|
J-P. Bisnaire is Senior Executive Vice President, Business Development and General Counsel of Manulife Financial. He is also a member of the Company's Executive Committee and Management Committee.
Until July 2004 he was a senior corporate law partner of Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP and a member of the firm's Management Committee. He received a B.A. in Economics from Wilfrid Laurier University in 1973 and an LL.B. from the University of Ottawa Law School in 1976. He was called to the Ontario Bar in 1978. He then joined the firm and became a partner in 1980.
J-P. was one of Canada's leading securities lawyers practising in mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance. He acted as senior counsel for a number of large public and private companies, boards of directors and controlling shareholders that have been involved in acquisitions, divestitures, take-over bids, initial public offerings, strategic alliances, corporate reorganizations, going private transactions, spin-off transactions, corporate finance and corporate governance matters.
Some of the major transactions he has been involved in are the merger of Horsham and Trizec Corporation Ltd. to form Trizec Hahn Corporation, the acquisition by the Royal Bank of Canada and RBC Dominion Securities of Richardson Greenshields of Canada, the take-over by Barrick Gold of Arequipa, the sale of Scott Paper by way of merger with Kruger, the strategic alliance between United Grain Growers and Archer Daniels, the take-over bid defence of Avenor resulting in the strategic combination with Bowater, the take-over by Shaw Communications of WIC Western International, the take-over bid defence of Amber Energy, the take-over by The Empire Company of Oshawa Group, the take-over by W-Westmont of UniHost, the acquisition by Royal Bank of Canada of Connor Clark, the reorganization of BCE and Bell Canada in connection with the strategic alliance of Bell Canada and Ameritech and the repurchase in 2002/03 by BCE of Ameritech’s 20% interest in Bell Canada, the sale of Cadillac Fairview to Teachers' Pension Plan Board, the spin-out by BCE to its common shareholders of its interest in Nortel Networks, the take-over by BHP of Dia Met Minerals, the successful take-over bid defence of PetroKazakhstan, the take-over of Harrowston by TD Capital Group, the take-over of Oxford Properties Group by a related company to OMERS, the acquisition of Masonite International, the combination of Clarica Life Insurance Company with Sun Life Financial and the successful take-over bid defence of ClubLink Corporation.
J-P. also serves on the board of directors of McCain Foods Limited and on the Foundation Board of St. Michael's Hospital.
From 1985 to 1987, J-P. taught Securities Regulation at the University of Ottawa Law School. He is one of the general editors of Canadian Corporation Precedents/Canadian Securities Law Precedents (published by Carswell). He is also a frequent lecturer at various seminars and symposiums on mergers and acquisitions, corporate and securities law matters. J-P. has been awarded the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory's highest accolade, an AV rating, is recognized as one of the most frequently recommended corporate commercial, corporate finance & securities and mergers & acquisitions practitioners in the Canadian Legal LEXPERT Directory, LEXPERT/American Lawyer's Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada, Law Business Research's The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers as a foremost mergers and acquisitions legal practitioner and IFLR's 1000 Guide to the World's Leading Business Law Firms. He was identified in Euromoney's Guide to the World's Leading Mergers & Acquisitions Lawyers and Guide to the World's Leading Capital Markets Lawyers and as one of the world's leading 25 practitioners in the area of Capital Markets in The Best of the Best 2003. Every year since 2000, J-P. has been cited in Chambers Global's The World's Leading Lawyers as a leading practitioner in Canadian Corporate/M&A law. In the 2001-2002 Chambers, he was cited as the leading business lawyer in Canada, as well as being given the highest possible ranking in Canadian Corporate/M&A law. He was also recognized in Global Counsel 3000 as a leader in corporate finance, M&A and joint ventures. | 