Biography: Insolvency & Restructuring

John McLean is a partner in Gowlings' Vancouver office, practising in insolvency matters, including bankruptcy, CCAA proceedings, foreclosures, and creditor and debtor rights.

He has acted as counsel for trustees in bankruptcy, monitors under CCAA proceedings, and creditors and debtors in a wide variety of industries, and has been involved in most major insolvency matters in British Columbia. He also has extensive cross-border insolvency experience in the United States and the United Kingdom.

John has lectured at the University of British Columbia as an adjunct professor teaching insolvency, and sat as an oral examiner for superintendent of bankruptcy trustee exams. In 2010, he was appointed Queen's Counsel.

John's representative work includes: acting as counsel to the Monitor of Doman Industries Ltd, one of the largest forest companies in BC; acting for the trustee in bankruptcy of Port Alice Specialty Cellulose in the sale of its pulp mill on Vancouver Island; acting for the trustee and judicial trustee of Canada 3000 Airlines; acting for Jackpine Forest Products Ltd in its successful CCAA restructuring; serving as representative counsel, appointed by the Supreme Court of British Columbia, for creditors in the proposal of the New Home Warranty Program of British Columbia; and acting as counsel to the trustee and monitor of North American Steamships Ltd.

John has been listed as a leading lawyer in several legal industry publications, including Best Lawyers in Canada, Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, Martindale-Hubbell and Chambers Global Guide.

He is a member of the Insolvency Institute of Canada and the American Bankruptcy Institute.