John, a founding partner of TGF, has been lauded as an "excellent commercial litigator" in Chambers Global 2010. John has a broad practice in commercial litigation with significant experience in insolvency and restructuring litigation. John is recommended in Restructuring/Insolvency (Canada) by Chambers Global 2010 and is listed as "repeatedly recommended" in corporate and commercial litigation in the 2011 Lexpert Canadian Legal Directory.
REPRESENTATIVE WORK
- Acted on behalf of a committee of contesting bondholders in the BCE privatization, which involved the world's largest leveraged buy-out with an enterprise value of $52 billion, ultimately appearing at the Supreme Court of Canada
- Acting on behalf of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System before a major municipal judicial inquiry
- Representing the former principal of Lakeport Brewing Corp. in the defense of a $50 million officer and director liability case
- Lead litigation counsel to KPMG Inc., in its capacity as receiver in the receivership and bankruptcy of the Portus Group of Companies, which involved over $800 million of investor funds at risk in Canada's largest hedge fund scandal
- Acted on the prosecution of claims against, and ultimate bankruptcy of, Boaz Manor arising out of the Portus insolvency
- Lead litigation counsel to the receiver, RSM Richter Inc., in the Norshield hedge fund scandal involving the tracing and attempted recovery of over $400 million in funds in several jurisdictions
- Counsel to a committee of unsecured bondholders of Calpine Corporation subsidiaries in oppression proceedings, as well as the subsequent cross-border restructuring of Calpine and its subsidiaries
- Represented General Motors Corporation in troubled supplier litigation to secure its automotive manufacturing supply chain
- Acted on a significant $250 million commercial arbitration on behalf of a private power company in connection with a declaration of force majeure under a power purchase agreement by a leading pulp and paper company
John recently spoke about the implications of the BCE case at the Faculties of Law of both The University of Western Ontario and Queen's University. Formerly, John instructed the Civil Procedure section of the Ontario Bar Admission course. The University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Law awarded John the Carson-Killeen Award for Oral Advocacy. John is active as a director of Worldwide Orphans Foundation of Canada, a charity dedicated to improving the lives of institutionalized orphans throughout the world.
John is a member of The Advocates' Society, INSOL International, the Toronto Lawyers Association, the Canadian Bar Association and the Ontario Bar Association, Civil Litigation Section.