Torys

Melissa Prado

Melissa’s experience in the financial services and insurance sectors allows her to provide 360-degree counsel to clients—from consumer protection and the formation and licensing of insurers and intermediaries, to significant transactions and governance matters. Melissa’s practice focuses on corporate matters and regulatory compliance in the financial services and payments industry, with an emphasis on consumer protection and insurance corporate and regulatory law. She has also advised clients on corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions and capital markets transactions, as well as on general corporate and governance matters. Melissa is fluent in Spanish.

Blair Keefe

A preeminent figure in the financial services industry, Blair has decades of experience advising Canada’s leading financial institutions on regulatory matters and industry best practices, and has acted as counsel on some of the country’s most complex and novel issues in his field.Blair is co-head of the firm’s Financial Services, Bank Regulatory and Insurance Regulatory practices, and is co-head of the Payments and Cards Practice. He advises on corporate and regulatory issues relating to financial institutions, as well as on mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance in the financial services industry.Blair is known for his in-depth understanding of all matters relating to the Bank Act. In addition, he has extensive experience in insurance and bank regulatory matters, banking and debt finance as well as payments and cards.

Jill McCutcheon

With extensive experience and nuanced knowledge of the complex regulatory landscape of the insurance industry, Jill gives clients practical advice on regulatory, transactional and other advisory matters.Co-head of the firm’s Financial Services practice, Jill has more than 25 years of experience advising the property and casualty, life and reinsurance sectors of the insurance industry on corporate, regulatory and transactional matters.Jill regularly advises on all aspects of the law, whether federal or provincial, and acts as counsel to a broad range of clients, including insurers, reinsurers, banks, credit unions, intermediaries, cover holders and MGAs, third-party administrators, retailers, employers and associations. Jill is noted for her ability to respond to and resolve issues with the numerous regulators who impact on the insurance sector in Canada. She also has extensive experience in privacy law and data breach response matters.Jill has broad and extensive experience advising on all aspects of activity in the insurance industry. This includes advising on the formation of insurers, governance matters and obtaining federal and provincial regulatory approvals. She also regularly acts as counsel to insurance company boards of directors.She frequently engages with regulators, resolving distribution, product and other regulatory issues on behalf of her clients. Jill also counsels clients on market conduct and compliance requirements.Her work regularly involves drafting and negotiating reinsurance, distribution and other specialized agreements germane to the sector, developing policy wordings, and advising on reinsurance and self-insured, risk retention and captive strategies.Beyond insurance matters, Jill has experience in privacy law, the resolution of privacy complaints and privacy breach responses.