Banking | Commodity Tax/Customs | Commercial Real Estate | Corporate Governance | Corporate Matters | Corporate Tax | Employment Law | Estate & Personal Tax Planning | Intellectual Property Law | International Trade Regulation | Litigation - Corporate Tax | Mergers & Acquisitions | Privacy Law | Private Equity/Venture Capital | Property Development (Real Estate: Land Use Planning/Municipal) | Property Leasing | Securities Law | Technology/Licensing
We are a full-service business law firm and are considered one of the top firms in Canada for technology companies. Some of our lawyers are ranked in American Lawyer and others are listed as Canadian Top Mergers and Acquisitions Lawyers and our deals have been noted as Top Technology Transactions in Canada. We are committed to meeting the needs of our clients in all areas of business law, and we have special expertise in the areas of corporate law, securities and corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, taxation, technology and commercial and real estate transactions.
Banking
Our banking team advises clients on a wide range of banking transactions, including mortgages, term loans, lines of credit, letters of credit, security agreements and related matters. Our team has very good working relationships with many banking professionals.
Commodity Tax/Customs
Our tax practitioners have extensive experience in helping our clients to navigate through the maze of laws, regulations and case law to help minimize their commodity tax and customs duty obligations. Regardless of a client's size or markets, our tax team can assist in maximizing recoveries, minimizing lost opportunities, and identifying potential liabilities in order avoid future penalties. We provide advice on Goods and Services Tax, Provincial Sales Tax, Harmonized Sales Tax, customs duties and excise taxes and duties, among others.
Commercial Real Estate
Our real estate professionals provide our clients with advice on all aspects of commercial real estate transactions. Our professionals assist clients in financings, commercial mortgages, banking, teaming agreements, joint ventures and general commercial real estate issues. The members of our team also represent vendors and purchasers in all aspects of real estate purchase and sale transactions, whether involving real estate assets, or shares or other equity interests.
Corporate Governance
As well as providing ongoing advice to our private and public company clients on matters relating to their responsibilities to their security holders, we also advise individual directors and officers, as well as security holders, of public and private businesses in the enforcement of their rights. For our public clients, we offer a suite of corporate governance policies, plans and agreements that meet the evolving Canadian standards set by securities regulators, stock exchanges and shareholder advocacy groups.
Corporate Matters
Our large group of corporate professionals provides a full range of corporate law services including company incorporation and organization (including tax planning for founders), shareholder agreements, stock option and stock purchase plans, board and shareholder meeting minutes, ledger and register updating, proxy solicitation issues, advice concerning corporate changes and reorganizations, and company dissolution or wind-up, among many others. We also act on the formation and administration of other forms of legal entities, such as partnerships and limited partnerships. Through our network of agents, we also assist clients with the formation and organization of subsidiaries and business units in the United States and other jurisdictions.
Corporate Tax
Our tax lawyers help our clients to proactively structure their affairs in a tax-efficient manner and creatively resolve tax issues when they arise. Members of our tax team works closely with their colleagues in other practice areas, providing expert tax advice in all corporate and commercial transactions. The involvement of knowledgeable tax practitioners can often create unlooked-for value in a transaction. Our tax group's expertise covers individual and corporate tax matters and those arising from both everyday and extraordinary corporate transactions.
Employment Law
Our Employment group provides our corporate clients with advice and representation with respect to employment contracts, termination, wrongful dismissal, human rights, workers' compensation, employment standards, occupational health and safety, and other related matters.
Estate & Personal Tax Planning
Our Estate & Personal Tax Planning team helps clients to achieve long-term personal and financial goals for themselves and their families by providing comprehensive estate planning advice. Our estate professionals can assist with trusts, wills, powers of attorney, guardianship matters and asset protection planning.
