$8.6 billion going public transaction of Strathcona Resources Ltd., Enerplus Corporation on its US$11-billion combination with Chord Energy, Kinder Morgan’s CDN$4.35 billion acquisition of KML and the Cochin pipeline system by Pembina Pipeline Corporation, Strathcona Resources Ltd., a portfolio company of Waterous Energy Fund, on its numerous acquisitions over the last five years, as well as the Riverside Company on its take private acquisition of PFB Corporation and concurrent sale-leaseback transaction, among many others.

Pamela Huff

Practice Area: Pamela is the National Practice Group Leader of the Firm's Restructuring & Insolvency group, with over 30 years of experience in the field, served on member of the Firm's Executive Committee for over a decade. She is experienced in all areas of insolvency practice, including both the litigation and commercial aspects of workouts, reorganizations, receiverships and other enforcement of security. Pamela has acted as counsel to debtors, financial institutions, asset-backed lenders, debtor-in-possession (DIP) lenders, secured and unsecured creditors, receivers, trustees and monitors in complex domestic and cross-border insolvencies, across a wide range of industries. She has also acted for purchasers in significant acquisitions through insolvency proceedings and has particular expertise with aircraft financings and airline insolvencies.

Pascal de Guise

Pascal has over 20 years of experience in corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions. He has strong relationships with Quebec institutional investors and businesses. Some of his key clients include Investissement Québec, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Savaria Corporation Desjardins and Fonds de solidarité FTQ.

Patrick Lapierre

Patrick’s practice includes complex commercial and civil litigation, government and regulatory investigations, compliance and administrative law cases. He advises national and multinational clients in the context of investigations and enforcement matters, regulatory compliance issues, government procurement matters and other public-sector laws, such as lobbying, gifting rules, conflict of interest regimes and access to information disclosures. He also assists clients with investigations and recovery efforts relating to fraud, cyberattacks and data breaches matters. Patrick advises clients operating in highly regulated industries, including banking and financial services, aviation and rail transportation, life sciences, medical technologies, gaming, construction, real estate and international trade. Prior to joining Blakes, Patrick developed solid professional experience within the federal government, notably with the Canada Border Services Agency.

Patrick Gordon

Patrick's practice encompasses a wide range of commercial real estate matters, including purchase and sale transactions, leasing and financings. He regularly acts for a broad range of domestic and international clients, including institutional investors, pension funds, landlords and tenants. He also provides real estate advice in connection with a variety of domestic and international mergers and acquisitions transactions. Patrick’s practice has a particular focus on servicing institutional and private equity real estate clients on the purchase and sale of commercial real estate, as well as related financings, joint venture- and management-related matters. In addition to advising clients whose primary business is investing in, developing and managing commercial and residential real property, Patrick also has significant experience providing real estate advice to traditional and renewable energy companies, and food and beverage companies.

Paul Stepak

Paul is the National Practice Group Leader for the Blakes Tax group. Paul practises corporate and partnership income taxation, including advising on domestic and cross-border tax planning, private and public M&As, private equity and Canadian pension funds' investments, reorganizations, capital markets transactions, financings, and taxation of mutual funds, partnerships and other investment vehicles. Cross-border inbound structuring, including for private equity funds and their portfolio companies, is a significant component of his practice. Paul also has experience assisting clients with the resolution of Canadian federal and provincial tax audits and appeals at all stages. Paul frequently writes and speaks on domestic and international tax issues.

Paul Belanger

Paul is Practice Group Leader of the Financial Services practice. He deals with all aspects of the regulation, business and affairs of financial institutions, including banks, insurance companies and other regulated and unregulated providers of financial services. Paul advises on governance, enterprise risk management, business and ownership structures, product development, permitted investments, capital, related-party transactions, licensing, product development and distribution matters and all regulatory issues. He also advises on acquisitions, pension derisking transactions, divestitures, reorganizations and joint ventures involving financial service providers, and advises financial services providers on a variety of agreements and services.

