Stefan Timms is an Associate practising in the Business Group. He is involved in all aspects of corporate and commercial law and provides legal services to a broad range of clients, including publicly traded companies, private companies, entrepreneurs, private equity funds and investors. Stefan's practice consists primarily of M&A work (examples of which are set out below) and reviewing and drafting commercial agreements for clients such as Wal-Mart Canada, Office Depot Canada, Johnson & Johnson, Petsmart, KPMG, Right to Play International and United Postal Service Canada.

Stefan is currently working out of the Chicago office, serving as a liaison for the Firm's clients in the United States and abroad, as well as providing Canadian corporate advice to both Canadian and foreign clients conducting business in Canada.

Stefan spent six months in 2008 seconded to United Parcel Service Canada as a temporary replacement for their vice-president/general counsel. In this capacity, he oversaw all legal matters related to both the small package and supply chain aspects of the Canadian business.

Stefan obtained his LL.B. at the University of Victoria and has been with Blakes since summering with the Firm in 2004. He received his bachelor of physical education (honours) with distinction from the University of Western Ontario.

After completing his undergraduate degree, and before attending law school, Stefan spent several years competing as a member of Canada's national men's elite triathlon team, and running a sports management and consulting business. At present, he is involved in several not-for-profit initiatives in the sports sector.

Some of the transactions that Stefan has worked on in the past few years include:

• Merger of Suncor Energy Inc. and Petro-Canada
• Sale of certain of Suncor Energy's retail gasoline stations to Husky Energy
• Initial public offering of TransGlobe Apartment Real Estate Investment Trust
• Acquisition of various online private residential real estate sales businesses in Canada by ByTheOwner.com
• Sale of Legacy Hotels REIT to Cadbridge Investors LP and Innvest REIT
• Sale of Maple Leaf Foods animal nutrition business to Nutreco Holdings BV
• Acquisition of certain grocery assets of Kraft Canada by Sun Capital Partners
• Acquisition of Lakeport Brewing Income Funds by Labatt Brewing Company
• Acquisition by Macquarie Financial Ltd. of InsurancePay
• Acquisition by Workopolis of the North American job boards business of Brainhunter Inc.
• Private equity investment by Lakeside Energy in the Dongara Pellet Plant project
• Acquisition by Macquarie Bank Limited (Australia) of Cervus Financial Corp.
• Private equity investments by Hospitals of Ontario Pension Plan, Ceres Global Ag, Bentall LP and GE Capital
• Acquisition by Torstar Corporation and Gesca Ltée of Bell Globemedia Inc.'s interest in Workopolis
• Transactions for Power Corporation of Canada, Linamar Corporation, Essroc Canada, Agrium Inc., Macquarie Bank, Reynolds Food Packaging Canada, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Heritage Education, Philips Electronics and Bass Pro