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Farris LLP: Vancouver's Law Firm

Corporate & Commercial

Farris has been ranked by Lexpert as the top corporate law firm in Vancouver for eight consecutive years.

Our clients typically view us as key business advisors, involved and contributing legal and strategic counsel on matters ranging from day-to-day operations to “bet the company” decisions.

Our lawyers advise on a broad range of corporate and commercial matters including mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt financings, cross-border transactions, corporate reorganizations, establishing joint ventures and partnerships, facilitating regulatory approvals, syndicated credit facility transactions, project financing and public/private partnership transactions, private equity investments, incentive and stock compensation plans, and general corporate matters.

Representative work:

  • Acted for Aspreva Pharmaceuticals Corporation with respect to the sale of Aspreva for US $915 million to the Galenica Group.
  • Acted for MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. with respect to the proposed sale of its space business to ATK for $1.35 billion.
  • Acted as counsel for the underwriters or selling investment dealers in connection with the initial public offering of $250 million of senior secured bonds of the independent BC Ferry Services Inc. (May 2004), a second $250 million public offering of bonds (October 2004), a private placement of $250 million in bonds (March 2007), and a further $200 million private placement.
  • Acted as counsel for Japanese banks in connection with the restructuring of approximately US $238 million of debt of Howe Sound Pulp and Paper Limited Partnership, including an application under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act to make the restructuring binding on a dissenting bank.
  • Acted as counsel for Terasen Gas (Vancouver Island) Inc. in connection with its initial offering of $250 million of unsecured debentures.
  • Acted for Day4 Energy Inc. with respect to its $100 million initial public offering.
  • Acted as counsel for the lenders in connection with $700 million in credit facilities extended to West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. and a US subsidiary.
  • Acted for Club Penguin with respect to the $700 million sale of Club Penguin to the Walt Disney Company.
  • Acted as counsel to AnorMED in the US $585 million contested cross-border acquisition of AnorMED by Genzyme Corporation, the first ever hostile contested bid for a life sciences company.
  • Acted in the $212 million acquisition of AirSource Power Fund by Algonquin Power Income Fund.
  • Acted as counsel to TELUS in connection with its $6.6 billion acquisition of Ontario-based Clearnet Communications Inc. and related bank financing.
  • Acted as counsel to BC TELECOM Inc. in its $10 billion pooling of interest merger with TELUS Corporation.
  • Acted as counsel to Broadcom Corp. of Irvine, California in its $425 million pooling of interest acquisition of HotHaus Technologies.
  • Acted as counsel for Inland Natural Gas in its acquisition of the Mainland Gas Division of BC Hydro, one of the largest privatization transactions in Canada.
  • Acted as counsel for MacDonald Dettwiler in connection with its cross-border pooling of interest merger transaction with Orbital Sciences Corporation, and Patterson Dental Corporation in connection with the cross-border pooling of interest merger transaction with Canadian Dental Corporation.
  • Acted as counsel for the special committee of the Board of Ballard Power Systems Ltd. in connection with their joint venture arrangements with Daimler-Benz and Ford Motor Company.
  • Acted as counsel for the special committee of the Board of Directors of Burcon Properties in connection with the acquisition of the “Expo Lands” from Concord Pacific. In addition, we acted for the special committee in connection with the merger of Burcon with Oxford Properties.

Our Lawyers

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A. Keith Mitchell, Q.C. Chair kmitchell@farris.com 604 661 9337
James P. Hatton, Q.C. Partner jhatton@farris.com 604 661 9324
Elizabeth J. Harrison, Q.C. Partner eharrison@farris.com 604 661 9367
Mitchell H. Gropper, Q.C. Partner mgropper@farris.com 604 661 9322
R. Hector MacKay-Dunn, Q.C. Partner hmackay-dunn@farris.com 604 661 9307
Dominic A. Petraroia, Q.C. Managing Partner, Kelowna dpetraroia@farris.com 250 869 3851
B. R. (Brian) Canfield Partner bcanfield@farris.com 604 661 9362
R. Christopher Holmes Partner cholmes@farris.com 604 661 9335
Albert J. Hudec Partner ahudec@farris.com 604 661 9356
Kevin Kingston Partner kkingston@farris.com 250 869 3861
Ross Langford Partner rlangford@farris.com 250 869 3868
Peter C.T. MacPherson Partner pmacpherson@farris.com 250 869 3881
Hugh M. Matthews Senior Counsel hmatthews@farris.com 604 661 9305
Maria K. McKenzie Partner mmckenzie@farris.com 604 661 9319
Ronald G. Murray Partner rmurray@farris.com 604 661 9306
Denise C. Nawata Partner dnawata@farris.com 604 661 1746
Bradley A. Newby Partner bnewby@farris.com 604 661 9308
Dean A. O’Leary Partner doleary@farris.com 604 661 9316
Paul S. Richardson Partner prichardson@farris.com 604 661 9351
Peter M. Roth Partner proth@farris.com 604 661 9382
Bo Rothstein Partner brothstein@farris.com 604 661 1747
Trevor R. Scott Partner tscott@farris.com 604 661 1732
David J. Selley Partner dselley@farris.com 604 661 1718
B. Sunny Aujla Associate saujla@farris.com 604 661 9334
Nicole M. Cameron Associate ncameron@farris.com 604 661 9348
James R. Campbell Associate jcampbell@farris.com 604 661 9374
Ronald A. Chin Associate rchin@farris.com 604 661 9333
Aaron P.G. Dow Associate adow@farris.com 250 869 3858
Ron D. Dueck Associate rdueck@farris.com 604 661 9395
Nicholas T. Hooge Associate nhooge@farris.com 604 661 9391
Thierry O. Keable Associate tkeable@farris.com 604 661 1739
Kwang Lim Associate klim@farris.com 604 661 1704
Jamie R. Matthews Associate jmatthews@farris.com 604 661 9365
Laura J. Myles Associate lmyles@farris.com 250 869 3874
Christine J. Oberti Associate coberti@farris.com 604 661 9380
Duncan J. Reid Associate dreid@farris.com 604 661 1736
Victor W. Tsao Associate vtsao@farris.com 604 661 9378
Christopher G. Walker Associate cwalker@farris.com 604 661 9399