Paul Stepak

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

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

• 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; formerly, Acritas Stars)

• The Best Lawyers in Canada (Tax Law)

• The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory (Corporate Tax)

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.

• Speaker: The Impact of Canadian Income Tax on M&A - Inbound Private Equity Investments
  Osgoode Hall LLM Program (online), Toronto, Ontario, June 25, 2021.
• Moderator: Cross-Border Tax Updates
  Webcast #2, Blakes 2021 Canada/U.S. Legal Update Seminar Series, Toronto, Ontario, June 16, 2021.
• Speaker: Cross-Border M&A Update
  1st North American Region Meeting, International Fiscal Association Canada (virtual), Toronto, Ontario, May 3, 2021.

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