Legal team size: Three

What projects are you most proud to have worked on over the past 12 months?

STEP entered into a definitive agreement with a major shareholder (including the limited partnerships comprising ARC Energy Fund 8, which is a private equity fund advised by ARC Financial Corp.) to take the company private in an all-cash transaction. While the arrangement was unanimously approved by STEP’s special committee and board, the requisite minority shareholder approval could not be achieved and the arrangement was ultimately terminated on the day of the proposed shareholder vote.

Have you had any experiences during your career as a lawyer that stand out as particularly unique or interesting?

In my nine years at the company I have (almost) manged the full life cycle of a public company. I joined STEP when it was a private company, helped to take it public through an IPO, completed a secondary offering, a cross border corporate acquisition of a US competitor and several other smaller bolt on asset purchases, and saw a proposed take-private transaction through to its termination on the day of the shareholder vote.

How does your team contribute to the overall business strategy of the company?

STEP’s legal team helps to ensure that the company’s legal risks and risk management processes align with our business group’s expectations. Our philosophy is that it’s not about saying no to risk, it’s about ensuring our business group understands the risk they take in exchange for the expected reward, and that our contracts and corporate structure supports their reasonable and expected risk/reward goals. We provide guidance on all aspects of acquisitions and other M&A transactions, ensure that contacts are within our agreed risk profile, assess changing laws and regulations, and facilitate entering new markets by assessing legal risk.