Paul Singh

Paul is a Mergers and Acquisitions and Private Equity Partner, working both from the Firm's Toronto and Calgary offices. Paul acts as lead counsel on buy, sell and investment mandates for both public and private strategic clients and private equity investors and sponsors. He has a particular expertise in cross-border and international transactions. Paul advises strategic and private equity clients across a broad set of industries, including Agribusiness, Cannabis, Energy, Food & Beverage, Industrials, Infrastructure, Technology and Renewables. Paul also advises on a broad range of other corporate matters, including strategic alliances, joint ventures, partnerships, and reorganizations. Paul is co-head of both the Firm’s Food, Beverage & Agribusiness group and South Asian affinity group.

Pei Li

Pei Li is a partner in the Advertising and Regulatory Law Group at Blakes. She regularly assists clients in a variety of industries, including food and beverage, pharmaceutical, life sciences, cannabis, cosmetic, retail, and consumer goods sectors, and helps them navigate complex compliance regimes (including product and facility licensing, inspection requirements, packaging and labelling, product classification, and product recalls). In the area of marketing and advertising, Pei regularly advises clients on misleading advertising, claims substantiation, contests and promotions, and various matters relating to the execution of online and offline media campaigns. Pei also has a breadth of experience providing health-care compliance advice to clients looking to invest in health industries, and works with organizations to provide creative solutions to a wide range of regulatory issues, including interactions and business arrangements with healthcare professionals.

Peter Rubin

Peter practice focuses on restructuring and insolvency and complex commercial litigation matters. His R&I practice involves advising debtor companies, lender syndicates, secured and unsecured creditors, purchasers of distressed assets, debtor-in-possession lenders, and other parties affected by business insolvency issues. He has acted as independent counsel for monitors in reorganization cases, receivers and trustees in bankruptcy. Peter's commercial litigation practice focuses on contractual disputes, tax appeals, tort claims, shareholder and securities litigation, equitable remedies, including fiduciary duties and creditors' rights. Peter has co-authored Continuing Legal Education (CLE) papers, frequently appears as a lecturer at insolvency conferences, and is a contributing author to a comprehensive text on government liability. He is also a regular guest lecturer at the Law Society's professional legal training course.

Peter Keohane

Peter has broad experience in many areas of business law. His practice focuses on domestic and international commercial transactions, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, project development and structured commodity off-take and supply transactions. Among others, Peter’s practice is actively involved in the energy (oil, gas, power, renewables and alternative fuels) and agribusiness sectors, and has advised some of Canada’s and the world’s leading energy and agribusiness firms on domestic and international matters and transactions.

Philipp Knoll

Philipp's practice covers all aspects of pensions, employee benefits and executive compensation law, including plan administration, governance, investment, design and taxation. He also advises on the pensions and employee benefits aspects of corporate transactions. Philipp provides legal services to both public and private sector plan sponsors and administrators. Prior to joining Blakes, Philipp spent several years at a top-tier law firm in Germany and the U.K., where he advised multinational employers on a variety of pension, benefits and employment matters.

Rachel Lehman

Rachel’s diverse real estate practice involves regularly acting on acquisitions and dispositions, financings, joint ventures and development projects of all asset classes, including retail and commercial, industrial and office, multi-residential and hospitality. Rachel also often provides real estate advice in connection with complex commercial transactions, including domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, renewable energy infrastructure transactions, project and other financings and receivership sales. Rachel regularly acts for clients with portfolios that span North America, including pension funds, life insurance companies and real estate investment trusts. In her real estate financing practice, Rachel has acted for financial institutions, private lenders and a wide range of borrowers on numerous large- and mid-scale secured financings.

