Sarah Powell is a partner in the Environmental and Energy practices. She is one of Canada's leading environmental lawyers. Sarah has extensive experience in all aspects of environmental law, including strategic advice on environmental impact assessment, environmental approvals, energy approvals, contaminated sites and environmental class actions. She is certified by the Law Society of Upper Canada as a Specialist in Environmental Law.

Sarah's principal focus is on providing advice on the impact of environmental law on real estate, business and lending transactions, securities offerings and disclosures, and infrastructure and natural resource projects.

Representative Work

• Represented a renewable energy developer on the review of over 50 proposed and developed wind farm projects across Canada as part of a proposed transaction between two world leaders in renewable energy.
• Acted for Iogen Corporation in the financing of the development of Canada's first proposed commercial scale cellulose ethanol production facility.
• Acted for Bank of Montreal in financing the construction and operation of a run-of-river hydroelectric facility in Ontario.
• Acted for the Access Justice Durham consortium as it entered into an agreement to design, build, finance and maintain the Durham Consolidated Courthouse, the first project to be completed by Infrastructure Ontario.
• Represented BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, in an unsolicited bid to acquire Rio Tinto.
• Represented Barrick Gold in the structured trade/project financing of its Veladero greenfield gold mine project in Argentina.

Recognition

• Recognized as one of four Canadian lawyers in the IFLR Legal Media Group’s Expert Guides The Best of the Best 2009 (Environment).
• Recognized as one of the top ten leading environmental lawyers in the LEXPERT®/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada.
• Recognized as one of the world's leading practitioners in The International Who's Who of Environment Lawyers. 
• Listed as one of two leading environmental lawyers in Canada in the PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook.
• Listed in the The Best Lawyers in Canada in the area of Environmental Law.
• Listed in the Canadian Legal LEXPERT® Directory.

Articles and Publications

Sarah is the author of numerous articles, including "Infrastructure Stimulus Package Results in Amendments to the Federal EA Process", in the Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine, May 2009; "New Federal Environmental Enforcement Act", March 2009; "Ontario's Proposed Green Energy and Green Economy Act, 2009", February 2009; "Community Right-to-Know: New and Proposed Environmental Reporting Obligations in Ontario" in the Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine, January 2009; "Backgrounder: Nuclear Energy Renaissance" for the 2009 Environmental Law Forum; "Emerging Market Forces Will Soon Set a Carbon Price in Canada" in the Queen's Business Law Symposium, Energy and the Law, May 2008; "Yesteryear's Leasehold Covenants in a Contamination Conscious Canada" in the Journal of Environmental Law and Practice, July 2007; and "Climate Change – Corporate Disclosure", March 2007.

Speaking Engagements

Sarah is a frequent speaker at environmental conferences. Recent engagements include: "Environmental Provisions for Commercial Tenancies" at the 2009 International Council of Shopping Centers Canadian Shopping Centre Law Conference, March 2009; "Records of Site Condition: Are They Typically Used in Commercial Tenancies" at the Six-Minute Commercial Leasing Lawyer 2009 conference, February 2009; "The Inside Story of Indoor Air Quality – Regulatory Policy and Standard Setting" at the Brownfields Redevelopment Course, January 2009; and "Understanding Environmental Regulations – Aboriginal Issues" at the Environmental Regulations conference, November 2008.

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