Canada 2020 – GC Powerlist
GC Powerlist Logo

Canada 2020

  • Industries

  • Powerlist

Amanda Klein

Executive vice president, regulatory affairs and general counsel | Toronto Hydro Corporation

Energy and utilities

Andrea Cotroneo

Chief legal officer and chief compliance officer | Capital One Canada

Financials

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,...

Andrea Wood

Chief legal and governance officer | TELUS

Telecommunication 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? At...

Andrés Durán

Senior vice president, legal services | EllisDon Group of Companies

Industrials and real estate

Angela Avery

EVP, external affairs & chief legal officer | Westjet

Transport and infrastructure

Anita Mackey

Associate general counsel | Scotiabank

Financials

Anthony Ruffolo

Senior manager and general counsel | Honda Canada

Consumer products

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...

Argiro Kotsalis

Vice president, legal and chief governance officer | Vancouver Airport Authority (VAA)

Transport and infrastructure

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...

Arlene Strom

Senior vice president and general counsel | Suncor Energy

Energy and utilities

Benoit Dubé

Executive vice-president, legal and economic affairs, and corporate secretary | CGI Group

Information technology

Beverley Flynn

Vice president, general counsel and secretary | Morguard Corporation

Industrials and real estate

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...

Bindu Cudjoe

Senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary | Canadian Western Bank

Financials

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...

Bob Rooney

Executive vice president and chief legal officer | Enbridge

Energy and utilities

Brian Baum

Director, associate general counsel | Citibank

Financials

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...

Bruno-Étienne Duguay

Chief legal officer | Novacap

Healthcare

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...

Chantal Thibault

Senior managing director, legal | OMERS Private Equity

Financials

GC Powerlist logo as placeholder
Charles Caza

Senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary | Bird Construction

Industrials and real estate

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...

Christelle Gedeon

Chief legal officer | Aphria

Healthcare

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...

Christopher Lemon

General counsel | Pan American Silver

Materials and mining

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...

Dana Stringer

Vice president, corporate secretary and general counsel | Barrick Gold Corporation

Materials and mining

Daniel Holden

Senior vice president, general counsel and secretary  | Nestle Canada

Food

Daniel Marion

General counsel North America | Thales

Industrials and real estate

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...

David Onorato

General counsel | Royal Bank of Canada

Financials

GC Powerlist logo as placeholder
David Shapiro

Chief legal officer | Air Canada

Industrials and real estate

GC Powerlist logo as placeholder
Dawn Devoe

General counsel and privacy officer | World Vision Canada

Dustin Isaacs

Vice-president, general counsel and corporate secretary | Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd.

Materials and mining

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...

Elizabeth Saati

Assistant vice president and counsel | Manulife Investment Management

Financials

Ellen Patterson

Group head and general counsel | Toronto Dominion Bank (TD)

Financials

Éric Labbé

General counsel and corporate secretary | Canadian Malartic GP (CMGP)

Materials and mining

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...

Eric Notkin

Vice president and general counsel Canada, USA, UK and Asia-Pacific | CGI Information Systems and Management Consultants

Information technology

Fernando Garcia

Vice-president legal | CargoJet

Transport and infrastructure

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...

Gordon McCue

Head of legal | Shell Canada

Energy and utilities

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...

GC Powerlist logo as placeholder
Graeme McPhail

Chief legal officer and secretary | Rogers Communications

Consumer discretionary

Gregory Joffe

General counsel | Instar Asset Management Inc

Financials

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...

Harpreet K. Sidhu

General counsel, corporate secretary and privacy officer | Pethealth – A Fairfax Company

Healthcare

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...

Heather Brown

Vice president and assistant general counsel | Johnson Controls International

Industrials and real estate

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...

Ian Arellano

Executive vice president and general counsel | Scotiabank

Financials

GC Powerlist logo as placeholder
Isabelle Robitaille

Executive director, legal affairs and general counsel | Sandoz Canada

Healthcare

James Rickert

Managing director | Brookfield Infrastructure

Industrials and real estate

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...

Jeff Davis

Chief legal and corporate affairs officer | Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan

Financials

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...

Jeffrey J. Ellis

Chief legal officer and corporate secretary | Canadian Pacific Railway

Transport and infrastructure

Jennifer Mazin

Managing partner and general counsel | Brookfield

Energy and utilities

Jennifer Suess

Senior vice president, general counsel, corporate secretary  | RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust

Financials

Jeremy Millard

Legal director, Canada | Uber Canada

Transport and infrastructure

Jill Swainson

Chief legal officer and corporate secretary | Aurora Cannabis

Healthcare

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...