Randall Hofley

Randall Hofley - partner in the Competition, Antitrust & Foreign Investment and Litigation groups. Trusted advisor on competition law and the federal regulation of business, with a focus on contentious matters before the Canadian Competition Bureau and Competition Tribunal, and all levels of Canadian courts and federal administrative tribunals. Brings both private-sector and public-sector experience, most recently serving as General Counsel and Senior Enforcement Advisor, Competition Bureau Legal Services. Litigated high-profile Competition Act cases, including the first abuse of dominance case to reach the Supreme Court of Canada, the only Federal Court of Appeal decision to address patents under the Act, the only (civil) price maintenance case, the first case considering the Act’s competitor collaboration provisions, the only appellate level case on the application of the Act’s cartel provisions to agreements between purchasers of goods or services, the only Competition Tribunal case to address the Regulated Conduct Doctrine, and cases developing standards for cartel prosecutions and class-action certification/defences in the cartel context.

Reena Goyal

Reena is Counsel with an energy law practice focusing on electricity markets, regulation and compliance. Her practice includes acting for commercial and industrial loads, utilities, generators, transmitters, distributors, demand response aggregators, retailers and gas marketers. She provides strategic regulatory advice and direction to shareholders, acquirers, investors and developers of a variety of power assets including energy storage, gas, hydrogen, wind, solar, biomass and nuclear. Reena is also a litigator. When clients require legal representation before energy tribunals, she works diligently to achieve the best outcome. She has appeared before the Ontario Energy Board, the Alberta Utilities Commission, the Canada Energy Regulator and all levels of courts in Ontario. Reena also regularly represents market participants in electricity market rule and tariff compliance investigations and reliability standards audits.

Renee Reichelt

Renee’s practice focuses on corporate commercial litigation areas, including banking litigation, securities litigation, class action litigation, shareholder disputes and oppression actions, oil and gas litigation, negligence and contract disputes, employment matters, land development disputes, IP litigation and environmental litigation. She also routinely acts on matters involving fraud litigation and reputational risk. Renee has extensive experience in litigating and advising clients in the oil and gas, energy and financial services industry, including major banks and investment dealers. Renee has been counsel at trial, chambers and on appeal in Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench, appellate counsel at both the Alberta and British Columbia Courts of Appeal, has appeared as counsel before the British Columbia Supreme Court, the Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench, the Federal Court of Canada and the Supreme Court of Canada. She has also represented parties before administrative, regulatory and disciplinary tribunals, including the Alberta Securities Commission, the British Columbia Securities Commission and IIROC (CIRO), as well as at arbitrations and mediations.

Robert Torralbo

Robert practises corporate commercial litigation and arbitration with an emphasis on defending class actions, product liability, securities, banking, real estate and shareholder disputes. His clients include financial institutions, large multinational organizations, securities dealers, manufacturers and real estate developers. Robert regularly appears before all levels of Quebec courts and arbitration panels, and has appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada.

Robert Kwinter

Robert advises clients on the Competition Act including conspiracy, bid-rigging, trade association activities, misleading advertising, mergers and other reviewable trade practices, as well as on regulatory approval under the Competition Act and Investment Canada Act. Litigation counsel in cases under various provisions of the Competition Act, including lead counsel to Visa Canada in a successful proceeding before the Competition Tribunal. Extensive class action experience includes: DRAM, air cargo, hydrogen peroxide, EPDM, chocolate, LCD and credit cards. Complex mergers include: Suncor/Petro-Canada, Merck/Schering-Plough, GE/Alstom.

Robert Percival

Robert's practice focuses on technology transactions and outsourcing. Extensive experience advising domestic and international clients on a wide range of technology transactions across a broad range of industries, including cloud computing, strategic alliances, technology acquisition and transfer, licensing, distribution, open source software, privacy and data protection, cybersecurity, e-commerce / Internet, artificial intelligence, blockchain and smart contracts.

