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 CompanyÂ
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
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.