Lexpert Magazine

May 2018

Lexpert magazine features articles and columns on developments in legal practice management, deals and lawsuits of interest in Canada, the law and business issues of interest to legal professionals and businesses that purchase legal services.

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32 LEXPERT MAGAZINE | MAY 2018 COVER STORY HORNER IS NOT VERY RETIRING, EVEN IF HE HAS RETIRED FROM OSLER AFTER 30 YEARS. HERE, HE REFLECTS ON THE PRACTICE OF M&A LAW, AND PROJECTS ON ITS FUTURE. BY JEAN CUMMING PHOTOGRAPHY BY NIGEL DICKSON MANY FINE LAWYERS from Canadian law firms have retired without Lexpert writing about it. Several of those, like Clay Horner, retired from a national firm, in his case Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. Why then is Lexpert choosing to spend its time and attention on Horner? Perhaps because he rose to local fame and prominence at the same time Lexpert did and the chronicling of the M&A deals he worked on filled Lexpert's pages. ose deals are changing, and Lexpert would like to keep up: a conversation with Horner recalls that era in Canadian M&A but leads to a discussion of the future for its practitioners and our readers. For a time, Canadian law firms seemed like equal players with the major firms from the United States and the United Kingdom. Companies bought and sold each other - Canadian companies sold to global ones - and they needed strong Canadian counsel. ings were done differently here, then, and that gave rise to a seemingly golden era. Lexpert was privileged to chronicle and promote that era. At some point as the era shied, as they all do, Clay Horner had a terrible ski ac- cident. We don't know much about that. But still he led on major Canadian deals and those referred by U.S. deal firms: Tim Hortons; Shoppers Drug Mart/Loblaws; and the acquisition of Cirque de Soleil, for example. Canada is a closely held economy and society. People don't intrude, ask personal questions too early. Instead, they get to know people over time and with discretion. Horner flourished in that environment; developing relationships with the owners, Around The Track

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