Robin Reinertson

Robin has extensive litigation expertise in British Columbia and Ontario in the defence of class actions and product liability, consumer protection, competition/antitrust, privacy and regulatory compliance cases. She also regularly advises clients on risk management and litigation avoidance in these areas. Robin routinely represents Fortune 100 companies and has a proven record of defeating class actions prior to certification and experience defending class action and product liability cases through discovery and trial.

Rochelle Collette

Rochelle's practice focuses on commercial litigation and environmental and Indigenous law matters. She has experience litigating disputes in the energy, natural resources and infrastructure industries. Rochelle provides strategic advice to clients in the development of natural resources projects. She advises on project permits and approvals, compliance with regulatory requirements, and environmental assessments. She also assists clients in building relationships, resolving disputes and negotiating agreements with Indigenous communities. Rochelle has particular experience in complex contractual disputes and judicial reviews of decisions made by administrative bodies. She has appeared as counsel before arbitral and administrative tribunals, and at all levels of court in British Columbia, the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal. Prior to joining Blakes, Rochelle clerked for five justices of the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

Rory ffrench

Rory is the Co-Practice Group Leader of the Corporate & Commercial group in Toronto. He specializes in complex multi-jurisdictional mergers and acquisitions, investments, strategic transactions and reorganizations, with particular expertise in navigating transactions in highly regulated fields. Rory’s experience collaborating with, and providing business-focused strategic advice to, private equity and other financial sponsor clients spans a broad set of industries (including agribusiness, financial services, healthcare, professional services, manufacturing, infrastructure and technology). As part of his practice, he also provides advice to clients on all aspects of corporate and commercial law, including strategic alliances, joint ventures, partnerships, the establishment and structuring of Canadian operations, and other day-to-day legal matters. Rory is a core member of the Firm’s Private Equity Practice Group, where he co-coordinates the Firm’s development of its bi-annual Canadian Private Equity Deal Study publication. Rory’s corporate and M&A experience has been enhanced by his time working as a visiting lawyer in the Amsterdam office of a major international law firm, as a legal secondee to a foreign investment bank, and as a senior consultant working in the financial advisory group of one of the big four accounting firms (where he earned his chartered accountant designation). Rory is routinely invited to speak on corporate and transactional matters, including for Canadian Bar Association, Law Society of Ontario and Association of Corporate Counsel. He is also significantly involved in the training of the next generation of legal talent through mentorship (both inside and outside the firm), facilitating seminars for professionals within the firm, and, previously, as an Adjunct Faculty member at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University.

Ross Bentley

Ross specializes in merger and acquisition and capital markets transactions with extensive experience advising acquirors and targets in domestic and cross-border take-over bids, plans of arrangement and mergers. He regularly advises issuers and dealers in equity and debt capital markets transactions and has extensive experience in a wide variety of transaction structures and products, including project financing and offerings of investment grade, subordinated, and high-yield debt. He also assists issuers in establishing shelf financing programs both for domestic offerings as well as cross-border offerings under the Canada/US multi-jurisdictional offering system. He advises issuers, underwriters and selling shareholders on capital markets transactions in the pipeline and energy infrastructure, agribusiness, airline, energy services, oil and gas exploration, chartered bank and railroad sectors. He advises on shareholder activism situations and has acted for several issuers on high profile proxy contests. He regularly advises issuers in connection with corporate governance requirements, continuous and timely disclosure obligations, stock exchange matters and general corporate matters. Ross has experience advising clients on ESG matters, including in respect of corporate governance and compliance, disclosure, and sustainable finance.

Roy Millen

Roy has particular experience in Indigenous rights and title, and litigation involving commercial and administrative matters. Clients appreciate Roy's ability to provide prompt, straightforward and business-savvy advice in areas of the law that are complex and continually evolving. In the area of Aboriginal law, Roy advises private-sector clients across Canada on the development of energy, mining and other major projects, and relationships with Indigenous peoples. He negotiates commercial agreements, impact benefit agreements, consultation protocols and other arrangements with First Nations, Métis and other Indigenous groups. He also assists clients in navigating the regulatory processes necessary to secure project approval, including the implications of UNDRIP, and defends proponents from litigation challenges brought by Indigenous communities and individuals.

