Sears Canada was the most talked-about decision of the Ontario Securities Commission in 2006.  Some said the OSC was right to intervene in a flagrantly abusive insider bid, others said the OSC had gone too far in treating normal support agreements with significant shareholders as collateral agreements providing "consideration of greater value" contrary to the take-over bid provisions of the Securities Act.  The Sears Canada decision was the main inspiration for the Davies 2007  Corporate/Securities Law Moot which was held in Toronto on March 2 and 3.  Just to make things even more interesting for the mooters, the Moot threw in another tricky legal issue: if a corporation undergoes an amalgamation, does it have 18 months from the amalgamation before it needs to hold its next annual shareholders meeting?

Recognized as the leading event of its kind in Canada, the Davies' annual Corporate/Securities Law Moot provides an opportunity for top students from Canadian law schools to debate current legal issues in corporate and securities law with senior practitioners from Toronto law firms and corporations, regulators from the Ontario Securities Commission and judges.  The students were tested on their written advocacy (presented in a factum delivered prior to the competition) and their oral advocacy. Each student was required to argue twice during the competition, once on behalf of the appellant and once on behalf of the respondent.

Ten law schools from across Canada competed in the two-day event before panels of judges drawn from the firm, from the judiciary and from the legal and business community.  The two top teams, the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario, competed in a final round before a five-member panel, consisting of Justices John Laskin, Kathryn Feldman and Robert Blair of the Ontario Court of Appeal, David Brown, former Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the Ontario Securities Commission and now a Partner of Davies in the Toronto office, and Paul Moore, who recently retired from his position as Vice Chair of the Ontario Securities Commission.

The University of Toronto won top prize with a team consisting of Brian Duong, Adam Hirsh, Mark Myhre and Andrew Parley. The team of Maureen Armstrong, Will Buchner, Sonia Cappe, Matt Hawkins and James Mangan from the University of Western Ontario placed second, and the Queen's University team of Michael Blinick, Jeffrey Love, Christopher Slade, Jennifer Stewart and Ora Wexler claimed third place. Faran Umar-Khitab of the University of Windsor was named top oralist of the Moot, second place oralist was Christopher Slade of Queen's, and Matt Hawkins of Western was third place oralist. Factum prizes were awarded to Queen's University and the University of Toronto for their first and second place rankings, respectively, while the University of British Columbia and University of Western Ontario tied for third place.