Clients look to Jason to provide legal advice, devise strategies and offer creative solutions to achieve their business goals, whether it involves complex business transactions or governmental investigations, and he does so efficiently and responsively, always putting clients’ needs first.
 

Jason is a partner in our Toronto office and Head of the Antitrust/Competition & Foreign Investment Group. According to clients, Jason is "incredibly knowledgeable and efficient" (Chambers Canada 2018), and he is a “Great lawyer” who has been cited by his peers as “an efficient and strategic thinker who shows dogged determination in advancing client interests,” (Who’s Who Legal, May 2017). Jason was recently identified as one of North America’s “Thought Leaders” by Who’s Who Legal (2018), which stated that Jason “is the top Canadian practitioner in this year’s research,” is regarded as a “fantastic lawyer” who “stands out from other local counsel,” and was praised for “his superb responsiveness,” (Who’s Who Legal, June 2018).

Jason provides clients with competition law advice in the context of their mergers, strategic alliances, joint ventures and other commercial transactions. Additionally, he provides advice in respect of unilateral conduct and cartel investigations and compliance matters. He is regularly called upon to provide risk assessments, to advise management and Boards on their proposed arrangements and to navigate clients through investigations conducted by the Canadian Competition Bureau. Jason also has been involved in the negotiation of complex remedies and orders with the Competition Bureau and before the Competition Tribunal. His expertise covers a wide range of sectors, allowing him comprehensive knowledge of the industries in which clients operate.

With extensive experience in advising both foreign purchasers, including regularly advising on investments involving state-owned enterprises (SOEs), as well as Canadian vendors under the Investment Canada Act (ICA), Jason also represents clients before the Investment Review Division of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and the Cultural Sector Investment Review branch of Canadian Heritage. He has negotiated undertakings in a wide range of industries to secure "net benefit to Canada" determinations, the standard necessary for reviewable investments to be completed under the ICA, including on a transaction that led the Government of Canada to restate its policy on investments by SOEs. Jason is one of the few Canadian lawyers to advise a client through the full national security review process under the ICA.

Prior to joining McCarthy Tétrault, Jason practiced with another Canadian law firm and in the Brussels office of a leading international law firm.

Jason has advised on numerous high-profile, strategic global and domestic transactions, including:

• WestJet on its proposed US-Canada transborder joint venture with Delta Air Lines

• Pinnacle Foods Inc. on its US$10.9 billion proposed acquisition by ConAgra Brands, Inc.

• Shire plc on its US$62 billion proposed acquisition by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited

• Federal-Mogul on its US$5.4 billion acquisition by Tenneco Inc.

• The Carlyle Group and AkzoNobel on the US$12.5 billion proposed acquisition by The Carlyle Group and GIC of the Specialty Chemicals business of AkzoNobel

• WillScot Corporation on its US$1.1 billion proposed acquisition of Modular Space Holdings Inc.

• Blackstone Group on its proposed US$20 billion acquisition of the Financial & Risk Business of Thomson Reuters

• Marine Harvest on its C$315 million acquisition of Northern Harvest

• CCCI International Holding Limited on its $1.51 billion proposed acquisition of Aecon Group Inc.

• 21^st Century Fox Inc. on the US$52.4 billion proposed acquisition of Fox's film and television assets by Walt Disney Co.

While at his prior firm: 

• Zodiac Aerospace on its US$7.7 billion acquisition by Safran

• Syngenta AG in Canada on its US$43 billion indirect acquisition by an affiliate of ChemChina

• Bass Pro Group on its US$5.5 billion acquisition of Cabela's

• GE on the merger of its Oil & Gas business with Baker Hughes to create a combined company with approximately $23 billion in annual revenue

• Imperial Oil Limited on its divestment of 497 Esso retail gas stations for C$2.8 billion

• Johnson Electric Holdings Limited on its C$800 million acquisition of Stackpole International

• United Continental Holdings on its proposed transborder joint venture with Air Canada and the subsequent litigation and settlement before the Competition Tribunal

• Foster Wheeler AG on its US$3.2 billion acquisition by AMEC

• Nexen Inc. on its C$15.1 billion acquisition by CNOOC Limited

• Suncor Energy Inc. in connection with its C$43.3 billion merger with Petro-Canada

Speaking Engagements and Thought Leadership

Jason has spoken at conferences organized by the Canadian Bar Association, the American Bar Association and the International Bar Association and has been an active member and contributor of policy work to these associations, including being the former chair of the Reviewable Matters/Unilateral Conduct Committee and former vice-chair of the International Competition & Trade Law Committee, National Competition Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association. He is also co-chair of the Global Competition Review's Annual Antitrust Law Leader's Forum held in Miami, Florida. Jason has published numerous articles in leading Canadian and international journals in the areas of competition law, international trade law and foreign investment review. His publications include:

• Co-author: Remedies' Strategy in Your Jurisdiction: Closing Problematic Transactions – Canada International Antitrust Committee: The Newsletter, ABA Section of International Law, Fall Newsletter 2015.

• Co-author: State-Owned Enterprises: Strategic Considerations for Merger Control and Foreign Investment in Canada.

• 2015 American Bar Association Antitrust Law Spring Meeting, April 2015

Jason was admitted to the Ontario Bar in 1998. He received his Postgraduate Diploma in EC Competition Law from the University of London, King's College in 2004. He also received his MES in 1997 from York University, his LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1996 and his BA in 1992 from the University of Western Ontario.