Ryan Morris

Ryan has developed a strong presence in the securities litigation space, with significant experience defending securities class actions (often with parallel actions in the US), securities transactional disputes and securities regulatory proceedings. He has successfully litigated some of the most significant recent securities transactional disputes in Canada, including contested transactions, takeover bids, proxy contests, and statutory plan of arrangement proceedings. These mandates often involve oppression and derivative claims, dissent and fair value proceedings, directors’ and officers’ liability advice and governance issues. Ryan is regularly sought out as defence counsel on securities class actions, particularly those related to financial products, including exchange traded funds, mutual funds and syndicated mortgage products, and has one of the largest practices in the country in this developing area. He has represented clients in enforcement proceedings before the securities commissions in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec and settled a CIRO proceeding relating to the largest block trade in Canadian history.

Sam Adkins

Sam is recognized as a leading lawyer in Canada with 18 years of experience advising clients in the resource sector, with a strong focus on Indigenous and project development matters. His practice is national in scope, acting for clients across Canada on a wide range of Indigenous law issues, including consultation, negotiation and the regulatory process. Sam has significant industry expertise in the energy and mining sectors, and has represented clients on commercial and transactional matters across all project phases. Previously, Sam held a senior position with an international energy company overseeing all Indigenous-related matters on a proposed liquefied natural gas project in Kitimat, British Columbia. Sam provides effective, timely and practical advice informed by his experience working both for and within industry. Sam is a frequent speaker and commentator on Indigenous law issues in Canada.

Scott Clarke

Scott focuses on mergers and acquisitions, power projects, corporate finance, private equity and governance matters, with a particular emphasis on renewable energy. He has extensive experience in a wide variety of domestic and cross-border acquisitions and financings. He has acted as counsel to issuers and underwriters across many sectors, including power, cleantech, alternative energy, oil and gas services, oil and gas exploration and development, high-tech, private equity and financial services. Scott regularly acts for Independent Power Producers (IPP's) to bring projects from greenfield opportunities through to their commercial operation date. This requires advice and negotiation on acquisition/disposition agreements, joint venture and partnering agreements, input on regulatory and environmental matters (including bidding into calls for power), oversight of EPC and O&M agreements and project financing involvement.

Sean Boyle

Sean’s litigation practice focuses on all aspects of complex commercial disputes with an emphasis on securities litigation, mining disputes, and defending class actions. He frequently advises on compliance with domestic and international anticorruption legislation, including investigations and due diligence. Sean has extensive experience in take-over bid litigation, contested merger transactions, plans of arrangements and shareholder dissent proceedings. He regularly advises directors and officers of corporation on their duties and obligations relating to corporate governance and business disputes such as derivative actions, oppression remedies and shareholder disputes. Sean also defends clients in complex multi-jurisdictional matters before provincial securities commissions and other securities regulatory organizations throughout Canada. His experience also includes a lengthy secondment to the British Columbia Securities Commission (enforcement division).

Sébastien Vilder

Sébastien is the Managing Partner for the Montréal Office and regional practice group leader of the financial services group. He specializes in project financing and has been involved in numerous project financings in Canada, Europe, Africa and Asia for renewable energy and infrastructure projects. Sébastien’s list of clients include financial institutions, development banks, governments and sponsors. Sébastien has advised clients on a wide range of complex projects including recently on a portfolio of over 500MW of wind projects in Alberta (insured by the German export credit agency and the Danish export credit agency), and also, on a $600 million project financing for a wind project in Quebec, Canada.

