Roundup of law firm hires, promotions, departures: March 4, 2024 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.

Blaney McMurtry LLP

The firm has named four new partners—Matthew Tapia, Neena (Parminder) Sandhu, Anna Iourina, and Vagmi Patel.

Tapia is a member of the firm’s Real Estate practice group, and his practice is focused on commercial transactions and real estate matters. Sandhu is a member of the firm’s Immigration practice. She has extensive experience in corporate immigration and is dual-qualified in Canada, England and Wales. Iourina is a member of the firm’s Insurance Litigation practice. She has a broad litigation practice focusing on property and commercial liability, product liability, contractual disputes, class actions, bodily injury defence, occupiers’ liability and professional negligence. Patel is also a member of the firm’s Insurance Litigation practice. She advises clients in areas of property, casualty, and commercial litigation, with a focus on product liability, environmental and construction claims, mortgage fraud claims, and defending claims of sexual assault.

Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP

Cassels has announced several key leadership changes. Effective April 4, Ryan Jacobs and Jonathan Sherman will serve as co-chairs of the firm’s Executive Committee, and Jennifer Wasylyk will take on the role of deputy managing partner.

Jacobs is a partner in the Restructuring & Insolvency Group and has been a long-standing member of the firm’s Executive Committee. A former New York practitioner with one of the most active bankruptcy groups in the United States, Jacobs has developed a leading cross-border restructuring practice in Canada.

Sherman is a partner in the Business Law Group, chair of the Cannabis Group, and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. The youngest lawyer to make partner in the firm’s history, Sherman has been at the forefront of many of the largest industry transactions in the cannabis industry, providing strategic and legal advice to a range of leading industry players on complex and innovative transactions in Canada and cross-border.

Wasylyk is a partner in the Financial Services Group with a practice that focuses on debt, specialty/alternative finance, and project finance transactions. She has acted as lead counsel regarding debt matters on many of the most significant recent M&A transactions in the natural resource sector.

Dentons

Dentons has welcomed Ira Cooper as a partner in the firm’s National Banking and Finance group. A leading lending and financing lawyer in the Alberta market, Cooper has over 20 years of experience focusing on syndicated credit transactions and an extensive track record of successfully acting for lead banks and borrowers in connection with numerous types of domestic, cross-border and international debt financings.

Matthew Wanford has also joined the firm as a partner in the Corporate group. Based in Ottawa, Wanford is a seasoned lawyer with over 20 years of corporate commercial law experience, with a strong focus on technology, including e-commerce, fintech and payments.

Gowling WLG

The firm has announced the appointment of Julie Lanteigne as the new leader of the firm’s Real Estate Practice Group in Canada. She succeeds Joel Camley. For more than 15 years, Lanteigne has advised clients on various areas of commercial real estate, including leasing, sales, acquisitions and property management.

McCarthy Tétrault LLP

The firm has welcomed Marina Sampson to the Toronto office as a partner in the firm’s Litigation and Dispute Resolution Group. Sampson has a broad corporate commercial practice encompassing real estate litigation, contamination disputes and product liability. She previously served as a member of the Canadian board of a major international law firm, the lead of its Toronto litigation and dispute resolution group, and co-chair of its Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Other leadership roles include being an executive member of the Arbitration and Mediation Practice Group at The Advocates’ Society, a member of the Board of Directors, and an executive for the Canadian Working Group on HIV and Rehabilitation.

MLT Aikins

Riley Bender has joined the MLT Aikin’s Calgary office. Bender’s practice focuses on securities, corporate finance, corporate governance, and mergers and acquisitions. His experience includes working with issuers and underwriters on various matters and transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, continuous disclosure obligations, debt and equity securities offerings, corporate reorganizations, and general corporate and commercial matters.

Torys LLP

Torys has announced that Rumina Velshi will join the firm as a strategic advisor. With over four decades of experience in the nuclear energy industry, Velshi’s recent roles include the president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, chairperson of the Commission on Safety Standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and chair of the 50th and 51st meetings of the International Nuclear Regulators’ Association.

“Rumina is a strategic thinker, always at the forefront of what is happening in the sector, and with deep experience that is unmatched in the industry. As we see unprecedented growth and innovation in the nuclear power sector in Canada and internationally, we are excited to work with Rumina and share insight and perspective,” said co-head of the firm’s Infrastructure and Energy Practice and head of the firm’s Nuclear Energy Practice, Krista Hill.

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