Roundup of law firm hires, promotions, departures: February 13, 2023 update

Nine firms made new announcements

Roundup of law firm hires, promotions, departures: February 13, 2023 update

Welcome to this week’s roundup of movements among major law firms, in which we sum up significant hires, promotions, departures, and other announcements.

Clark Wilson LLP

Clark Wilson has announced the promotion of five lawyers to partners:

  • Aaron Pearl – estates and trusts, and elder law
  • Maris Holmes – strata property group
  • Sean Tessarolo – insurance, fraud and asset recovery, and business litigation
  • Zachary Murphy-Rogers – estates and trusts, and elder law
  • Andrew Stewart – capital markets, securities, mergers and acquisitions, and US capital markets

Décarie Lawyers and DS Lawyers Canada

Décarie Lawyers and DS Lawyers Canada have entered into a unification agreement, effective February 1. Founded in 2006, Décarie Lawyers offers legal services encompassing litigation, business law, and labour law. Under the unification agreement, Décarie Lawyers will become DS Lawyers.

“We had reached a stage in our development where we wanted to offer a more diversified range of services to our business customers and take advantage of a national and international platform to support them in their development. The DS Lawyers firm quickly emerged as a go-to, thanks to their global network and because we share the same human and professional values,” Décarie Lawyers founder and president and DS Décarie Lawyers partner Sophie-Anne Décarie said.

Dentons Canada

Dentons has named 18 new partners, effective February 1. The newly admitted partners for 2023 are:

  • Meredith Bacal – litigation and dispute resolution, Toronto
  • Dan Collins – regulatory, Calgary
  • Valerie Cross - banking and finance, and restructuring and insolvency, Vancouver
  • Virginie Dandurand – employment and labour, Montréal
  • Riley Dearden – corporate, Calgary
  • Simon Elzen-Hoskyn – litigation and dispute resolution, Edmonton
  • Vikki-Ann Flansberry – litigation and dispute resolution, Montréal
  • Emmanuel Fung – real estate, Vancouver
  • Roxana Jangi – employment and labour, Calgary
  • Andreas Kloppenborg – corporate, Toronto
  • Matthew Literovich – corporate, Toronto
  • Pablo Retamozo – litigation and dispute resolution, Edmonton
  • Byron Reynolds – corporate, Calgary
  • Jack Schroder – corporate, Calgary
  • Jamie Thomas – corporate, Toronto
  • Chelsea Wilson – litigation and dispute resolution, Vancouver
  • Jacob Yau – tax, Toronto
  • Bin Zeng – banking and finance, Montréal

“I congratulate our 18 new partners – a group of highly-accomplished lawyers who practice across a wide range of areas and sectors of interest for our clients – on this new chapter in their careers,” Dentons Canada CEO Tim Haney said.

Dentons has also announced the expansion of its Alberta offering with the admission of Robert Bothwell and Amie Heil in the firm’s Edmonton office. Bothwell joined Dentons as a partner in the firm’s real estate group, and Heil joined as a partner in the trusts, estates, and wealth preservation group.

DLA Piper

Kaleigh Nevin has joined DLA Piper as an associate in the firm’s Vancouver office. Nevin’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, cross-border transactions, corporate finance, ‎corporate governance, and commercial cases.

Field Law

Field Law has acquired Canmore-based law firms Hicks Intellectual Property Law and Hicks & Associates Intellectual Property. Field Law is expanding its intellectual property practice with this acquisition.

Hicks Intellectual property co-founder Andrew Hicks said, “Field Law has an excellent reputation with the business community and among the profession. As a result of this announcement, we are thrilled to be able to offer our clients access to a much broader range of legal services, including corporate and commercial law, labour and employment, tax, immigration, and a variety of areas in litigation.”  

Harper Grey LLP

The firm has welcomed Charleen Sibanda as its new associate specializing in business law. Before joining Harper Grey, Sibanda worked with the BC legislative assembly.

Kushneryk Morgan LLP

Kushneryk Morgan has welcomed Sandeep Joshi as a partner, Karen Galpern as counsel, and Alexis Beale as an associate.

Joshi’s practice focuses on dispute resolution, internal investigations, regulatory investigations and defence, and corporate governance advisory services. In his new role, Joshi will leverage his BMO experience to provide clients with proactive multi-faceted risk management and compliance advice and reactive crisis management support.

Galpern has experience advising corporations, financial institutions, regulators, and other public entities and their boards on complex legal issues. Her practice covers corporate governance risk advisory services, internal investigations, regulatory investigations and defence, and dispute resolution.

Beale specializes in corporate commercial litigation, including shareholder disputes, capital markets disputes, class actions, professional negligence and defamation cases. Before practising law, Beale worked with the non-governmental organization Engineers Without Borders.

Russell Alexander Collaborative Family Lawyers

Gia Williams has joined the firm as an associate lawyer. She is an experienced legal counsel practising child protection law.

Singleton Urquhart Reynolds Vogel LLP

The firm has welcomed Seema Lal as a partner in the construction and infrastructure and commercial and business litigation practice groups. She has over 20 years of experience advising owners, developers, traders, and consultants in all aspects of construction law. Her practice covers negotiation and preparation of construction contracts, procurement issues, builders’ liens, and construction dispute resolution, including claims for extras and delays.

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