Joseph Frasca

Senior vice president, general counsel and secretary | Shopify

Consumer products

Joseph Podwika

Executive vice president and chief legal officer | Bunge

Food

Joshua Kane

Vice president, legal & general counsel | STEP Energy Services

Energy and utilities

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...

Karen Decker

Chief underwriting counsel – international operations | Stewart Title Guaranty Company 

Financials

Kate Chisholm

Senior vice president, chief legal and sustainability officer | Capital Power Corporation

Energy and utilities

Katherine Gurney

General counsel | Northleaf Capital Partners

Financials

Katherine Smirle

Senior counsel and director, banking litigation (Canada and Caribbean) | Royal Bank of Canada

Financials

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,...

Kathy Mah

Canadian associate vice-president and assistant general counsel | Aramark Canada

Energy and utilities

Ken Tennenhouse

General counsel and corporate secretary | Manitoba Hydro

Energy and utilities

Kikelomo Lawal

Chief legal officer, ombudsman and corporate secretary | Interac

Financials

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...

Lisa Marcuzzi

Vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, ArcelorMittal Dofasco, and country counsel, Canada, ArcelorMittal Canada | ArcelorMittal

Materials and mining

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...

Mark Hounsell

General counsel, chief compliance officer and corporate secretary | CAE

Industrials and real estate

Mark Platteel

General counsel | ACS Infrastructure Canada

Transport and infrastructure

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...

Matthew Campbell

Managing Director, General counsel, chief compliance officer and chief risk officer | Bentallgreenoak

Industrials and real estate

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...

Matthew Snell

Vice president, general counsel and secretary | IBM Canada

Information technology

Mélanie Bernier

Chief legal officer | PSP Investments

Financials

Melissa Kennedy

Chief legal officer and public affairs | Sun Life Financial

Financials

Michael Shour

General counsel | Jonas Software

Information technology

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...

Mike Brady

Executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary | NorthWest Healthcare Properties REIT

Industrials and real estate

Muneeb Yusuf

General counsel | League

Healthcare

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...

Nancy Lipson

Executive vice president and general counsel | Newmont Goldcorp

Materials and mining

Nina Mapara

Vice president, legal | MasterCard

Financials

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...

Pascal Hurtubise

Vice president head of legal and company secretary | Boralex

Energy and utilities

Patrick Keys

Executive vice president, stakeholder relations and general counsel | TC Energy

Energy and utilities

GC Powerlist logo as placeholder
Paul Harricks

Chief legal officer | Hydro One

GC Powerlist logo as placeholder
Paul McKay

General counsel Canada | Manulife Canada

Financials

Paul Mendes

Vice-president, legal general counsel and corporate secretary | Canadian Natural Resources (Canadian Natural)

Energy and utilities

Peter B. Sahagian

General counsel | KPMG

Commercial and professional services

Peter Nguyen

General counsel, corporate secretary and privacy officer | Resolver

Information technology

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...

Peter Ogden

Head of legal Canada | JTI Canada

Food

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...

Peter Rozee

Senior vice president, commercial and legal affairs | Teck Resources

Materials and mining

Phil Shaer

Chief legal officer | Canopy Growth Corporation

Healthcare

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...

GC Powerlist logo as placeholder
Preston MacNeil

Senior counsel, legal and regulatory compliance | BMO Financial Group (Bank of Montreal)

Financials

Rahmiel Rothenberg

Chief operating officer and general counsel | Insight Productions

Sports and media

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...

Ratika Gandhi

Head of legal and compliance, Canada | Alcon Canada

Healthcare

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...

Richard Brait

General counsel – Canada | Siemens

Industrials and real estate

Robert Kirkpatrick

Senior vice president, general counsel, securities and corporate secretary | Nutrien

Materials and mining

Roger J. Chouinard

Chief legal officer and corporate secretary | QuadReal Property Group

Industrials and real estate

Sachin Kanabar

Chief legal officer | Iovate Health Sciences International

Healthcare

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...

GC Powerlist logo as placeholder
Sarah Qadeer

General counsel | Home Depot Canada

Consumer products

GC Powerlist logo as placeholder
Scott Kirkpatrick

Vice-president and general counsel | Coca-Cola Canada

Food

GC Powerlist logo as placeholder
Sean Finn

Executive vice president corporate services and chief legal officer | Canadian National Railway Company (CN)

Industrials and real estate

Shalomi Abraham

Senior vice president, head of legal | Invesco Canada

Financials

Shaun Logue

Vice president, general counsel | Hydro Ottowa

Energy and utilities

Shawn Beber

Senior executive vice-president, general counsel and corporate development | CIBC

Financials

Simon Fish

Special advisor to the CEO | BMO Financial Group (Bank of Montreal)

Financials

Steeve Robitaille

General counsel | Bombardier

Industrials and real estate

Susan Kennedy

General counsel and corporate secretary | Ornge

Healthcare

Tanya J Rothe

General counsel | D-Wave Systems

Information technology

Tim Hutzul

Vice president, legal | ShawCor

Energy and utilities

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...

