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About John-Paul

John-Paul (J-P) is a corporate lawyer focused on mergers and acquisitions and private equity transactions. He co-leads the Firm's Private Equity group.

A significant portion of J-P's practice involves working with Canadian, US and international private equity funds and their portfolio companies in investment, add-on, recapitalization and exit transactions, as well as with technology-based businesses in M&A, financing and commercial matters. He is also frequently engaged as special M&A counsel by companies and their investment bankers in relation to competitive auction processes.

For several years, J-P has been recognized as a leading Canadian corporate and M&A lawyer by multiple league table and ranking guides, including Lexpert, Chambers Canada and Chambers Global, with clients noting in Chambers that he is an "excellent" lawyer who is "very knowledgeable and responsive", that they have "complete trust in J-P to ensure that we are heading in the right direction and to manage our risks", and that he "brings great common sense to the table" and is an "absolute pleasure to deal with."

Select Experience

Representative transactions in which J-P has been involved include:

Private Equity

  • Fulcrum Capital Partners in multiple transactions, including its investment in Vitalus Nutrition, its acquisition of Canstar Restorations and its sale of A & B Rail Services to TorQuest Capital and other institutional investors (selected by the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) as the 2014 Private Equity Deal of the Year)

  • CAI Capital in multiple transactions, including its acquisitions of Canadian Heating Products and Custom Air and its sale of Javelin Technologies to Trimech

  • Luminate Capital Partners' acquisition of Axonify and Warburg Pincus' investment in Luminate portfolio company Conexiom

  • Norwest Venture Partners in multiple transactions, including its investments in Cority and ACL Services, and its sale of Cority to Thoma Bravo

  • Genstar Capital in multiple transactions, including the acquisition of Starplex Scientific by portfolio company Pretium Packaging and the sale of Pretium Packaging to Clearlake Capital

  • Vista Equity Partners in multiple transactions, including its acquisitions of TeamPages and IPICO through portfolio company Active Networks and the Canadian aspects of its sale of the Communities and Sports divisions of Active Networks to Global Payments

  • TricorBraun (an Ares and CPPIB portfolio company) in multiple transactions, including the Canadian aspects of AEA Investors' sale to Ares and CPPIB and its acquisitions of Salbro Bottle, Taipak Packaging, and Roda Packaging

  • Hg's acquisition of Benevity

  • BDC Capital's equity investment, alongside ACE Equity, in Preciseley Microtechnology Corporation

  • Frontier Capital's acquisition of Agreement Express

  • Apax Partners' acquisition of Ideal Proteins

  • H.I.G. Capital's acquisition of Recochem

  • Gemspring Capital in the acquisition of CVD VFX by portfolio company Crafty Apes

  • Acquisition by Informatica (a Permira and CPPIB portfolio company) of AllSight

Mergers and Acquisitions

  • Reigning Champ's sale to Aritzia

  • Sumo Logic's acquisition of Sensu

  • Instacart's acquisition of Unata

  • Price's Alarms' sale to Telus Corporation

  • Ideon Packaging's sale to Great Little Box Company

  • Abbotsford Concrete Products' sale to Oldcastle APG

  • PRA Group's acquisition of Resurgent Holding's Canadian loans business

  • Verico Financial Group's sale to M3 Mortgage Group

  • Transferra Nanosystems' sale to Evonik Industries

  • Twitter's acquisition of Summify

  • BrightSide Technologies' sale by way of plan of arrangement to Dolby Laboratories

  • Confidential buyer's acquisition of a significant seniors home business

Awards & Recognition

J-P is recognized as a leading Canadian lawyer by the following publications:

  • The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory – 2022, 2024 (Corporate Mid-Market, Corporate Commercial Law, Private Equity, Mergers & Acquisitions)

  • Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business 2024 (Corporate/M&A, Private Equity: Buyouts)

  • Chambers Canada: Canada's Leading Lawyers for Business 2024 (Corporate/Commercial, Private Equity: Buyouts)

  • The Best Lawyers in Canada 2024 (Corporate Law, Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law)

  • The Legal 500 Canada 2024 (Corporate and M&A)

  • The Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada – 2023–2024 (Corporate Commercial Law, Corporate Mid-Market, Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Equity)

  • Lexpert Special Edition: Technology and Health Sciences 2023

  • Lexpert Special Edition: Finance and M&A 2023

  • Lexpert Special Edition: Infrastructure 2023

  • The Best Lawyers in Canada 2023 – Lawyer of the Year (Corporate Law, Leveraged Buyouts & Private Equity Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law)

  • The Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada 2021 (Corporate Commercial Law, Corporate Mid-Market, Mergers & Acquisitions)

  • Business in Vancouver's "Forty under 40" (Recognized as one of Vancouver's top executives and professionals under 40)

Professional Activities

J-P participates in several Firm committees and has served as the administrative head of the Corporate & Commercial group in the Vancouver office. He speaks regularly at business law conferences and is a member of several industry associations, including the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, the British Columbia Technology Industry Association and the Vancouver chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth.

Education

Admitted to the British Columbia Bar – 2000
Admitted to the Manitoba Bar – 1999
LLB, University of Manitoba – 1997

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