With over 30 years of experience as a corporate and securities lawyer, Margaret provides reliable and incisive advice clients can use with confidence. She is actively involved in mergers and acquisitions and works closely with boards on an ongoing basis to help them adopt best governance practices and manage critical issues. As a former member of the Securities Advisory Committee of the Ontario Securities Commission, Margaret brings a depth of perspective and understanding to her practice that provides a tangible benefit to her clients. She keeps on top of emerging issues that affect her clients and draws on her wide-ranging expertise to provide them with guidance on how best to respond.
Margaret is a member and former practice group leader of the firm’s Capital Markets Group. She is also a member of a variety of other groups within the firm, including Mergers & Acquisitions, Energy and Cannabis. Margaret has significant expertise in corporate governance, investments for financial institutions and pension plans, mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, public financings, acquisition financings, private placements, proxy solicitations, corporate reorganizations and general corporate work.
Margaret advises public and private companies across a variety of sectors. Her experience includes acting as counsel to one of Canada's largest gas distribution utilities, one of Canada's largest pension plans, various real estate sector participants and large governmental and quasi-governmental not-for-profit entities.
Margaret regularly advises the boards of directors of public companies on corporate governance and other matters. She is a member of the board of trustees of Allied Properties REIT and previously served as a director of a large Ontario electricity distributor. Margaret is also a director of Lakefield College School, and was a director of Alpine Ontario Alpin, the provincial governing body for the sport of alpine ski racing in Ontario.
Professional Involvement
Professional Activities
- Former member of the Securities Advisory Council of the Ontario Securities Commission
- Contributing editor, Corporations, Division II the eleventh edition of O'Brien's Encyclopedia of Forms (the only comprehensive Canadian collection of forms and precedents covering a broad range of legal subjects) published by Canada Law Book
Memberships
- Canadian Association of Law Teachers
- Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA)
- Ontario Energy Association
- Ontario Energy Network
- Women's Executive Network
- Women in Capital Markets
Teaching Engagements
- Former Adjunct Faculty, Osgoode Hall Law School
- Special Lecturer, “Corporate Finance,” University of Windsor, Faculty of Law
Speaker, "Drafting Opinions for Commercial Transactions," OBA Seminar, October 30, 2007.
Speaker, "Corporate Governance of Crown Corporations in Canada – Lessons Borrowed from the Private Sector," Crown Corporate Governance Summit (Canadian Institute Conference), April and October, 2005.
Speaker, "A Principled Approach to Effective Corporate Governance," IQPC Conference, 2004.
Speaker, "Current Issues in Shareholder Agreements," Insight Conference, 2002 and 2003.
Speaker, "Equity Derivatives: Investment Management Strategies, Products and Controls," Strategy Institute Conference.
"Trust structure poses perplexing problems for businesses," The Lawyers Weekly, June 20, 2008.
"Managing Conflicts of Interest at the Board Table," Canadian Society of Association Executives' Association Magazine, 2006.
"Corporate Governance for Not-For-Profit Organizations," Canadian Society of Association Executives' Association Magazine, 2005.
"Proxy Solicitations: Some Legal and Practical Considerations," Canadian Investment Banking Review, 1992.