Manufacturers must negotiate tight margins, rising costs,
global competition and the territorial barriers of local and national taxes and
international treaties. The market intelligence and legal knowledge of Bennett
Jones allows our manufacturing clients to
manage the outside influences and maintain a commercially viable business.
We
advise clients in regard to:
- Financing
- Public offerings and securities
- Mergers, acquisitions and
dispossessions
- Corporate commercial matters and
corporate governance
- Product regulation and liability
- Restructuring
- Commercial litigation
- Purchase and sale of manufacturing
operations
- International trade, including
Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) matters
- Competition and antitrust matters
- Employment matters
- Protecting proprietary processes and
other intellectual property
- Equipment financing and leasing
EXPERIENCE
- PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc., as
Monitor of Poseidon Concepts Corp. in its cross-border Companies Creditors’
Arrangement Act (”CCAA”) proceedings, including in its Court sanctioned role of
taking proceedings against Poseidon’s directors and auditors to recover
additional funds for the estate.
- National class actions against
Hyundai and Kia settled in parallel with U.S. proceedings, for up to $70
million plus options.
- TerraVest Capital Inc., in
connection with its $54 million acquisition of Gestion Jerico Inc., a
Quebec-based commercial and residential tank manufacturing company, from Clarke
Inc. and 9202-2599 Quebec Inc.
NEWS
& EVENTS
Climate
Change Policy and Competitiveness (April 16, 2014)
Jurisdictions are attempting to design
and implement climate change policies in a manner that addresses economic
competitiveness and prevents the relocation of affected industries (i.e., to
jurisdictions with less onerous carbon requirements). Some existing carbon
pricing programs in North America (e.g., California, Quebec, RGGI) and globally
(e.g., EU) include mechanisms designed to deal with these competitiveness and
leakage risks. Alternative mechanisms have also been proposed and analyzed,
such as Border Carbon Adjustments (BCAs). This seminar reviewed and explored
recent analyses and learnings from economic, legal and practical perspectives,
towards reconciling the carbon pricing-competitiveness challenge. The event
should be of interest to a broad range of policy makers, businesses, trade
associations, and academics. This seminar was presented by IETA, Centre for
European Policy Studies and Bennett Jones LLP.
Bennett
Jones Launches Canadian Anti-Spam Information Site (January 22, 2014)
In response to the long-awaited
regulations pertaining to the Canadian government's anti-spam legislation, Bill
C-28, Bennett Jones LLP has created a one-of-a-kind informational site designed
to help businesses and individuals plan a comprehensive compliance strategy.
Ranjan
Agarwal Interviewed about General Motors of Canada Ltd. v Johnson in Law Times
(November 11, 2013)
In the Law Times (Vo. 24, No. 36)
article, "Appeal Court Decision on Poisoned Workplace Claims a Win for
Employers," Ranjan Agarwal is interviewed about the decision in General
Motors of Canada Ltd. v Johnson and how it may embolden companies that approach
human rights complaints in good faith. Ranjan is quoted, "There is a way
to meet your human rights obligations and at the same time be firm about returning
to work. This case is a good, strong signal that the law will protect you if
you do those things."
PUBLICATIONS
Increased
Use of Summary Disposition in the Federal Court: An Efficient and
Cost-Effective Tool to Resolve Trademark Cases (December 15, 2014)
For many years, summary disposition
was essentially unavailable in intellectual property cases in the Federal Court
of Canada, unless a claim or defence was plainly devoid of merit. For some
parties, this presented a disincentive to advance meritorious claims where the
costs of litigation would exceed what was likely to be recovered.
Bennett
Jones Spring 2014 Economic Outlook (June 10, 2014)
While the geo-political landscape has
changed somewhat since our November 2013 Economic Outlook, the outlook for
global economic growth has not changed much. We continue to project real global
growth of about 3.5 percent in each of 2014 and 2015. However, the
international and industrial composition of that growth will change somewhat in
2014 and 2015. Growth in 2016 is projected to be about 3.5 percent but with
further changes in composition which may have important implications for
Canada.
In section I, we describe the most
important features of the global outlook to 2016. In section II, we present the
outlook for a two-speed Canada in the context of the outlook for global growth
and most importantly in the context of the ongoing structural changes in the
Canadian and provincial economies. In this section, we also examine possible
policy responses to the structural challenges. As usual, in the final section
we examine the outlook for global trade with particular attention to the
challenges we face in Canada.
Prison
Sentence in Air India Bribery Scheme Sends Deterrent Message to Canadian
Executives (May 25, 2014)
On May 23, Nazir Karigar, an agent of
Cryptometrics Canada Inc. (Cryptometrics), was sentenced to three years in
federal prison under Canada’s foreign bribery statute. Mr. Karigar was
convicted last August of conspiring to pay approximately $450,000 to India’s
Minister of Civil Aviation and officials of Air India, a state-owned
enterprise, in an attempt to win a multi-million dollar contract for
Cryptometrics to supply security systems to Air India. Mr. Karigar was
convicted largely on the evidence of another Cryptometrics executive, who was
granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for his cooperation. Karigar had
unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate immunity for himself, and instead became
the focus of the prosecution.
