Farris has been recognized by Lexpert as Vancouver’s leading corporate law firm since rankings began and the 2012 Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory recognizes eleven of the seventeen corporate commercial partners practising in our Vancouver office.

To view the 2012 Corporate bulls-eyes please click here.

To view the 2012 Litigation bulls-eyes please click here.

Business in Vancouver has celebrated BC’s most influential women in business for 12 years. The awards are committed to recognizing some of BC’s most talented business leaders, whose career paths and individual achievements inspire business people throughout the province.

Elizabeth Harrison provides legal advice on various matters including corporate finance; securities; mergers and acquisitions; corporate governance issues; establishment of commercial, “not for profit” corporations; corporate reorganizations; and general corporate advice to clients including board of directors and advice on incentive and employee stock compensation plans.

She has previously been honoured at the inaugural Lexpert Zenith Awards Gala which recognized her significant contribution to law and at the 12th Annual PEAK Awards, Honouring Women in Finance, where she won the Performance & Excellence Award.

Elizabeth has been named among the Top 25 Women Lawyers in Canada, the Top 30 Mergers and Acquisitions Lawyers in Canada, and the Top 100 Most Creative Lawyers in Canada.

She is consistently ranked among the leading lawyers in Canada, including within the Lexpert Guides to the Leading US/Canada Cross-Border Corporate Lawyers in Canada; and, the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada.

Elizabeth has served on the Board of Directors of the International Finance Centre, St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation, The Vancouver Opera, and Crofton House School and as Chair of BC Ferry Authority and BC Ferry Services Inc. She is currently Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of BC Ferry Services Inc.

Elizabeth will receive her award on March 6, 2012 at an awards luncheon to be held at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel, Vancouver.

To view the article, click here.

PNG supplies gas to approximately 40,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers and their pipeline extends some 587 kilometres from Summit Lake, BC, to the west coast of BC at Prince Rupert. The acquisition will grow AltaGas’ Utility business to over 110,000 customers and increase rate base to over $500 million.

The Farris team comprised of Al Hudec, Trevor Scott, Denise Nawata and Peter Roth (securities), David Selley (competition), Rebecca Morse (litigation) and Sandy Sheinin and Mark Chu (tax).

Robert was called to the bar in Ontario in 1979, remains a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada and practises in both Ontario and British Columbia. He has represented the ski industry since 1983 as counsel and as a volunteer and works closely with the ski industry developing mountain safety and risk management programs. Robert is a recipient of the Marshall Award and the Jimmie Spencer Award for his contribution to the ski industry in Canada and an associate member of Canada West Ski Areas Association and the former Chair of the CWSAA Safety Committee.
Robert has also been litigation counsel for the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University for 20 years.

For further information about the Queen’s Counsel list for 2011 please click here.

For further information about Mr. Kennedy please click here.

Ludmila was one of a team of lawyers at Farris who were recently awarded the Order of the Diocese of New Westminster (honorary) in recognition of their work in defending the Anglican Diocese and the Bishop of New Westminster in property-related claims brought against those parties by the Anglican Network in Canada.

She was also a member of the team supporting George Macintosh in his role as Amicus Curiae in the B.C. Supreme Court Polygamy constitutional reference case.

She has been media counsel on publication ban and access applications, such as the Basi-Virk case in which she has represented the Vancouver Sun, Province and Global BC. 

Ludmila is also co-author of the annually updated Commercial Arbitration in Canada: A Guide to Domestic and International Arbitrations (Canada Law Book), a text which has been cited by all levels of court in British Columbia, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and the Alberta Queen’s Bench.

The piece for 16x9 The Bigger Picture was entitled “Snoopy Boss” and aired nationally on 26 November, 2011. It addressed the common employment practice of undertaking internet searches prior to interviewing a candidate and the continuing surveillance of employees once hired.

It is claimed that some ninety percent of employers will check social networks and seventy two percent will not offer a candidate a position if they find something of concern about the individual online. Some employers are going so far as to request Facebook passwords to ensure that online profiles conform to employment contracts.

To view Don Richards’ interview, please click here.

In congratulating DSS, Mr. MacKay-Dunn highlighted that Digital Shelf Space’s GSP RUSHFIT home workout DVD fitness series starring Georges St-Pierre had in just its first year of sales become the number1 selling fitness DVD series of all time by a professional athlete.

Digital Shelf Space is an independent producer of home entertainment content and online delivery technology provider to digital retailers, content owners and aggregators. Their proprietary technology platform blends e-commerce functionality and paid DVD, digital download and streaming video delivery.

In the past five years, five Farris Partners have been awarded this prestigious honour which acknowledges top Canadian lawyers and corporate counsel under the age of 40.

Congratulations to Sean Hern (2011), Ludmila Herbst (2010), David Selley (2009), Trevor Scott (2008), and Brad Newby (2007) once again.