Seumas Woods

Seumas is a senior partner in the Blakes Litigation Group. He has a varied corporate-commercial law practice. His practice encompasses acting and advising in respect of many different types of disputes in a wide mix of industries. Among the matters on which he has acted are securities and shareholder disputes, transactional securities litigation, construction disputes, mining disputes, general commercial disputes, landlord-tenant matters, gaming-related claims, franchise and distributorship disputes, personal injury claims and estate and trust matters. Seumas has appeared as counsel before all levels of courts and tribunals in Ontario, as well as in numerous arbitrations and mediations. He brings with him a strong knowledge of the law, as well as a practical, common sense approach to legal problems.

Shlomi Feiner

Shlomi's practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions and public company advisory matters. He has advised strategic and financial buyers, target companies and vendors on public and private cross-border transactions. Shlomi also regularly provides corporate governance advice to Canadian public companies, including acting for special committees in connection with M&A transactions. Recent transactions include advising Cleveland-Cliffs on its proposed acquisition of Stelco Holdings, Advent International on its proposed acquisition of Nuvei Corporation, PENN Entertainment on its acquisition of Score Media & Gaming and BCE on public and private company transactions.

Silvana D'Alimonte

Silvana has 31 years of commercial real estate experience. She has worked on a wide variety of transactions, with an emphasis on real estate financings, joint ventures, acquisitions and dispositions of commercial real estate properties, receivership sales, security enforcement and restructurings. Silvana is committed to providing clients with timely, high-quality service and strives to provide practical, effective advice to help achieve the client's goal. Silvana has written numerous articles on real estate matters, including loans to joint ventures, due diligence in real estate financings and tendering in an electronic registration environment.

Simon Seida

Simon's practice covers various fields of commercial litigation, including class actions, disputes between competitors, professional malpractice, and post-closing disputes. In addition to regular civil proceedings, he represents clients in obtaining, or defending against, injunctions, seizures before judgment and other extraordinary proceedings. In the course of his practice, he regularly appears before courts and administrative tribunals in Quebec, including for several trials. A seasoned class action litigator, Simon defends corporation faced with national or local class action proceedings in Québec involving consumer protection, product liability, securities, competition and public nuisance matters. Simon also advises corporations and individuals in relation to regulatory or criminal matters, such as anti-corruption, competition, securities or financial matters. In this context, he advises clients in responding to search warrants and investigations by government authorities or in conducting internal investigations. He also defends clients in enforcement proceedings brought by government authorities and self-regulatory organizations, including public prosecutors and securities regulators. Simon has advised national and international corporations on various matters dealing with dispute avoidance and resolution and with compliance with the penal provisions of statutes in Quebec and Canada.

Simon Finch

Simon’s practice focuses on debt transactions, acting both for borrowers and lenders (bank and private credit). He has extensive experience structuring and negotiating syndicated credits, asset-based loans, capital call facilities, and project financings. In particular, he provides advice with respect to acquisition financings, including both strategic and sponsor leveraged buyouts and tender-offer financings for public companies. Simon has developed particular expertise in the mining sector, and advises on projects within and outside of Canada. Simon's clients include numerous domestic and foreign financial institutions, private equity funds, corporations and foreign law firms, who retain him to assist with the Canadian aspects of multi-jurisdictional financings.

Stephanie Console

Stephanie has over 9 years of experience practicing exclusively in the areas of public procurement, infrastructure, public-private partnerships and construction. She advises clients on the development, preparation and ongoing administration of public tenders and complex procurement processes, trade agreement compliance, and the development and negotiation of commercial agreements for the design, construction, financing and maintenance of infrastructure. Stephanie acts for clients in a wide range of sectors, including transit and transportation, civil infrastructure, roads and bridges, water and wastewater, health-care services, information technology, gaming, energy and mining. Stephanie has extensive expertise in the procurement of mega infrastructure projects and alternative finance and procurement projects across multiple jurisdictions and has been at the forefront of many projects across Canada. Stephanie has played a key role on numerous high-profile procurement and infrastructure projects across Canada, including Metrolinx’s GO Rail Expansion Project, the City of Toronto’s F.G. Gardiner Expressway Rehabilitation Project, and Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx on the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension Project.

