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About Paul

Paul is the National Practice Group Leader for the top-tier Blakes Tax group. Paul practises primarily in the areas of corporate and partnership income taxation. He advises on domestic and cross-border income tax planning, including public and private mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, corporate reorganizations, financings, capital markets transactions and the taxation of mutual funds, partnerships and other investment vehicles. Cross-border inbound structuring is a significant component of Paul's practice.

Paul also has experience assisting clients with the resolution of Canadian federal and provincial tax audits and appeals at all stages.

Select Experience

Recent representative matters include advising:

  • Cerberus Capital Management in connection with its sale of ABC Technologies Holdings Inc.

  • Sagen MI Canada Inc. (formerly Genworth MI Canada Inc.) on its C$1.6-billion acquisition by Brookfield Business Partners L.P.

  • Torstar Corporation in connection with its acquisition by NordStar Capital L.P.

  • Pet Valu, a portfolio company of Roark Capital, in connection with its initial public offering, as well as numerous acquisitions

  • ABC Technologies Holdings Inc. in connection with its initial public offering

  • Schlesinger Group, a portfolio company of Gauge Capital, on its acquisition of Methodify and AskingCanadians

  • Litera, a portfolio company of Hg, on its acquisition of Kira Systems and its industry-leading machine learning contract analysis technology

  • Barentz International, a portfolio company of Cinven, in connection with its acquisition of Pestell Nutrition

  • Electrical Components International, a portfolio company of Cerberus Capital Management, in connection with its acquisition of Promark Electronics

  • Hg on its acquisition of CaseWare International and Prophix

  • Equinix, Inc. on its C$1.04-billion acquisition of 25 data-centre facilities across Canada from BCE Inc.

  • Hidden Harbor Capital Partners in connection with its acquisition of Anchor Danly and AWC Manufacturing from Cornell Limited Partnership

  • Xero Limited in connection with its acquisition of Hubdoc Inc.

  • PHI, Inc. in connection with its acquisition, with Don Wall, of HNZ Group Inc. in a transaction valued at C$240-million

  • RR Donnelley on the restructuring of its Canadian business in preparation for the spin-offs of its publishing and retail-centric print services and office products business and its financial communications and data service business

  • Element Financial Corporation on its "butterfly" spin-out transaction by way of plan of arrangement pursuant to which Element separated into two new public companies: Element Fleet Management Corp. (TSX:EFN) and ECN Capital Corp. (TSX:ECN)

  • Capstone Infrastructure Corporation on iCON Infrastructure Partners III's acquisition of Capstone for approximately C$480-million

  • Johnson Electric Holdings Limited on its C$800-million acquisition of Stackpole International

  • Bell on its C$670-million acquisition of Glentel Inc. and subsequent sale of a 50% interest in Glentel Inc. to Rogers Communications Inc.

  • Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. in connection with its C$1-billion convertible debenture offering by way of instalment receipt to partially finance a C$3.4-billion acquisition of The Empire District Electric Company

  • UnitedHealth Group on its subsidiary OptumRx's US$12.8-billion combination with Catamaran Corporation

  • Audax Private Equity in connection with its acquisitions of LifeMark Health Corp., Viewpoint Medical Assessments and Altasciences Company

Awards & Recognition

Paul is recognized as a leading tax practitioner in the following publications:

  • Lexpert Special Edition: Finance and M&A

  • Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business (Tax Law)

  • Chambers Canada: Canada's Leading Lawyers for Business (Tax Law)

  • International Tax Review's World Tax (Tax Leader)

  • Who's Who Legal: Global (Corporate Tax-Advisory)

  • Who's Who Legal: Canada (Corporate Tax)

  • The Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada (Corporate Tax)

  • The Legal 500 Canada (Tax)

  • Thomson Reuters Stand-out Lawyers – Independently Rated Lawyers (As nominated by senior in-house counsel)

  • The Best Lawyers in Canada (Tax Law)

  • The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory (Corporate Tax)

Professional Activities

Paul is a past chair of the Executive Committee of the Tax Section of the Ontario Bar Association.

He has written articles and spoken at different venues regarding cross-border and domestic tax issues. He is a member of the Canadian Bar Association, the Ontario Bar Association, the International Fiscal Association and the Canadian Tax Foundation (CTF).

Paul is a past country reporter for Canada for the 2015 International Fiscal Association Congress in Basel, Switzerland.

Education

Admitted to the Ontario Bar – 2001
JD, University of Toronto – 1999
MBA, University of Toronto – 1999
BA (Economics), University of Western Ontario – 1995

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