It was a Canadian icon and global trailblazer, then it took a turn for the worse that reverberated around the world. The Nortel Networks Corp. insolvency will be one of the most protracted and complicated undertakings for all of the lawyers and financial professionals involved, but when it is finally resolved, it will indeed set a new model for multinational companies facing financial difficulty.

Landlords may end up with unwanted tenants and unpaid rent as a result of recent changes to Canada’s bankruptcy and insolvency laws.

 

Justin Fogarty is not your father’s restructuring and insolvency lawyer. Sure, the Toronto-based partner at Davis LLP was called to the bar in 1986 after graduating from law school but he spends a decreasing proportion of his time in a courtroom. Instead, he’s increasingly brandishing his skills as a provider of business solutions in his clients’ boardrooms.

 

Insolvency lawyer Sylvain Vauclair likes to compare the negotiations that take place between creditors of big corporate debtors before they go into proceedings to implement a restructuring plan to a high-stakes poker game. “The premise of the whole solvency thing is that there’s never enough money for everybody,” says Vauclair. “People struggle to get the biggest piece of the pie.”