24 LEXPERT
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2017
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WWW.LEXPERT.CA
Kravitz, Neil Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
(514) 397-7551 nkravitz@fasken.com
Mr. Kravitz is a partner practising in M&A, Corporate Finance and Private
Equity. A seasoned advisor and recognized leading lawyer, he acts for
acquirers and targets, issuers, entrepreneurs, private-equity funds,
investment banks, boards of directors and special committees in public and
private M&A transactions, equity and debt financings, shareholder activism
and corporate governance matters.
King, Richard J. Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
(416) 862-6626 rking@osler.com
Mr. King is Co-Chair of Osler's national Regulatory, Environmental, Aboriginal
and Land (REAL) group. He has extensive experience representing clients on
regulatory and Aboriginal consultation matters related to large energy, mining
and other infrastructure projects. He also advises clients on environmental
issues associated with commercial transactions and environmental
compliance matters.
Kent, Andrew J.F. McMillan LLP
(416) 865-7160 andrew.kent@mcmillan.ca
Mr. Kent is the Co-Chair of the Financial Services and Restructuring
groups. He practises business law with a focus on corporate restructuring
and financing. He is recognized nationally and internationally both as a
leading Canadian banking practitioner and as one of Canada's pre-eminent
restructuring practitioners.
Kennedy, Jennifer K. Norton Rose
Fulbright Canada LLP (403) 267-8188
jennifer.kennedy@nortonrosefulbright.com
Ms. Kennedy practises in the corporate area with an emphasis on initial
public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganizations of
public and private corporations, corporate financings, stock exchange
listings, corporate governance practices and general corporate and securities
law. Ms. Kennedy acts as a corporate secretary for a number of public
and private issuers.
Kelly, Stephen J. Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP
(514) 847-4570 stephen.kelly@nortonrosefulbright.com
Mr. Kelly practises corporate and securities law, with particular emphasis on
corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions. He regularly acts for large
public companies, underwriters and investors in public offerings, including
initial public offerings, bought deal transactions and cross-border offerings
as well as private placement transactions.
Kellerman, Jay C. Stikeman Elliott LLP
(416) 869-5201 jkellerman@stikeman.com
Mr. Kellerman is Managing Partner of the Toronto office and Co-Head of the
firm's Global Mining Group. As a corporate lawyer for more than 25 years, he
is primarily involved in securities-related matters, including financings and
M&A. His clients include public companies, Canadian securities dealers and
independent committees involved in considering related party and other
similar transactions.
LEXPERT RANKED LAWYERS
could be — even for boards that have term lim-
its — a long-term relationship." Board members
should bring not only functional skills, but also be
able to contribute on a strategic level. "You want to
be sure you're not just getting a specialist who will
contribute in a very narrow way."
When it comes to expanding the candidate
pipeline, Kravitz says clients are looking beyond
traditional networks. "ey're asking me, 'From
a diversity perspective, can you identify potential
board members? What are other companies do-
ing? Do you know of strong directors on other
boards we might want to have on our board?'"
According to Kravitz, one of the challenges is
to break away from the traditional approach and
go outside the existing network of board members
and management. For example, he says a com-
mon board recruitment trend involves profes-
sional search firms that are being used to expand
the universe of qualified candidates, in addition to
those that the company identifies on its own. "All
of this is a process that builds on itself. As divers-
ity increases on boards because of regulation and
an increased focus by companies, you have more
known candidates from a diverse background.
Progress begets progress."
Indeed, says Bradley, governance committees
and board chairs need to appreciate there is a deep-
er pool of talent out there. Sometimes it just means
viewing the recruitment through a different lens.
"e exercise of ensuring you have diversity on the
candidate list may take some additional time and
resources, but I think boards are pleasantly sur-
prised with the results — there's a lot of talent out
there. ey just needed to look for it."
On that point, she continues, the board com-
munity has taken on the issue of diversity in a more
constructive way in the past few years. "When the
'comply or explain' regulations were first released,
the diversity issue was an annoyance to many.
Now, when talking to clients, it is automatically on
the agenda and the conversation is about how to
get access to that talent list — to 'comply' rather
than what is the bare minimum I have to disclose
to 'explain.'"
First Board Experience
A challenge for aspiring directors, says Gibson, is
to get board experience. "As they say, the first step
can be the most difficult." What he's noticed "is a
trend among some of our leading clients, where
they're looking at their women executives — in-
cluding in-house counsel — who have leadership-
position skills and allowing them to go on boards
in other industries to be able to get experience."
It's a win-win situation for all concerned, he
says, as women serving on boards outside their
own company gain a better perspective on inter-
facing with their own board of directors, which
