Mergers and Acquisitions
We act as advisors to insurance and other financial services companies on mergers and acquisitions and demutualization and outsourcing transactions. We have the tax, regulatory and corporate capabilities required and have developed excellent relationships with regulators, financial intermediaries, actuarial firms and accounting firms.
Regulatory Advice and Compliance Matters
We regularly provide insurance sector clients and their other advisors with specific and general regulatory advice and assistance in compliance matters. We have developed an in-depth understanding of the regulatory framework governing the insurance sector at both the federal and provincial levels and have excellent contacts and working relationships with federal and provincial regulators. Particular areas of experience include corporate governance, related party transactions and regulatory capital matters.
Structured Finance and Financial Products
We advise Canadian and international clients on a wide variety of innovative financing vehicles and structured products. In the insurance sector, we have acted as lead counsel on, among other things, the securitization of insurance company assets, the provision by leading reinsurance companies to financial institutions and other clients of innovative capital solutions and a wide range of structured derivative products, including catastrophe bonds.
Class Action Defence
Our national presence allows us to respond wherever a class action is launched and to mount a comprehensive defence in each jurisdiction. Our class action litigators have argued some of the leading cases in this still-developing area of law, and our wide range of experience includes successfully resisting certification of class actions and negotiating and implementing complex and creative settlements to class actions.
Commercial Risks and Litigation
We have extensive expertise in the corporate, litigation and alternative dispute resolution aspects of commercial insurance matters, including coverage, D & O, energy, environmental, liability, marine, non-marine, P & C, reinsurance, special risks and subrogation, as well as the defence of disability and life claims. The group's clients include North American and international underwriters, as well as Lloyd's syndicates and the International Underwriting Association of London, protection and indemnity associations, insurance brokers, corporations, banks and other financial institutions.
Shipping
Shipping and insurance matters are handled primarily from the Montréal office. As shipping and navigation in Canada are federal in nature, the firm has a capacity to handle maritime litigation throughout the country. The group comprises lawyers, a nautical advisor and an extensive support staff. It has experience in substantially all aspects of the transportation and insurance industries. Its activities include an extensive maritime and aviation law practice including pollution, collision and salvage, charterparty disputes, cargo claims, towage, sale and purchase, registration and finance. It also has extensive experience relating to insurance law, including marine and non-marine insurance, property, liability (including directors' and officers'), contingency, energy and risk management. Clients include marine and non-marine underwriters, protection and indemnity associations and insurance brokers, airline owners, shipowners (including dry bulk carriers, chemical product carriers and tankers), charterers, operators and agents, cargo owners, shipping conferences, banks and other financial institutions, stevedoring contractors, freight forwarders, pilotage authorities, canal operators, shipbuilders and repairers, and operators engaged in the offshore oil and gas industry. As well, it specializes in the governmental and regulatory aspects of the transportation, insurance and energy industries.
Other Related Expertise
We also have significant expertise in energy, marine/aviation, tax matters, advice to lenders and borrowers in a wide range of financings, information technology and outsourcing, insolvency of insurance sector participants, representation and warranty insurance and privacy matters.
Representative Experience
- £4.7 billion demutualization and floatation of Standard Life Assurance Company. (Canadian counsel to underwriters)
- Canadian regulatory aspects of US$2.9 billion acquisition by Aviva plc of AmerUS Group Co.
- $375 million Senior Unsecured Debentures offering by AON Finance N.S. (a Nova Scotia unlimited liability company), guaranteed by AON Corporation, 2006. (Counsel to underwriters)
- Sale by Winterthur Swiss Insurance Company of The Citadel General Assurance Company to AXA Canada Inc.
- Sale by private equity investors led by Torquest Partners Inc. of GCAN Insurance Company to Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board.
- Sale by Allianz AG of Allianz of Canada, Inc. to ING Canada Inc.
- $37.4 billion merger between Manulife Financial Corporation and John Hancock Financial Services, Inc. (Counsel to John Hancock)
To view a list of recent insurance experience, please click here.
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