Mergers & Acquisitions/Private Equity

Our commitment to all our clients is to provide sophisticated Canadian legal advice. We are also committed to learning all we can about our clients’ business objectives and to sustaining the client team so that our legal advice can be pragmatic and specifically tailored for that client.

We act for all participants in M&A and Private Equity transactions, including publicly-listed and privately-held buyers and sellers, investment bankers, special committees of boards of directors, management-led buyout groups, private equity funds, hedge funds, activist stakeholders, merchant banks, corporate lenders, arbitrageurs and institutional and other investors.

Aird & Berlis regularly acts alongside leading U.S. and international law firms as Canadian counsel, and has developed a particular expertise in cross-border transactions, often using tax-effective structures. We also act for non-Canadian participants in all aspects of Canadian M&A and/or Private Equity transactions, including publicly-listed and privately-held buyers and sellers, investment bankers, special committees of boards of directors, management-led buyout groups, private equity funds, hedge funds, activist stakeholders, merchant banks, corporate lenders, arbitrageurs and institutional and other investors.

Part of our commitment to professionalism and excellence includes our close relationship with leading M&A and/or private equity practitioners worldwide and with various regulatory bodies in Canada. Members of our firm are active with the relevant committees of the International Bar Association and attend and speak at IBA meetings and conferences. Members of the M&A/PE Group are also longstanding contributors to a number of studies published by the American Bar Association.  As well, the M&A/PE Group has partners who are members of committees advising the Canadian regulators on proposed law, regulation and policy. Further we regularly attend the annual invitation-only securities practitioners’ conference with leading Canadian regulators and practitioners to participate in off-the-record discussions regarding future law, policy and regulation. Another methodology to keep current on law and M&A practice around the globe is the writing of bulletins of new applicable law and policy as well as the rankings earned by members of the M&A/PE Group. One member of the M&A/PE Group is the past vice-chair of the Ontario Securities Commission, the past chief executive officer of IIROC (the self-regulatory organization for all securities broker dealers and investment bankers in Canada) and is the only non-U.S. person on the Board of Governors of FINRA (the self-regulatory organization for all U.S. broker dealers and investment bankers).

Aird & Berlis has been providing Canadian legal services for a lengthy period of time in connection with transactions in many varied industries which have involved mergers and acquisition firms and/or private equity firms in Canada and worldwide. We have advised on private equity investments, strategic investments and exits from those investments through mergers and acquisitions and capital markets transactions, friendly, unfriendly and unsolicited. Our history has provided us with expertise, experience and knowledge of the expectations and desires of merger and acquisition participants and private equity participants in the Canadian transactional market. Our participation in the private equity market area has been expanding exponentially as the size of private equity entities has also been expanding.