Roundup of law firm hires, promotions and departures

Welcome to the first roundup of movements among major law firms, in which we sum up significant hires, promotions and departures.

Bennett Jones LLP

The firm has two new partners:

• John Teolis (Toronto) – banking and financial regulatory law
• Suzana Lobo (Toronto) – complex and innovative transactions in banking and finance

Bereskin & Parr LLP

The firm has three new partners:

• Joanna Ma (Waterloo Region) – electrical and computer technology group
• Reshika Dhir (Toronto) – electrical and computer technology group
• Wynnie Chan (Toronto) – trademarks practice group

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

The firm has 20 new partners:

Business practice group

• Andrew Hennigar (Vancouver)
• Tamila Ivanov (Toronto)
• Ravi Latour (Calgary)
• Eric Little (Vancouver)
• Kevin Mailloux (Montreal)
• Ryma Sachedina (Toronto)
• Elly Seddon (Vancouver)
• Jessica Sheridan (Ottawa)
• Edward Wooldridge (Calgary)

Disputes practice group

• Liviu Cananau (Toronto)
• Simon Daigle (Montreal)
• Kate Dearden (Toronto)
• Maureen Doherty (Toronto)
• Erin Durant (Ottawa)
• Ève Gaudet (Montreal)
• Daniel Johnson (Calgary)
• Christine Muir (Toronto)
• Andrew Punzo (Toronto)
• Alexis Renaud (Montreal)
• Stephanie Young (Toronto)

Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP

The firm has 14 new partners:

• Graham Brown (Toronto) – construction law, litigation
• Carly Cohen (Toronto) – litigation
• Steven Kennedy (Toronto) – intellectual property
• Derek W. Levinsky (Toronto) – insurance and reinsurance
• Danielle Maréchal (Calgary) – restructuring and insolvency
• Jeremy Martin (Toronto) – litigation
• Jeff Mikelberg (Toronto) – business law
• Ardy Mohajer (Toronto) – real estate and development
• A. Chandimal Nicholas (Toronto) – intellectual property
• Jennifer Poirier (Vancouver) – securities
• Ross Ramgoolam (Toronto) – real estate and development
• Monique Sassi (Toronto) – restructuring and insolvency
• Aly Somani (Toronto) – business law
• Jessica Zagar (Toronto) – litigation

Cox & Palmer

The firm has three new partners:

• Ben Howard (Charlottetown) – corporate and commercial matters
• Caitlin Mahoney (Moncton) – commercial litigation, insurance litigation and restructuring and insolvency law
• Matt Saunders (Halifax) – commercial litigation and insurance defence matters

The firm has also announced that Daniel Stevenson is managing partner of the Fredericton office.

Dentons

The firm has one new partner, Marc Lesage, who will be joining the firm’s tax group. He will be based in the Montreal office.

Dickinson Wright LLP

The firm has one new partner, Yuri Chumak, following the merger of Chumak & Company LLP with the firm’s Toronto office. Chumak’s major practice area is intellectual property.

DLA Piper (Canada) LLP

The firm has four new partners:

• Jennifer Arndt (Calgary) – securities, corporate finance, banking law and transactional corporate matters
• Bentley Gaikis (Toronto) – intellectual property litigation with a focus on patent litigation
• Rebecca von Rüti (Vancouver) – litigation, arbitration and investigations, personal injury, product liability, mass torts and product stewardship
• Ryan Black (Vancouver) – technology-related corporate law, ‎with a focus on internet technologies, ecommerce, video games and esports

The firm has also announced that Jarrod Isfeld is office managing partner of the Calgary office.

Farris LLP

The firm has one new partner, Robert Veitch, who will be based in Vancouver and Kelowna. He focuses his practice on M&A, corporate finance, securities law and general corporate and commercial law.

Field Law

The firm has four new partners:

• Trevor Batty (Calgary) – corporate insolvency, restructuring and enforcement matters
• Jennifer Marshall (Calgary) – corporate, commercial and securities
• Scott Matheson (Edmonton) – general litigation and insurance practice
• Marc Yu (Edmonton) – health, insurance and privacy law

Goldblatt Partners LLP

The firm has announced that partner Lindsay Lawrence has left to serve as a solicitor for the Ontario Labour Relations Board.

Goodmans LLP

The firm has five new partners:

• David Coll-Black – business law group
• Joe Hoffman – municipal, planning and property tax group
• Michael Royal – tax group
• Karen Vadasz – business law group
• Bradley Wiffen – corporate restructuring group

Gowling WLG

The firm has named 35 new partners across its seven offices in Canada:

Calgary

• Jeffrey Coles
• Jordan Crone
• Mike Hrabok
• Krista Schofer

Hamilton

• Jeffrey Kukla
• James Riewald

Montreal

• Ingrid Anton
• Tina Aswad
• Rachid Benmokrane
• Alexandre Forest

Ottawa

• Brieanne Brannagan
• Erin Creber
• Mark Faassen
• Alex Gloor
• Mandy Lawson
• Frédéric Lussier
• Erin Page
• Ryan Steeves
• Jaime Wilson

Toronto

• Josh Almario
• Natasha Carew
• Kelby Carter
• Peter Doelman
• Peter Gross
• Matthew Karabus
• Charlotte McDonald
• Haddon Murray
• Peter Zhang

Vancouver

• Tara Amiri-Khaledi
• R. Nelson Godfrey
• Matthew Mitchell
• Lisa Thorne
• Mark Wilke

Waterloo Region

• Khiam Nong
• Radhika Vaidyanathan

Gowling WLG has also announced that Ronald Dimock, who has been coined the “guru of IP law in Canada” by Chambers, will be joining its global intellectual property group. He is also a Toronto-based partner.

