Executive vice president, regulatory affairs and general counsel | Toronto Hydro Corporation
Chief legal officer and chief compliance officer | Capital One Canada
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. Andrea Cotroneo is Capital One Canada’s chief legal and compliance officer, who also leads regulatory and government relations. In 2019,...
Chief legal and governance officer | TELUS
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? At...
Senior vice president, legal services | EllisDon Group of Companies
Senior manager and general counsel | Honda Canada
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. How do you feel in-house legal leaders can successfully introduce and implement a culture within a legal department? I believe...
Vice president, legal and chief governance officer | Vancouver Airport Authority (VAA)
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? The...
Executive vice-president, legal and economic affairs, and corporate secretary | CGI Group
Vice president, general counsel and secretary | Morguard Corporation
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. Beverley Flynn joined Morguard in 2003 and was appointed general counsel and secretary in 2004. She has more than 15...
Senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary | Canadian Western Bank
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? I...
Director, associate general counsel | Citibank
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. Major transactions include multiple internal re-organisations, one of which involved a C$7bn derivative portfolio and the other involved the movement...
Chief legal officer | Novacap
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. Bruno-Étienne Duguay has acted as chief legal officer for Novacap since 2008. He brought a wealth of experience to the...
Senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary | Bird Construction
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. Charles Caza is senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Bird Construction. Caza leads the company’s risk management...
Chief legal officer | Aphria
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? The...
General counsel | Pan American Silver
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? Pan...
Vice president, corporate secretary and general counsel | Barrick Gold Corporation
General counsel North America | Thales
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What techniques do you use to provide commercially-focused advice to your company, and how do you communicate these to more...
Vice-president, general counsel and corporate secretary | Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd.
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? Continued...
General counsel and corporate secretary | Canadian Malartic GP (CMGP)
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. Éric now works at Agnico Eagle Mines Limited. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been...
Vice president and general counsel Canada, USA, UK and Asia-Pacific | CGI Information Systems and Management Consultants
Vice-president legal | CargoJet
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. How can in-house legal leaders can successfully introduce and implement a culture within a legal department? The role of the...
Head of legal | Shell Canada
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? The...
General counsel | Instar Asset Management Inc
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? The...
General counsel, corporate secretary and privacy officer | Pethealth – A Fairfax Company
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? I...
Vice president and assistant general counsel | Johnson Controls International
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. In her role as chief counsel, Heather Brown shapes and influences the business strategies to create an environment that facilitates...
Executive director, legal affairs and general counsel | Sandoz Canada
Managing director | Brookfield Infrastructure
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. James now works at Hakluyt & Company. How do you feel in-house legal leaders can successfully introduce and implement a...
Chief legal and corporate affairs officer | Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. How do you feel in-house legal leaders can successfully introduce and implement a culture within a legal department? I think...
Chief legal officer and corporate secretary | Canadian Pacific Railway
Senior vice president, general counsel, corporate secretary | RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust
Chief legal officer and corporate secretary | Aurora Cannabis
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? As...
Vice president, legal & general counsel | STEP Energy Services
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? In...
Chief underwriting counsel – international operations | Stewart Title Guaranty Company
Senior vice president, chief legal and sustainability officer | Capital Power Corporation
Senior counsel and director, banking litigation (Canada and Caribbean) | Royal Bank of Canada
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. Kathrine Smirle has been an influential and innovative legal adviser at Royal Bank of Canada since 2010. During this time,...
Canadian associate vice-president and assistant general counsel | Aramark Canada
Chief legal officer, ombudsman and corporate secretary | Interac
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. Kikelomo now works at CIBC. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during...
Vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, ArcelorMittal Dofasco, and country counsel, Canada, ArcelorMittal Canada | ArcelorMittal
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? Given...
General counsel, chief compliance officer and corporate secretary | CAE
General counsel | ACS Infrastructure Canada
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. Mark now works at Gowling WLG. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in...
Managing Director, General counsel, chief compliance officer and chief risk officer | Bentallgreenoak
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? The...
General counsel | Jonas Software
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. Michael now works at Banyan Software. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in...
Executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary | NorthWest Healthcare Properties REIT
General counsel | League
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. How do you feel in-house legal leaders can successfully introduce and implement a culture within a legal department? I have...
Vice president, legal | MasterCard
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? I...
Executive vice president, stakeholder relations and general counsel | TC Energy
Vice-president, legal general counsel and corporate secretary | Canadian Natural Resources (Canadian Natural)
General counsel, corporate secretary and privacy officer | Resolver
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. Peter now works at Descartes Systems Group. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved...
