In the latest move by a large foreign player into Canada’s once-cloistered legal market, major U.S. employment law firm Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC is opening a Toronto office with three lawyers from Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP.
DEAL OF THE DAY
Corus Entertainment acquires Shaw Media for $2.65-billion
Corus Entertainment Inc. has agreed to pay $2.65-billion to acquire Shaw Media Inc. from Shaw Communications Inc., bulking up to compete in a shifting television landscape.
The price will be paid through a combination of $1.85-billion in cash and 71 million Corus class B shares at $11.21 a share. Both companies are ultimately controlled by the Shaw family of Alberta, but are separately listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The deal requires approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission as well as shareholders, although the Shaw family will be excluded from voting. If successful, the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of Corus's 2016 fiscal year. The Shaw family would stay closely involved in the company and Shaw Communications would own 39 per cent of all Corus shares.
"The opportunity presented itself, we jumped on it, the timing was right from the regulatory timetable perspective, and quite frankly, these two businesses belong together," Doug Murphy, president and chief executive officer of Corus, said in an interview. Story
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
Axiom acquires part of Cognition LLP
Much of Cognition LLP, a Toronto law firm hailed as an innovator for its low-cost approach and tech-startup mentality, is being acquired by U.S.-based legal services firm Axiom Global Inc., in the latest move by an international player into Canada's legal industry.
The deal will see 10-year-old Cognition, which currently has a roster of 50 lawyers who are "independent contractors," divided into two parts. Axiom, a $200-million (U.S.) company based in New York with 1,500 lawyers worldwide and with a similar approach as Cognition, will take on the side of the business that provides "embedded" lawyers for large companies to use in their in-house legal departments.
A separate successor law firm, called Caravel Law and owned by Cognition's two founders, former elite Bay Street law firm partners Rubsun Ho and Joe Milstone, will continue to offer legal services to small and medium-sized companies without their own legal departments. Lawyers from the 50-strong roster will be free to work for either firm. Story
INVESTMENT BANKING
GMP slashes jobs and eliminates dividend
GMP Capital Inc. is slashing nearly a quarter of its global work force, shuttering operations in the U.K. and Australia, and eliminating its dividend.
The drastic restructuring comes amid a prolonged commodity rout that has battered Bay Street's independent dealers – whose revenues traditionally leaned heavily on resource companies – and in the aftermath of a multiyear shift in the investment banking business model that has resulted in a steep decline in trading commissions.
"It's very painful to part with good people," Harris Fricker, chief executive officer of GMP, said in an interview. "But this isn't a 'would like to,' this is a 'have to.' " Story
STREET MOVES
U.S. employment law giant comes to Canada
In the latest move by a large foreign player into Canada's once-cloistered legal market, major U.S. employment law firm Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC is opening a Toronto office with three lawyers from Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP.
Ogletree, with 750 lawyers and 49 offices in the United States, Mexico and Europe, has now joined the ranks of a growing list of international law firms moving into the Canadian market.
Its new office will be headed by Hugh Christie, a former head of Gowlings' national employment law practice. Making the jump with him are partner Ed Majewski and associate Michael Comartin. There are plans, Mr. Christie says, to begin staffing up beyond that immediately.
Mr. Christie, who had been at Gowlings and one of its predecessor firms for 35 years, said his move comes as a result of Gowlings' plans to merge with British firm Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co., a combination that he said would exacerbate the conflict problems that many employment lawyers in large full-service firms encounter. Story
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Niall McGee