Stikeman Elliott

Canada

The team at Stikeman Elliott got back a crucial component to its antitrust and competition practice this year, when partner and former Who’s Who Legal nominee Paul Collins returned from a two-year stint leading merger enforcement at the Competition Bureau. With Collins back in the fold as head of the practice, Who’s Who Legal nominee Lawson A W Hunter returns to his counsel role. The team remains among the most talented and well-regarded in the country, with Who’s Who Legal nominees Susan H Hutton, Shawn C D Neylan and Katherine L Kay handling a full array of competition work, from mergers to bureau investigations and follow-on class actions.

The contentious side of the practice has been booming over the past year, led by Kay, one of Canada’s headline competition litigators. The team has been advising HarperCollins in the e-books litigation, Air Canada in the follow-on air cargo cartel class actions, Infineon Technologies in the DRAM private litigation in Quebec, and Pioneer Petrol in the retail gas price-fixing investigation and accompanying litigation work. The Stikeman group has also been retained in several aspects of the wide-ranging auto parts investigation, and it is also involved in the Libor price-fixing case for a major financial client.

The merger side has been just as active, with Hutton, Hunter and Neyland acting for clients in several top-tier deals. Leading the way is the firm’s work for Astral Media in its acquisition by Bell Canada, a deal that has come under fire for alleged competition concerns. Hunter is advising China National Offshore Oil Company in its contentious US$15 billion merger with Nexen, while Hutton advised AltaGas in its tie-up with Pacific Northern Gas. Other merger clients include Neo Material Technologies and Motorola Mobility. Meanwhile, Kay is fighting the bureau’s challenge of a “metal-neutral” cross-border airline joint venture with United for client Air Canada.