Lawyer Profile Detail

Cheryl Slusarchuk* is a partner in the Business Law Group and leader of the Technology Group in Vancouver. She practices in the areas of financings, mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing and commercialization arrangements for technology, clean technology and renewable energy companies, with an emphasis on US/Canada cross-border and international transactions.

Ms. Slusarchuk has been consistently ranked among Canada’s top information technology lawyers. For example, 2010 The Best Lawyers in Canada in the area of information technology law, 2010 Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory as a leading lawyer in the areas of private equity and technology, 2010 International Who’s Who of Internet and E-Commerce Lawyers, 2008 Guide the World’s Leading Technology, Media & Telecommunications Lawyers, published by The Legal Media Group, 2006 Lexpert/ALM 500 Survey, "40 Corporate Lawyers to Watch", 2004 Lexpert’s "Top 40 under 40" and 2003 Business in Vancouver’s "40 under 40".

Highlights of Ms. Slusarchuk’s recent experience include:

• acting for Research In Motion in the acquisitions of U.S. based and international companies;
• acting for clean technology companies on a broad range of corporate and commercial matters;
• cross-border financings of companies including preference shares, secured convertible notes, warrants, bridge financing and reorganization/asset transfer;
• acting for outsource providers on transactions for IT functions, call centers and business processes (BPO);
• cross-border licenses and software development agreements; and
• software license and distribution agreements for numerous countries including Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, China (Hong Kong and PRC), France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Venezuela, Vietnam, and the United Kingdom.

Prior to joining McCarthy Tétrault, Ms. Slusarchuk was a partner in the Technology/E-commerce Group of a large, international firm in the U.S. where she worked in these same practice areas.

Ms. Slusarchuk was General Counsel of a NASDAQ-listed international high technology company with a market capitalization of $1 billion and over 6,000 employees. Her responsibilities included preparing the company to go public and taking it through an initial and secondary public offering.

Ms. Slusarchuk also worked for six years in Australia, focusing on corporate and commercial transactions in the Asia-Pacific region.

Ms. Slusarchuk received her LLB from McGill University and her J.D. from Chicago Kent-College of Law (Order of the Coif). Ms. Slusarchuk was initially admitted in New South Wales, Australia and then admitted in Colorado , Illinois and British Columbia. She remains licensed to practice law in Colorado, Illinois and British Columbia.

Ms. Slusarchuk has lectured at various programs and conferences and authored the following publications:

• "How to Make Cross-Border Merger and Acquisition Deals Run Smoothly", The Lawyers Weekly, April 7, 2006;
• "The Climate Change Challenge", Green Business, September 2007;
• "The $1 Trillion Reason Why Climate Change Impacts are Material Disclosure", The Corporate Brief Newsletter, January 2008;
• "The High Impact of the Low Carbon Economy", Green Business, July/August 2008;
• "Google Greens its Investments in Hopes of a Coal-Free Future", Technology Law Quarterly, November 6, 2008;
• "Green Economy Gains Steam: US Bailout Demonstrates Confidents in the Clean Tech Sector", Green Business, December 2008;
• "Cap-and-Trade Takes Shape out West", Technology Law Quarterly, 2009;
• "Carbon Trading in North America in Inevitable: Start Considering your Liabilities and Opportunities", Green Business, 2009.