GC Powerlist logo as placeholder
Tracey Beaudoin

General counsel and corporate secretary | Packers Plus Energy Services

Energy and utilities

Valery Zamuner

Senior vice-president, general counsel and corporate secretary | Alimentation Couche-Tard

Consumer products

Wayne Carson

President, infrastructure | Kilmer Group

Financials

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...

Yasmin Visram

Senior managing counsel | Industrial Alliance Insurance & Financial Services

Financials

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...

Yonni Fushman

Executive vice president, chief legal officer and secretary | Aecon Group

Industrials and real estate

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

GC Summit Austria 2024

In Vienna’s historic cultural centre within shouting distance of the famed opera house, The Legal 500 gathered 150 of the country’s top in-house lawyers for the second GC Summit Austria. Alongside them was an experienced cohort of private practice experts from our event partners – petsche pollak, Baker McKenzie, CERHA HEMPEL, Taylor Wessing and Wolf Theiss – who were on hand to dispense their wisdom via our six sessions covering a multitude of relevant topic areas.

Expertly kicking the summit off was a speaker who always gives an excellent showing, Stefan Wochinz of Vaillant. In his hugely well-received keynote speech, Wochinz spoke about building a rewarding and successful career as a general counsel, and outlined some key themes to be explored in later sessions.

Our first panel discussion followed. In this expansive discussion, Alina Alavi Kia and Roman Heidinger of CERHA HEMPEL provided the audience with a thorough overview of brand protection requirements in Austria and gave a roadmap for successfully shepherding a brand through new technological developments. Among other issues, best practice benchmarks for trademarks, anti-counterfeiting, and licensing in an increasingly digitalised world were discussed in detail.

Next on stage were Simone Petsche-Demmel and Andreas Pollak of petsche pollak Amanda Neil ofHead Group, Nicole Bäck-Knapp of Ecker & Partner and Alice Fremuth-of Nivalion. Featuring a speaker lineup boasting extremely diverse experience and a topic that opened up multiple avenues of conversation, this panel teased out a number of issues that were at the forefront of those in the audience. As new supply chain due diligence requirements began to take hold in Austria across Europe, strategies for ensuring business-as-usual were outlined.

The next session was a particularly enlightening one organised in partnership with Taylor Wessing. Their partners, Andreas Schütz and Axel von dem Bussche were joined by Alexander Sammer of The National Anti-Doping Agency, Dr. Peter Lohberger of Wiener Wohnen Hausbetreuung and Prof. Dr. Clemens Heitzinger, co-director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (CAIML) at TU Wien. With Schütz and von dem Bussche opening by outlining the legal framework, Sammer and Lohberger then provided the perspectives of government and corporate entities respectively. As one of the foremost experts on large language models and machine learning in the country, Heitzinger’s contributions to the discussion were particularly well-received by the audience. As well as giving a background into how GPT and other models work, he gave practical advice on how to utilise them responsibly and to their best effect in an in-house legal department.

Baker McKenzie then brought their expertise to bear on a topic that is growing in importance worldwide: carve-out transactions. Given that carve-outs tendto be more challenging than an acquisition of stand-alone businesses, the panel discussed the key structuring considerations as well as practical and legal issues that must be overcome. Those on stage (Philipp Stanek and Sophie Schubert of Baker McKenzie, Dr Franz Fazekas, of ams OSRAM of Hoerbiger Group of Companies and Klemens Keferboeck of Magna International) also focused on the planning, due diligence, and documentation of carve-out transactions and touched upon selected issues regarding effective integration.

Andrea Gritsch and Florian Kusznier of Wolf Theiss were joined on stage by Victoria Corley of Enery and Dr. Alexander Schall of Unicredit Bank for our final panel session, which took a broad look at M&A issues, focusing on the key challenges which clients and their advisers faced executing deals in the current climate. Both Corley and Dr. Schall provided insights into transactions they have been a part of in their prior careers, giving the audience an exclusive insight into how deals are handled by the in-house side at the strategic level.

Our final session was a wide-ranging presentation on white-collar crime by two of the best in the business: Simone Petsche-Demmel and Andreas Pollak. Based on their extensive experience, they rounded out the summit by outlining some of the cases they have been a part of, and brought attention to some potential pitfalls that in-house counsel should be mindful of.