Top honours at the Canadian Law Awards: Our Canadian team is recognized in M&A, Restructuring & Insolvency, and Technology

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright won M&A Deal of the Year, Insolvency & Restructuring Deal of the Year, and Best Use of Technology in a Law Firm at the 2023 Canadian Law Awards.

The awards were announced at an in-person gala in Toronto on May 11, celebrating the nation's leading law firms, in-house legal teams and lawyers for their achievements and outstanding work in more than 20 categories across multiple disciplines.

M&A Deal of Year – Rio Tinto acquisition of Turquoise Hill Resources – Gold winner

Our Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver offices represented Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. in the CAD 4.3 billion acquisition by Rio Tinto of all shares not already held by Rio Tinto, directly or indirectly, by way of a Yukon court-approved plan of arrangement.

The team included Steve Malas, Elliot Shapiro, Orestes Pasparakis, Andrea Brewer, Derek Chiasson, Michael Lang, Stephen Taylor, Rowan Weaver, Lynne O'Brien, Martin Thériault, Audrey Bernasconi, Sean Cohen, Léa De Santis, Xavier Foccroulle Ménard, Thomas Nichols, Alexandra Persaud, Pierre-Olivier Valiquette and Zack Goldford.

Insolvency and Restructuring Deal of the Year  – Aldo cross- border restructuring – Gold winner

Our Montréal, Toronto, Dallas, New York, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Luxembourg offices represented Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, as agent, in respect of its senior secured asset-based bankruptcy exit credit facility for the Aldo Group of companies.

The team included Arnold Cohen, Michèle Friel, Luc Morin, Geert-Jan van Rijthoven, Joris Ravelli, Florent Trouiller, Oliver Sutter, John Caverlee, Francisco Vazquez, Stefanie Walthaus, Annemary Ceselj, Stéphane Braun, Cyril D'Herbes, Noah Zucker, Julie Lacourcière, Joep Duinker, Josh White, Christopher Troulis, Emile Berzghal, Nivard Witte, Frances Hoogenberg and Salomé Mathey.

Best Use of Technology in a Law Firm – Gold winner

Our Canadian Innovation team developed the NRF Undertakings Tool to minimize the time spent tracking undertakings for complex litigation. Tracking the undertakings is a complex process and there was no commercially available software capable of fully automating all aspects of this process.

The tool allows users to upload a transcript with a function to extract key data points of the undertakings made during the examination. This information is populated into the tool’s internal database, which enables users to assign responsibilities internally and clients to track progress in the production of required information; track the evolution of the undertaking itself over time; develop draft responses to questions with input from multiple users; and filter, sort, and tag undertakings with the legal issues to which they relate. Once the undertakings are ready to be sent to court or to the opposing counsel, the tool can generate an updated list, and changes made outside of the tool can be seamlessly imported into the system. The adoption of the tool enabled the litigation practice to focus on providing tailored and value-add legal advice to further clients’ business goals.

The team included Al Hounsell, Michelle Fernando and David Yi.

Norton Rose Fulbright was shortlisted as finalists and named Excellence Awardees for the following categories:

Deal awards

• M&A Deal of the Year – Canderel-led consortium acquisition of Cominar REIT
• Insolvency & Restructuring Deal of the Year – BlackRock Metals restructuring

• Insolvency & Restructuring Deal of the Year – Groupe Sélection restructuring under the CCAA
  
  

Legal profession awards

• Female Trailblazer of the Year (Private Practice) – Alison Babbitt

In its fourth year, the Canadian Law Awards drew on numerous nominations and analysis by an esteemed independent panel of judges and an extensive market research by the editorial group.