Stikeman Elliott LLP is a global leader in Canadian business law and the first call for businesses working in and with Canada. Our offices are located in Montréal, Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver, New York, London and Sydney. We provide clients with the highest quality counsel, strategic advice, and workable solutions. The firm has an exceptional track record in major US cross-border and multijurisdictional matters and ranks as a top firm in our primary practice areas including mergers and acquisitions, securities, business litigation, banking and finance, competition and foreign investment, tax, restructuring, energy, real estate, project development, employment and labour, and pensions.
MAIN AREAS OF PRACTICE
Mergers & Acquisitions: The M&A Group is well known in Canada, the US, UK and internationally for its work in high profile cross-border transactions involving public companies and for the depth of its expertise in negotiated transactions involving private companies and private equity and venture capital investors. The Group includes top-ranked M&A partners in each of Canada’s four economically dominant jurisdictions.
Capital Markets: The firm is top-ranked in corporate finance, representing underwriters, issuers and other capital markets players. The team’s expertise spans public offerings, private placements, high-yield debt and other debt offerings, structured finances, securitizations and derivatives REITs, as well as securities, regulatory and compliance issues. The New York office advises on a wide range of securities-related regulatory matters, including MJDS filings by Canadian companies and Canadian compliance issues of concern to US and overseas companies.
Banking & Lending: The firm has a broad range of experience in conventional bank lending, syndications and similar arrangements. The firm acts for lenders and borrowers on a full range of domestic secured corporate and commercial financings, unsecured or commercial paper stand-by lines for investment grade corporate credit, asset based financing and acquisition financing.
Bankruptcy, Insolvency & Restructuring: The Group has acted for borrowers, lenders, accounting firms, trustees, creditors and shareholders in some of Canada’s most challenging corporate reorganizations and restructurings. The firm is broadly experienced in both public and private restructurings as well as in negotiations with international creditors’ syndicates. It has extensive experience in cross-border insolvencies.
Global Financial Services: The multidisciplinary financial products and services practice delivers cutting edge expertise in structured finance, derivatives and financial products, investment funds and asset management, financial institutions and financial services regulatory matters.
Litigation, Class Actions & ADR: The firm’s Litigation Group has a strong corporate commercial emphasis. It is particularly well known for its work in the areas of securities, insolvency, tax, product liability, professional negligence, insurance, real estate, construction, intellectual property, environmental, competition, employment, commercial negligence and class actions. The firm also offers ADR and a well-regarded international commercial arbitration practice.
Competition & Foreign Investment: The Competition & Foreign Investment Group is recognized internationally for delivering ground-breaking results to clients pursuing ambitious business combinations in the most heavily scrutinized Canadian and global industries. The firm advises in both Canadian and international transactions, criminal investigations, class and other civil actions, Competition Tribunal proceedings regarding mergers, abuse of dominance and other reviewable matters, and day to day compliance in a wide range of industries.
Mining: The firm’s team of mining lawyers offers in-depth experience in all aspects of mining, including financings (both public and private), general securities law advice, joint ventures, property acquisition agreements and project financing. Clients include Canadian-based and international mining companies, investment banks, and international banks lending to the mining sector.
Energy: Stikeman Elliott’s national energy practice spans the breadth of the Canadian oil and gas, electricity and renewable energy industries providing advice to the full range of energy market participants including providers, developers, distributors and regulatory bodies. The firm’s Oil & Gas Group leverages local Calgary-based expertise and international relationships to provide full regulatory and commercial support needed in the upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas sectors. Stikeman Elliott’s national power practice supports clients through all phases of projects and transactions, in all Canadian jurisdictions, across all the sub-sectors of the diverse power industry. The firm’s energy lawyers also work closely with Stikeman Elliott’s corporate finance, M&A and restructuring practices on energy-related transactions, both domestic and cross-border.
Real Estate: Stikeman Elliott’s Real Estate Group acts for the industry’s most sophisticated players on their most complex projects, and has long-standing relationships with the key real estate developers and investors who have transformed Canadian real estate investment. The firm also advises on every type of major real estate development, including commercial, retail, office, industrial, multi-family residential, hotel, entertainment and mixed-use. The Group has expertise in handling large, complex multijurisdictional transactions, bulk real estate portfolio acquisitions, dispositions and financings, and in the establishment of investment funds and joint ventures.
Project Development & Finance: The lawyers in Stikeman Elliott’s project development and finance practice work on many of the most challenging and innovative projects in Canada and around the world, in a variety of industries. The firm’s national, full service platform ensures legal support for the full lifecycle of clients’ projects, from initial permits through to financings, regulatory approvals, and on-going contract and agreement negotiations. Stikeman Elliott’s lawyers have been involved in structuring, financing, and developing many of Canada’s “first of its kind” and award-winning projects, particularly in the infrastructure, public-private partnership, transportation, and energy sectors.
Employment, Labour and Pension: The Employment & Labour Group delivers its services on a continuing basis to employers on a wide range of employment and labour matters including labour standards, occupational health and safety, collective bargaining, employee privacy, human rights issues, legislative advice, and drafting of all relevant contracts. The national Pension & Benefits Group assists clients in the sophisticated and complex environment in which pension and employee benefit programs operate today.
Taxation: The increasingly complex needs of Canadian and international clients are served by the firm’s tax practice. In addition to transactional tax planning and litigation, the firm regularly provides highly specialized advice on international tax matters, transfer pricing, and commodity taxation.
Insurance: Stikeman Elliott’s national insurance and reinsurance practice offers insurance sector clients an unsurpassed combination of corporate, regulatory, transactional and coverage expertise, coupled with a top-tier litigation/dispute resolution practice. The firm represents a wide range of the world’s leading insurance and reinsurance companies and brokers.
Technology and Intellectual Property: The Technology and Intellectual Property Group provides a full range of legal services and aims not only to help clients adjust to the business realities of the increasing importance to technology, but also to identify and capitalize on valuable new opportunities in the global information marketplace. The Group’s core competencies include outsourcing and service arrangements, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and securities, joint ventures, licensing and commercialization, technology development, privacy, intellectual property management/branding, technology litigation and e-commerce and internet infrastructure.
International Work: The firm has been present in London since 1969 and in New York and the Asia-Pacific region since the early 1980s. The firm also regularly represents clients with respect to their business interests in Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and continental Europe as well as individuals and companies from those regions with respect to their Canadian business objectives.