It’s actually easier, from a legal perspective, to be an activist shareholder in Canada than it is in the U.S., says Stephen Halperin.

Is your company ripe for attracting the attentions of a shareholder activist? If you think it is, you might want to think about what can be done to fend one off before trouble starts, said a panel of experts in Toronto last week.

Insurance — getting the right kind, properly fulfilling the associated obligations, and taking advantage of the coverage when it exists — represents an ongoing challenge for companies without a competent insurance expert. It is incumbent on you as an in-house lawyer to become familiar with the company’s policies of insurance. You cannot do your job properly unless you do this. Most of our clients either misunderstand or have a limited understanding of their insurance policies. Over the years I have encountered some key things to keep an eye on:

Magna International vice president and secretary Bassem Shakeel. Photo: Mark Blinch/Reuters

Magna International Inc. is adopting a number of corporate governance enhancements as part of initiatives it began in 2010 to become more friendly to shareholders.

Photo: Shutterstock

Whether an in-house legal department is large or small, having a solid understanding of the time and cost being billed by outside law firms has become more important than ever as executives eye the bottom line.

‘I like to think they are circling in on some kind of stable way of thinking about the GAAR,’ says Benjamin Alarie.

Tax law experts are applauding the clarity of a recent unanimous decision from the Supreme Court of Canada in a case involving the general anti-avoidance rule, but say it won’t change how many view the confusing piece of tax legislation.

Geoff Creighton, senior vice president and general counsel at IGM Financial Inc.

Many Canadian corporate counsel are paying insufficient attention to arbitration as an aspect of dispute resolution risk management, lawyers argue.

A friend and former colleague, who has spent many years as general counsel to several organizations, recently moved into a role as chief operating officer. There is a piece in this month’s Canadian Lawyer InHouse magazine about Riccardo Trecroce, who also at one point in his career moved into the role of chief executive officer. These moves are still relatively few in number but certainly not unheard of.

Baffinland Iron Mines’ Mary River Project north of the Arctic Circle must deal with Nunavut’s unique regulatory regime.

If Canada wants to keep the investment community interested in the country’s natural resource sector it should find ways to better manage the red tape posed by regulatory regimes in this country.

As of Dec. 16, there are products that now require export permits that did not a month ago. Photo: Shutterstock

Changes to Canada’s Export Control List have left some companies scrambling over the holidays to figure out whether they now need permits to get their products to market in time.