Profile: Michael S Allen

Project Finance

Biography: Project Finance

Michael Allen is a partner with a broadly based practice in corporate finance and banking law. He regularly acts for both lenders and borrowers in international project finance and is well known for his work in secured transactions, public-private partnerships and structured finance, including derivative products and securitisations. He is also highly experienced in large commercial restructurings and work outs.

Industry sectors in which Allen is experienced include mining, energy, forestry, and telecommunications. His practice has taken him to the US, Australia, South Africa, Peru, Argentina, Chile and Russia, and he maintains an office at Stikeman Elliott (London) as well. Aside from that, his practice has included transactions based in New Zealand, Uruguay, Guyana, Brazil, Venezuela, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mexico, Guinea, Albania and Botswana.

Allen is recognised in The Best Lawyers in Canada in banking, corporate and project finance law; Euromoney's Guides to the World's Leading Lawyers in banking, capital markets and project finance; The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers in project finance and mining; PLC Cross-border Finance: Secured Lending Handbook; the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, in banking, mining, project finance and private equity; the Lexpert/American Lawyer Media publication A Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada; and PLC Which Lawyer? in banking and debt capital markets; Chambers Global's The World's Leading Lawyers for Business recommended for banking and finance.

A graduate of the University of Toronto (LLB 1974), Allen is a member of the Canadian, American, and International Bar Associations. He has served as a director of Mellon Bank Canada and of several charitable and educational foundations.