Our Practice
The Competition & Foreign Investment Review practice is widely recognized as one of the leading practices in the Canadian marketplace, with 20 lawyers, including five litigators, several of whom are fluently bilingual. Our lawyers advise a wide range of international and domestic clients on the full spectrum of competition and foreign investment review matters, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and other forms of competitor collaborations as well as competition aspects of strategic commercial activities, including trade practices, pricing policies, marketing, distribution and relationships with customers and competitors.  We also represent clients in civil and criminal, as well as class action matters, in various Canadian courts and before the Competition Tribunal, including dealing with the defence of cartel, abuse of dominance and other Competition Bureau investigations.

Our practice is also a recognized leader in advising foreign-based and Canadian clients on the application of the Investment Canada Act ("ICA") as well as the application of various other laws that restrict foreign ownership in specific industries.  We have extensive experience in all aspects of foreign investment review, both before the Investment Review Division ("IRD") of Industry Canada and, for transactions involving cultural matters, the Department of Canadian Heritage, as well as the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.  We have represented clients in some of the largest and most complex foreign investment and foreign ownership reviews undertaken in Canada. Most recently, our lawyers have advised clients on the scope and applicability of the latest amendments to the ICA, which have created a "national security" review process that may be applicable to certain acquisitions of Canadian businesses by non-Canadians. In addition to securing approvals under the ICA, our lawyers have also assisted clients in less visible ways, notably in establishing to the satisfaction of the IRD that the ICA did not apply to a transaction and in making representations with respect to foreign acquisitions.

We have acted on some of the most high-profile and complex competition cases including, for example, obtaining clearance in a number of significant domestic and international transactions in a variety of industries, including mining, information technology, financial services and consumer goods, the only contested abuse of dominance case to be decided by the Competition Tribunal since 2000, and the most significant domestic cartel investigations in Canada in recent years and their subsequent resolution.


Our Clients
We are frequently retained by and work with:

• Major domestic and international corporations;
• Leading law firms in the United States and elsewhere in the world to advise on the Canadian competition law and foreign investment review issues associated with international transactions and investigations, as well as competition aspects of other matters involving their clients;
• Government agencies;
• Trade and industry associations.

Recognition
Our group is universally regarded as one of the leading competition practices in Canada.  In 2009, the practice was ranked by the Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory as a "most frequently recommended" firm and four of our lawyers were ranked as "most frequently recommended" or "consistently recommended" lawyers in competition law and competition litigation. The Lexpert®/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada recognized three of our lawyers, while Chambers Global says: "Disputes and transactions are handled with equal aplomb at this top outfit. The firm's cadre of skilled trial lawyers are the backbone for all contentious issues." The practice was also profiled in the Global Competition Review 100 – A Guide to the World's Leading Law and Economic Firms.

Organizational Leadership
Several members of our practice have held senior positions with the Competition Bureau before joining the firm, among them, George Addy, a former head of the Bureau, or have been retained by the Bureau as special counsel on specific matters. Our lawyers are at the forefront of the private sector in respect of developments in competition legislation and policy.

Lawyers in the practice hold significant positions in the Canadian Bar Association's National Competition Law Section and in the American Bar Association's Section of International Law. John Bodrug, a partner in the practice, is the former Chair of the National Competition Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association. Practice members have written extensively and appeared on panel presentations on Canadian competition issues in Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere. Members of the practice edit two leading texts on competition law: Competition Law Service, an annotation of the Competition Act (Canada), and Competition Law of Canada, a loose-leaf text.