Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP - The Who's Who Legal 100 2012

What is the Who's Who Legal 100?

Fasken fields four lawyers from Ontario including John Turner, global mining head, who primarily works in negotiating mining M&A and financing. He is the “the sort of lawyer you’d love to work with” and a “stellar performer” who has worked on deals such as the acquisition of Swala Resources by Concordia Resource Corp in Vancouver and Uranium One’s $463.4 million bond offering.

Fellow leading lawyer and two-time mining lawyer of the year in our rankings, Michael Bourassa is the coordinator of the global mining group and a “rainmaker” in the field. He “continues to be force of nature in the mining world, and deserves all the kudos”. Former senior economist at the Federal Department of Energy, Mines and Resources, Charles Higgins is an established natural resources lawyer and has worked on matters for companies such as Noranda, Wedge Energy International and Sillenger Exploration.

Andrew Gabrielson and Josh Lewis represent the Vancouver office in our research. Gabrielson advises major and junior mining companies on mineral exploration, mine development and commercial mining operations and was responsible for facilitating the development of two mine shafts by BHP Billiton at the Jansen Potash project in Saskatchewan. Lewis is “very competent and really knows the industry”, particularly in exploration and joint venture financing. In Québec City, Jean Gagné specialises in mergers and acquisitions, public and private financing in the mining and forestry industries and has over 25 years’ experience representing pulp, paper and mining companies.

Outside of Canada, the firm has experts placed in the leading mining centres in the world. In London, Thomas Wexler acts for sponsors, lenders and governments on mining financing and regulation. He counts international companies such as Vale and Petra Diamonds as clients. In Johannesburg, Tanneke Heersche is “thorough and excellent” on development and financing. Jean-Claude Petilon in Paris focuses on assisting clients on mining opportunities in Francophone Africa. He is “very good at what he does”. He also enjoys an additional listing in the oil and gas chapter for his related practice, as does the co-chair of the international law practice, Henri Alvarez QC, who represents the firm in the arbitration chapter and is noted for his dispute resolution work involving oil and gas and LNG companies.

Based in Toronto, John Torrey and Jonathan Levin are banking experts who counsel secured lenders and borrowers in bilateral and syndicated financings. Levin also features in the capital markets and corporate governance chapters for his general corporate, financing and M&A advisory service.

Leader of the life sciences practice, Paul M Ranson specialises entirely on IP regulation and Peter Pliszka is a life sciences and product liability litigator in private and class action proceedings, so he earns listings in both those chapters.

National leader of the construction, procurement and infrastructure group, Helmut Johannsen has a dual listing in the construction and public procurement sections. He advises on civil litigation involving engineering, construction and building matters.

The regulatory communications chapter boasts three lawyers: Robert Buchan is a specialist communication lawyer with an emphasis on broadcasting. He has over 30 years’ experience appearing for commercial radio and TV broadcasters. In Ottawa, chair of the firm’s communications law practice group, Laurence Dunbar advises transport authorities and utilities companies on telecommunication services. Alongside him is Stephen Whitehead, who provides a variety of business law services to clients in the communications, financial and high technology industries, advising on the application of foreign ownership restrictions to communications and media companies in Canada.

Fasken’s capabilities are present in a number of chapters, including corporate immigration, environment, insolvency and restructuring, insurance and reinsurance, and real estate.