Lawson Lundell LLP

The firm has seven new partners:

• Scott Anderson (Vancouver) – real estate, banking and debt financing
• Gordon Brandt (Vancouver) – shareholder disputes, pension and benefits litigation, class actions, real estate disputes and administrative law matters
• Shailaz Dhalla (Calgary) – regulatory law with a focus on energy, environmental, public utility and indigenous law matters
• Michelle Jones (Vancouver) – indigenous law and environmental law
• Paul Matthews (Kelowna) – construction, infrastructure and engineering, energy, intellectual property and technology
• Gillian Muirhead (Vancouver) – corporate and securities law
• Jonathan Selnes (Calgary) – complex commercial disputes, class actions, shareholder disputes, contract and tort matters, property disputes and complex construction and engineering disputes

Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP

The firm has one new partner, Jonathan Chen, who focuses his practice on areas such as complex business disputes, class actions and product liability matters.

Founding partner Alan Lenczner has also announced his retirement.

Lerners LLP

The firm has three new partners:

• Jacob Aitcheson – personal injury law
• John Brennan – commercial litigation
• Joseph Hentz – business law, real estate, land development

The firm has also announced Anne Spafford as Toronto managing partner, and Tammy Ring as Toronto office representative on its Executive Committee.

McKenzie Lake Lawyers LLP

The firm has one new partner, Beth Mullin, who focuses her practice on business law, financial services law and real estate law.

MLT Aikins LLP

The firm has seven new partners:

• Adele Domenco (Winnipeg) – advocacy department, with a focus on professional liability defence work and general commercial litigation matters
• Chad Eggerman (Saskatoon) – real estate, construction, environmental, financing and Aboriginal law
• Sean Jones (Vancouver) – Indigenous, environmental and regulatory law, with a focus on natural resource law
• Maria Penner (Winnipeg) – corporate and commercial law with a focus on banking and commercial lending, commercial real estate, corporate immigration and cross-border transactions
• Ian Scarth (Winnipeg) – civil litigation with a focus on debt collection, commercial disputes, insurance and estate matters
• Jonathan Troyer (Calgary) – M&A, technology and general commercial and compliance matters
• Christian Monnin (Winnipeg) – advocacy group

Norton Rose Fulbright

The firm has 14 new partners in Canada:

• Maya Angenot (Montreal) – dispute resolution and litigation
• Alison Babbitt (Ottawa) – banking and finance
• Thomas Collopy (Calgary) – corporate, M&A and securities
• Catherine Daigle (Montreal) – intellectual property
• Carole Diop (Montreal) – intellectual property
• Vincent Filiatrault (Montreal) – corporate, M&A and securities
• Michèle Friel (Montreal) – banking and finance
• Jenya Hammond (Vancouver) – projects
• Christopher Horte Vancouver) – banking and finance
• Éric Lallier (Montreal) – employment and labor
• Andrew McCoomb (Toronto) – dispute resolution and litigation
• Kelly Moffet-Burima (Calgary) – dispute resolution and litigation
• Stephen Nattrass (Ottawa) – dispute resolution and litigation
• Trevor Zeyl (Toronto) – corporate, M&A and securities

Smart & Biggar

The intellectual property firm has three new partners:

• Graham Hood (Smart & Biggar LLP, Toronto)
• Lei Liu (Smart & Biggar IP Agency Co., Ottawa)
• Patrick Roszell (Smart & Biggar LLP, Toronto)

The firm has also announced that Daphne Lainson is chairperson of the firm.

Stewart McKelvey LLP

The firm has six new partners:

• Allison Whelan (St. John’s) – corporate formation and reorganization, estates and trusts, litigation and alternative dispute resolution and tax
• Julie LeBlanc-Hultberg (Moncton) – health, insurance, litigation and alternative dispute resolution, privacy and professional regulation and misconduct
• Renée Fontaine (Moncton) – health, insurance, litigation and alternative dispute resolution and professional regulation and misconduct
• Chad Sullivan (Fredericton) – education, human rights, labour and employment, litigation and alternative dispute resolution, privacy and professional regulation and misconduct
• Sheila Lanctôt (Fredericton) – labour and employment, litigation and alternative dispute resolution and professional regulation and misconduct
• Sophie MacDonald (Charlottetown) – family and litigation and alternative dispute resolution

Stikeman Elliott LLP

The firm has eight new partners:

• Kevin Custodio (Montreal) – corporate
• Catherine Grygar (Calgary) – real estate
• Lindsay Gwyer (Toronto) – tax
• Michael Laskey (Toronto) – competition and foreign investment
• Kim Le (Toronto) – corporate
• Julien Michaud (Montreal) – corporate
• Kurtis Reed (Calgary) – commercial energy and corporate
• Barbara Sheng (Montreal) – corporate

WeirFoulds LLP

The firm has one new partner, Nadia Chiesa, who will be based in Toronto. She focuses her practice on Caribbean and offshore law, among other areas.