The Vancouver Bar Association is a non-profit organization serving 1,500-plus lawyers in the City of Vancouver and beyond. The organization works to encourage a high standard of legal education, training and ethics, and foster collegiality at the bar. Notably the VBA works with the Law Society of BC to set and enforce the rules governing articling interview week, publishes legal magazine The Advocate, and organizes and hosts fund raising and social events throughout the year. 

BC Discovery Fund was a selling shareholder and sold 1.0 million of its Avigilon shares (realizing a gain of $3.23 million net of commissions), and has further agreed to potentially sell up to another 150,000 shares. The Fund also elected to purchase 500,000 shares issued by Avigilon under the IPO.

The Farris lawyers representing BCDF include Al Hudec and Denise Nawata.

Addressing the topic of Inter-Generational Shareholder Agreements he outlined how these agreements between family business shareholders, such as parents and/or siblings, can be an extremely effective tool for ensuring the continuity of the family business.

In the 2012 Best Lawyers in Canada Directory, the following eighteen Farris Partners have been recognized as outstanding in their fields:

• Scott Dawson (Alternative Dispute Resolution, and Defamation and Media Law)
• Herb Dodd, Q.C. (Banking and Finance, Corporate Law, Project Finance Law, Mergers & Acquisitions Law and Securities Law)
• George K. Macintosh, Q.C. (Bet-the-Company Litigation, Legal Malpractice Law, and Corporate and Commercial Litigation)
• Hector MacKay-Dunn, Q.C. (Biotechnology Law, Securities Law and Technology Law)
• James Hatton, Q.C. (Biotechnology Law)
• Ludmila Herbst (Corporate and Commercial Litigation)
• Mitchell Gropper, Q.C. (Corporate Law, Real Estate Law, Mergers & Acquisitions Law and Securities Law)
• Elizabeth Harrison, Q.C. (Corporate Law, Mergers & Acquisitions Law and Securities Law)
• Trevor Scott (Corporate Law)
• Robert Anderson, Q.C. (Defamation and Media Law)
• Jeffrey Kay, Q.C. (Family Law)
• Karen Shirley-Paterson (Family Law)
• Alan Hamilton, Q.C. (Labour and Employment Law)
• Peter Parsons (Labour and Employment Law)
• Michael Korbin (Labour and Employment Law)
• Maria McKenzie (Project Finance Law)
• David Gillanders, Q.C. (Real Estate Law)
• Robert Kennedy (Sports Law)

To view biographies, please click on the respective Partner’s name.

In a transaction that completed at the end of September 2011, CBS Interactive Music Group, acquired MetroLyrics.com in a deal that will see MetroLyrics double CBS’s online traffic and integrate it with CBS’s popular line of music websites Last.fm, Radio.com and MP3.com.  MetroLyrics.com was founded 10 years ago by Milun Tesovic, at the age of 16 years old.  10 years later, MetroLyrics.com is the world’s largest online lyrics website and the third largest general music website.

MetroLyrics.com is the most comprehensive database of legal lyrics in the world with more than 700,000 songs.  The site generates over 25 million unique users a month across the globe with nearly 12 million of those in the United States (comScore, August 2011).  MetroLyrics.com co founders Alan Juristovski and Milun Tesovic will join CBS Interactive Music Group’s senior management team and will continue to lead MetroLyrics’ digital media offering.

CBS Interactive Music Group is comprised of a diverse collection of leading consumer music brands.  Broadcast, online and personalized products are readily accessible across a variety of digital and mobile platforms by a worldwide audience of more than 50 million unique monthly users.  Music fans can interact with material from the biggest names in the industry, as well as discover new and breaking artists, create their own listening experience and share their personal taste in music with friends and other like-minded fans.

Ludmila and Teresa also presented at a course by CLEBC on October 7 discussing their respective chapters. 

To obtain a copy of the book, please click here.

Only a single lawyer in each specialty in each community is being honored as the “Lawyer of the Year.”

The lawyers being honored are recognized as having earned a “high level of respect among their peers for their abilities, professionalism, and integrity.”

It is the biggest campaign ever to be staged in the BC interior, and Langford heads the campaign cabinet, which represents the Okanagan as well as Calgary. Efforts to date have already raised $52 million towards the overall campaign goal, which include more than 25 specific initiatives.

“Our campaign is like no other in Canada, in that our goal is not simply to raise funds for the University, but also to raise energy in the form of alumni engagement and personal involvement in our broader community,” says Langford.

“The campaign will propel UBC into innovative community partnerships and a fresh phase of development after the initial six-year buildout of the Okanagan campus. Together, these elements will create a momentum to carry us far beyond the end of this campaign, into a stronger, brighter future for UBC’s Okanagan campus and its ability to influence the world we serve,” Langford adds.

Start an evolution is part of a larger campaign for UBC that will be announced next week in Vancouver. Further announcements about the Okanagan campaign will be made as milestones are achieved.

UBC President Stephen Toope says the university has a major role to play in educating citizens and growing as a global centre of research excellence: “As one of the world’s top-ranked universities, UBC is already at the forefront of many of the major issues facing us today,” says Toope.