Sunny Handa

Sunny is a Partner and National Practice Group Leader of both the Firm's Technology group and the Firm's Communications Law group. He has a substantial practice in mergers & acquisitions of technology companies and also advises clients on transactional and regulatory matters relating to information technology and electronic commerce, intellectual property, communications (telecommunications and broadcasting), biotech and defence. Sunny is also a well-recognized cyber breach coach and leads organizations through three stages of cybersecurity: cyber preparedness, incident response and post breach resolution work. Sunny works closely with boards and leadership teams across various Canadian companies and organizations in guiding them through the complex challenges of dealing with cyber-attacks and risk mitigation. Sunny is widely published in legal literature and has authored and co-authored many books on information technology, communications law, copyright law and business.

Terri-Lee Oleniuk

Terri-Lee’s practice focuses on project-related issues concerning natural-resource development with a specialization in regulatory, environmental and Aboriginal law issues. She acts for a variety of companies in environmental assessments and regulatory proceedings to obtain approvals for major developments in the oil and gas, pipeline, mining (including metal, potash and diamond), natural-gas processing, petrochemical, electricity transmission, hydro, solar, wind and storage sectors. Terri-Lee has appeared before the Canada Energy Regulator, the Alberta Energy Regulator, the Alberta Utilities Commission, the British Columbia Utilities Commission, the Alberta Natural Resources Conservation Board, the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board, the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board, and federal-provincial joint review panels in respect of environmental assessment proceedings.

Thomas von Hahn

Thomas is Co-Practice Group Leader of the Real Estate group. He is a trusted adviser to pension funds and institutional and private investors in the acquisition and disposition of real property and mortgage portfolios. He has been active in the privatization and disposition of government assets throughout Canada. He has structured real estate joint ventures and partnerships and placed financing secured by real estate on behalf of both individuals and institutions.

Tim Andison

Tim's practice focuses on a wide variety of M&A and debt and equity capital markets transactions, including initial public offerings (IPOs), high-yield and other debt offerings, restructurings, and liability-management transactions. He has acted for numerous underwriters, issuers, financial sponsors, lenders and borrowers based in Canada, the United States, South America, Europe and Asia.

Tony Crossman

With more than 25 years of experience, Tony’s practice focuses on environmental and natural resource regulation & management, corporate compliance, due diligence, and litigation matters. His work includes contaminated sites (sale and remediation), environmental permitting (of projects and facilities), hazardous substances and defending environmental charges. Tony works in the energy (including renewable), mining, forestry, manufacturing, real estate, infrastructure, waste management and transportation sectors.

Tricia Kuhl

Tricia leads the Blakes Montréal Cannabis Group and is a key member of the Firm’s national Cannabis Group. She has a broad corporate and commercial practice, including advising licensed producers, processors, applicants, research teams, product developers, online publishers and equipment manufacturers, on a variety of regulatory, corporate and commercial matters in the medical, wellness and recreational cannabis industries. She focuses on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, corporate reorganizations, joint ventures, processing, licensing and import/export arrangements, manufacturing, supply, marketing, distribution, quality assurance, research & development, shareholder and partnership agreements. She also provides legal risk assessments to financial and strategic investors in the cannabis industry. Tricia acts for a variety of innovative companies and investors, notably in the life sciences, healthcare and technology sectors, who rely upon her legal expertise and experience to assist them with their cutting-edge projects. She advises domestic and international clients on their private M&A and complex commercial transactions, joint ventures, licensing agreements and biopharma partnerships and guides healthcare professionals, medical clinics and medical device manufacturers in their operations, including telemedicine and digital healthcare.

