Recognized as the leading event of its kind in Canada, Davies’ annual Corporate/Securities Law Moot, held on March 4 and 5, provides an opportunity for top students at 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 from several courts. 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.

The problem dealt with issues that have often arisen in connection with hostile take-over bids: has the bidder improperly used confidential information obtained by it through previous friendly merger discussions, in breach of confidentiality agreements signed at the time of those discussions, and has the target company issued additional shares by way of private placement while the bid is outstanding for proper business purposes, or as a defensive tactic?

Thirteen law schools from across Canada competed in the two-day event before panels of judges drawn from the firm, the judiciary and the legal and business communities. The two top teams, the University of Toronto and McGill University, competed in the final round before a five-member panel consisting of the Honourable Justice Michael Moldaver of the Supreme Court of Canada, the Honourable Justices Gloria Epstein, Kathryn Feldman and John Laskin of the Court of Appeal for Ontario and the Honourable Chief Justice Paul Crampton of the Federal Court.

The University of Toronto won top prize with a team consisting of Simon Cameron, Adam Edgerley, Tyler Henderson and Dov Kagan. The team of Stephen Albers, McLean Ayearst, Emily Hutchison and Max Zidel from McGill University placed second, and the University of Alberta team of Matthew Dolan, Alexandra Dunn, Ashton Menuz and Daniel Van den Berg finished third. Dov Kagan of the University of Toronto was named top oralist, Vanessa Locicero of the University of Windsor placed second and Elizabeth Brachaniec of Dalhousie University placed third. The top factum prize was awarded to the University of Toronto team with University of Ottawa taking second and Dalhousie University taking third.

Our congratulations to all the students and their coaches for a very successful moot.