Head of legal Canada | JTI Canada
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? I...
Senior vice president, commercial and legal affairs | Teck Resources
Chief legal officer | Canopy Growth Corporation
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? While...
Senior counsel, legal and regulatory compliance | BMO Financial Group (Bank of Montreal)
Chief operating officer and general counsel | Insight Productions
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? In...
Head of legal and compliance, Canada | Alcon Canada
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? The...
Senior vice president, general counsel, securities and corporate secretary | Nutrien
Chief legal officer and corporate secretary | QuadReal Property Group
Chief legal officer | Iovate Health Sciences International
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. How do you feel in-house legal leaders can successfully introduce and implement a culture within a legal department? The best...
Executive vice president corporate services and chief legal officer | Canadian National Railway Company (CN)
Senior executive vice-president, general counsel and corporate development | CIBC
Vice president, legal | ShawCor
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? In...
General counsel and corporate secretary | Packers Plus Energy Services
Senior vice-president, general counsel and corporate secretary | Alimentation Couche-Tard
President, infrastructure | Kilmer Group
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. Wayne Carson is president of Kilmer Infrastructure Developments, where he leads Kilmer’s business platforms in public-private partnerships, real estate development...
Senior managing counsel | Industrial Alliance Insurance & Financial Services
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? I...
Executive vice president, chief legal officer and secretary | Aecon Group
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. Yonni Fushman is executive vice president, chief legal officer and secretary. He holds executive responsibility for managing a broad portfolio...
With an abundance of feedback from senior in-house legal professionals across Canada as well as their counterparts in private practice, this edition of the GC Powerlist Canada is the largest ever by some distance.
Research highlighted that Canadian in-house counsel seem similar to many other businesspeople in developed, industrialised economies in their anxieties; almost an overall majority of respondents advised that adverse political developments is the issue that most keeps them up at night when considering future professional challenges. After this, IT security issues loomed large, with a significant number of respondents placing an issue related to this as their greatest fear for the future. When compared to the remaining three concerns, it is notable that these options rely upon an adverse external action. This implies that Canadian in-house lawyers are confident that they run a tight ship and that robust internal processes will head off or mitigate internal threats.
Feedback regarding the improvement of legal functions also shows the Canadian in-house legal scene to be mature, with the standout goal for Canadian in-house counsel appearing as greater efficiency. Notably, none reported focusing on goals one would expect of a new in-house legal team that was not successfully embedded, though some respondents did mention their main goal as improving relationships with internal stakeholders.
These topics – along with many others – are afforded more in-depth analysis and discussion via the interviews within this publication.
It was my pleasure to speak to and extensively interview Canada-based counsel, each with their own priorities and challenges. I’d also like to thank our extensive network of law firm partners and in-house counsel in the region whose opinions we canvassed during the course of the research.
Last but not least, I would like to congratulate all those featured in this year’s list. Their selection means they have been identified as in-house counsel who are amongst the standard bearers of the profession, and as specialists who confront and manage commercial and legal challenges in a way that highlights them as market leaders.
Joe Boswell
Head of Research:
GC Powerlist series
For the third consecutive year, Legal 500 partnered with Red Legal Iberoamericana to celebrate the very best in-house counsel from across Europe who dedicate their efforts to the vibrant region of Latin America. In fact, these lawyers possess a unique set of skills that enables them to navigate the challenges and diversity of Latin America in an agile and well-versed manner.
The event took place at the Hotel Wellington in the elegant city of Madrid, Spain, on 7th November 2024. Attendees were welcomed by Sara Maggi, senior editor — research and content at Legal 500, who congratulated all the powerlisters for their contributions to business across Latin America and emphasised the importance of recognising such exceptional lawyers.
Julio Veloso, partner at Broseta Abogados, then took the stage. After offering his congratulations, he invited Alejandro Sainz, senior partner at Sainz Abogados, to join him on stage. They reiterated their pride in sponsoring this research and publication, which recognises unmatched talent.
Santiago González Pérez, vice president and senior employment counsel for EMEA at American Express, shared an in-house perspective on the challenges of working in-house and managing client expectations while operating in a business environment. He also highlighted the importance of being recognised by such prestigious publications.
The evening continued with a cocktail reception featuring drinks and canapés, alongside networking opportunities between talented peers. The event was a great success, and we look forward to next year, as we continue to recognise the efforts of Latin American specialists based across Europe.
