What are the most significant matters, transactions, or legal initiatives you and your team have been involved in over the past 12–18 months?

The past 18 months have represented a transformational chapter for STEP Energy Services, Sanjel Energy Services and Wayfinder , involving the legal team in complex transactional, regulatory and corporate restructuring transactions, including the take-private arrangement with ARC Financial. We navigated the successful take-private transaction under a court-approved plan of arrangement pursuant to the Alberta Business Corporations Act (ABCA), whereby ARC Energy Fund 8 acquired the public minority shares. This required extensive coordination through a special committee process, Multilateral Instrument 61-101 (Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions) compliance, fairness opinions and TSX delisting.

Also, the malgamation and operational integration with Sanjel and Wayfinder. Following the take-private transaction, we facilitated the operational and corporate combination of STEP, Sanjel Energy Services and Wayfinder Corp. Bringing together deep-capacity coiled tubing, hydraulic fracturing, cementing and proppant under an integrated corporate umbrella. This has involved extensive harmonising of supplier and vendor contracts, operational safety protocols, employment arrangements, real estate leases and internal share services.

Finally, over the past 18 months we achieved the cross-border US asset divestiture to Ranger Energy Services. STEP recently closed the sale of its US coiled tubing, fluid and nitrogen pumping assets to Ranger Energy Services (NYSE: RNGR). This transaction involved addressing multi-state title and licensing matters, assignments of fleet and facility leases, cross-border guarantee and tax considerations, and an operational handover.

Have there been any moments in your career as an in-house lawyer that you consider particularly defining, unusual, or formative in shaping how you approach your role today?

The truly defining moments come in both the highs and the lows of cyclical markets. Helping an organisation to navigate deep cyclical downturns, across multiple jurisdictions, and in both the private and public market has been a very interesting ride. In particular, I think experiencing oilfield volatility early on teaches you that an in-house lawyer cannot simply say “no” or always recommend the maximum risk-avoiding approach. You need to help the organisation do business and keep the lights on. The upside is that when capital markets seize up or an industry faces structural stress, you end up getting a lot of practice at rapid, decisive triage: everything from managing creditor relationships, to maintaining key vendor relationships, to safeguarding enterprise value under extreme time and financial pressures.

In addition, it’s been fantastic to be at STEP long enough to see the organisation shift from a high-growth start-up to a public entity, navigate the public markets, and then get taken private again and integrate with some truly complementary businesses like Sanjel and Wayfinder. It’s allowed me to really see the in-house role from all sides, and taught me that practising law in-house is about stewardship, building structures that outlast current market conditions, and preserving the culture and trust of the organisation through the changes.