Intellectual Property Law
Our Intellectual Property and Technology team advises clients on all aspects of technology planning, protection, commercialization, acquisition and transfer. We work closely with patent and other intellectual property specialists to maximize the protection of, and value obtained from, our client's intellectual property. Our lawyers have expertise in all types of technology agreements, including those relating to confidentiality and intellectual property ownership, intellectual property assignment and transfer, source code escrow, supply, in-bound and out-bound licensing, distribution, OEM and VAR arrangements and all manners of strategic relationships.
International Trade Regulation
Our team of lawyers in this area is experienced in anti-dumping and trade regulation with both national tribunals (CITT and Federal Court) and international tribunals (Bi-National NAFTA panels). This practice area is related to the Customs practice and provides guidance on production, importation and exportation.
Litigation - Corporate Tax
Our tax litigation lawyers have extensive experience in resolving all kinds of tax disputes (whether personal or corporate, commodity or income), with all levels of government. Our group has an excellent track record of winning those cases that cannot be settled.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Our Mergers & Acquisitions team advises clients on the purchase and sale of both public and private businesses. M&A represents a key practice area for our firm. In M&A transactions, our clients include both buyers and sellers, as well as financial advisors, institutional investors, lenders and special committees of public target companies. We provide advice on planning acquisition strategies, developing appropriate and tax efficient transaction structures, responding to proposed acquisition structures and terms, implementing transactional aspects of a deal, and assisting target companies in preparing for and defending take-overs, among other things.
Privacy Law
Our Privacy Law group advises clients regarding compliance with public and private sector privacy and freedom of information laws, enabling our clients to collect, use and disclose personal information in compliance with all applicable laws. We assist businesses to comply with legal requirements and to develop best practices in privacy matters in order to minimize their exposure to legal liability and reputational risk.
Private Equity/Venture Capital
Representation of companies and investors in private equity transactions is one of our key practice areas. We have substantial transactional experience and extensive relationships with prominent players in the Canadian and U.S. private equity markets - out of all proportion to our relatively small size. This includes a significant number of cross-border transactions with major US investment firms. Our highly experienced team of private equity professionals is well positioned to advise our clients on the business terms of private equity deals as well as on the legal aspects. We have experience with all forms of investment transactions, from common or preferred share deals to convertible debt or limited partnership structures and various combinations. We also assist our clients to identify and access potential sources of investment and in structuring, negotiating and documenting financing transactions at all business stages, including seed, angel, venture capital, bridge, convertible, debt, private placements and public offerings.
Property Development (Real Estate: Land Use Planning/Municipal)
We represent companies involved in the development, construction, ownership and operation of retail, office, industrial, multi-family and single-family projects. We represent corporations and other clients in all aspects of their real estate activities including in the strategic planning of new development opportunities, sale transactions, zoning and land use issues, easement and rights-of-way acquisitions and construction, engineering and architectural contracts.
Property Leasing
Our Real Estate group acts frequently for landlords and tenants in the drafting, review and negotiation of commercial leases, subleases and related matters. We have on many occasions used our network to assist clients in finding tenants or rental space.
Securities Law
Our Securities Law group acts for public companies, investment dealers, private companies and private equity funds in Canadian and cross-border transactions. We provide securities law advice on public and private debt and equity financings, mergers and acquisitions, and ongoing compliance with securities laws and continuous disclosure requirements, including insider reporting requirements. We represent both businesses and agents in the structuring and sale of securities in public offerings and private placements. We also assist investment dealers, private equity investors and other parties with all transactional elements, including due diligence, structuring and identifying and implementing exit strategies. We provide advice and well-tested precedent agreements and documents to our clients to meet their day to day securities law compliance needs.
Technology/Licensing
We help our clients in the protection and exploitation of their intellectual property. Our technology department comprises three lawyers engaged full-time in technology transactions and can help clients with intellectual property protection and transfer agreements, software licensing, source code escrows, end user license agreements, original equipment manufacturer agreements (OEM), value added reseller agreements (VAR), distribution agreements, technology licensing agreements, website policies and privacy policies, among many others.
