Jay Swartz is a partner with a very diverse commercial practice with particular emphasis on banking, debt financings, financial product development, structured finance, corporate restructurings, private equity funds and private company acquisitions.
Over the past decade, Jay has been involved with numerous corporate restructurings, representing both borrowers, lenders, investors, boards and receivers/monitors, including the restructurings of Hollinger Inc., Ivaco Inc., Stelco Inc., Air Canada, Cotton Ginny, Cineplex Odeon Corporation, A.G. Simpson Automotive, Slater Steel, White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited, SMK Speedy International Limited, Cadillac Fairview Corporation, Confederation Treasury Services Limited, Irwin Toy, Campeau Corporation, Bramalea Limited, Olympia & York Developments Limited, Algoma Steel Corporation, Interlink Freight Services Inc., Euro United Corporation, and Eaton's, as well as non-public corporations.
Jay has been involved in the establishment of numerous domestic and international funds for private equity investment in a variety of sectors, including mezzanine debt, venture capital, technology investment, distress investing and buy-out funds. In addition, he has been involved in all aspects of merchant banking transactions dealing with acquisitions, multi-tiered financings, equity ownership, corporate governance and employee incentive and compensation arrangements. This area involved a co-ordination of the multi-disciplinary team of legal specialists at the firm as well as other advisors.
Jay, together with other partners at the firm, has been instrumental in the development of the asset-backed securities business in Canada, having developed a variety of products to be sold to short and medium-term investors and to provide financing for mortgage receivables, lease receivables, government obligations, automobile loans, mutual fund deferred charges, car rental revenue and similar financial obligations.
In the financial products area, Jay has worked with bankers and investment dealers to develop products designed to strip and repackage corporate debt obligations, monetize future commodity production, defease corporate debt and provide tax-assisted financing for companies in financial distress. In addition, Jay has been involved in Canada's first financings secured by highway toll revenues, airport revenues and funding for school boards. In addition, Jay has been involved in numerous project financings, including several involving public sector assets. Jay has significant experience in bank regulatory matters and the regulation of financial institutions generally. A significant portion of this work has been related to the role of foreign banks in the Canadian banking system.
Jay has spoken at numerous conferences and seminars on a variety of topics, including bank financings, asset securitization, financial product development, swap and derivative transactions, corporate governance, shareholder arrangements and insolvency matters. Jay has acted as an instructor in the Advanced Business Law Workshop which is taught to a selected group of third year law students at Osgoode Hall Law School and has been a guest lecturer at Osgoode Hall Law School, the University of Western Ontario Law School and the York University Faculty of Business Administration.
Jay is a Fellow of the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers and a member of the Insolvency Institute of Canada and Insol International. Chambers Global's The World's Leading Lawyers 2007 quotes his peers as commenting that he "focuses on getting transactions done, has excellent legal knowledge and judgement and has an ability to adapt his personality according to the parties to the deal in hand." In this publication, Jay was recognized in the banking & finance, restructuring/insolvency and corporate/M&A categories and has been ranked since 2001. Jay is annually recognized in the Canadian Legal LEXPERT Directory as being a most frequently recommended banking law practitioner, as well as being consistently recommended in the areas of asset/equipment finance & leasing, corporate & commercial, corporate finance & securities, insolvency and project finance, and repeatedly recommended in the areas of asset securitization, derivatives and mergers & acquisitions. He is also included in LEXPERT/American Lawyer Media's Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada, LEXPERT/Thomson's Guide to Canada's 100 Most Creative Lawyers, IFLR 1000’s Guide to the World's Leading Business Law Firms, and is recognized as a leader in capital markets law and as a highly recommended corporate finance, restructuring and insolvency, M&A and joint ventures lawyer in Global Counsel 3000. Jay has been recognized in Law Business Research's The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers as a foremost banking and project finance legal practitioner and in The International Who's Who of Insolvency & Restructuring Lawyers 2007 as a leading practitioner. He is also cited in Euromoney Legal Media Group's 2007 Guide to the World's Leading Structured Finance and Securitization Lawyers, in the 2007 PLC Which Lawyer? guide as a highly recommended lawyer for corporate/M&A and restructuring and insolvency, as well as being listed as a leading lawyer in debt capital markets and as a recommended lawyer in private equity: venture capital areas.
Jay is a director of Sleep Country Canada Income Fund and Oshawa Public Utilities Corporation.
Jay received a B.A. in Economics from York University in 1970, and an LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1973. He became a partner in 1976.