Trisha Robertson

Trisha practices securities and corporate law, advising publicly listed companies on mergers & acquisitions, corporate finance transactions, joint ventures, royalty and stream transactions, as well as on general corporate matters and compliance with securities legislation. She has particular experience advising mining companies on complex financing transactions as well as negotiated business combinations and take-over bids, advising special committees on acquisitions and going-private transactions, advising target boards vis a vis activist shareholders, and advising buyers and sellers in private equity and strategic acquisitions. She represents companies in all aspects of their corporate activities, including with respect to commercial agreements, compliance and reporting, corporate governance, continuous disclosure and equity-based compensation arrangements. Trisha is a member of The Law Society of British Columbia, the Law Society of Ontario and the Nova Scotia Bar Association.

Vivian Kung

Vivian’s practice focuses on power, infrastructure / construction and mergers and acquisitions. She is regularly engaged on major project work throughout Canada, including in the social infrastructure, health-care, transportation and renewable energy sectors. Vivian has recently led complicated M&A transactions in the renewable energy space, involving portfolios comprising wind, solar and hydro resources and storage assets and spanning multiple jurisdictions (domestically and internationally). The scope and breadth of her expertise is such that she is able to provide pragmatic advice throughout the lifecycle of a renewable project, including the development, construction, operations, financing, acquisition and divestiture phases. She continuously adapts her broad practice to reflect market developments and accommodate her clients’ needs. Vivian is currently advising clients participating in the largest Canadian energy storage procurement. Vivian worked as senior legal counsel with a construction industry leader, acquiring invaluable in-house experience as the responsible lawyer on complex domestic and international projects. Vivian also clerked at the British Columbia Court of Appeal, where she gained experience in corporate/commercial disputes in British Columbia's highest court. She is a national co-chair of the Firm’s Power and Renewable Energy group and a primary contact of the Blakes Japan practice group.

Vladimir Shatiryan

Vladimir is a well-recognized expert in the regulation of financial institutions and other providers of financial services. He advises on complex transactions involving regulated institutions, licensing and approvals, prudential and market conduct matters, compliance programs, resolution planning issues, regulatory capital and liquidity requirements, and other matters impacting the financial and payments industries. Vladimir also advises a broad range of clients on Canada’s anti-money laundering and economic sanctions legislation.

Wendy Mee

Wendy is the Co-Chair of the Blakes Privacy group and the National Privacy Officer for the Firm. She provides practical and strategic privacy advice to clients in a wide range of industries including technology, financial services, insurance, life sciences, education, retail and consumer goods industries. Wendy advises clients on privacy requirements relating to new and innovative technologies and business models, including privacy considerations in connection with big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain technology and machine learning. Wendy provides privacy advice in connection with corporate transactions, outsourcing arrangements, trans-border data flows, cloud computing, and online and offline marketing and advertising activities. Wendy helps clients operationalize privacy law requirements, including through the development of privacy related policies and procedures, incident response plans, privacy training and tabletop exercises. She also helps clients manage and respond to data breaches and other privacy-related incidents. Wendy is frequently involved in global privacy compliance projects. She provides Canadian privacy law input into global privacy policies, consent frameworks, data protection agreements and internal privacy policies and procedures. Wendy also advises clients on the requirements of Canada's anti-spam law, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's Do Not Call rules, misleading advertising, contests and promotions.

Zvi Halpern-Shavim

Zvi's practice involves all areas of sales and commodity tax, with a focus on planning and dispute resolution in connection with VAT, goods and services tax, harmonized sales tax, provincial sales tax, insurance premium tax, excise taxes and duties, and carbon taxes. He also advises clients regarding structuring of import/export arrangements, customs duties, valuation methodology, tariff classification, import/export restrictions, and various aspects of Canada's bilateral and multilateral trade agreements. Zvi provides compliance, planning, audit and tax dispute expertise, both in traditional mergers and acquisitions and real property transactions and in complex and new areas of financial services, natural resources, cross-border, the sharing economy, P3 infrastructure projects, cryptocurrencies, medical, pharmaceutical and agribusiness.

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