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With experience crafting bespoke arrangements in complex bankruptcy and insolvency mandates, Lance turns restructuring into an opportunity for businesses to chart a new course.

Lance is a partner in our Bankruptcy and Restructuring group, providing clients with creative advice on complex insolvency and corporate finance matters, as well as innovative solutions to intricate restructuring issues. As a member of the British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Yukon bars, he is uniquely situated to steer clients through cross-jurisdictional issues, possessing expertise in debt restructuring, corporate reorganizations, plans of arrangement, loan workouts, fraudulent preference actions, foreclosures, bankruptcies, and receiverships. He frequently guides companies and stakeholders through proceedings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act and the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, acting for trustees, debtors, directors and creditors.

With experience in a diverse range of industries, Lance has advised clients operating in the technology, mining, cannabis, real estate and forestry sectors.

Lance also provides strategic advice in corporate and commercial finance, advising borrowers and lenders on domestic and multi-jurisdictional loans. Clients have included borrowers, private lenders, financial institutions, mezzanine lenders and distressed lenders on asset-backed loans, real estate financing, acquisition financing, debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing and syndicated loans. This interdisciplinary toolkit gives him unique insight into negotiations and allows him to provide consistent, nuanced, and strategic advice on clients’ most novel challenges.

Recent Transactions

Transactions and matters representative of Lance’s experience and skill include acting as counsel to:

Insolvency

• the court-appointed Monitor in the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act proceedings of Mountain Equipment Co-op
• the senior secured creditor and lessor in the receivership and bankruptcy of Yukon Zinc Corporation, a zinc mine in Yukon
• a NYSE-listed international technology company in its acquisition of a distressed fitness wearables company
• a licenced cannabis producer in its restructuring under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act
• the court-appointed Monitor in the restructuring of the Ascent group of companies, Canada’s first cannabis restructuring under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act
• Arthon Group of companies, including a construction company, a coal mine, and an aggregate mine in their successful restructuring under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act
• a custom footwear technology company in its restructuring and recapitalization under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act
• a national coffee retailer and roaster in its successful restructuring, reorganization and recapitalization
• a prominent glass design manufacturer in its reorganization and integration into a prominent international manufacture

Finance

• the bond trustee on a nearly $300 million bond issuance to a copper mining group
• the syndicate lead in a $100 million credit facility to a nationwide private mortgage lender
• a Schedule I chartered bank on numerous large construction projects by a prominent construction company
• a Schedule I chartered bank on credit facilities to a national private lender
• a Schedule I chartered bank on credit facilities to a multi-national forestry company

Lance is a member in several leading professional bodies working in financial restructuring and insolvency, including the Insolvency Institute of Canada, the INSOL, the International Insolvency Institute, and the Turnaround Management Association. He frequently contributes as a lecturer for the Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia, and previously taught insolvency law as an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia.

Lance received a Bachelor of Commerce with Distinction from the University of Alberta in 2004 and his law degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 2006. He completed a Masters of Laws (LL.M) in 2016 at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School. He was called to the Alberta and Saskatchewan bars in 2007, the British Columbia bar in 2008 and the Yukon bar in 2015, and he is a member of those provinces respective law societies.

Publications & Insights

• Yukon Court of Appeal Clarifies Environmental Security and Third-Party Property Rights in Receivership Proceedings, (2021)
• Caught in the Rye: The Canada Grain Act, Security, Title and Insolvency Proceedings, Annual Review of Insolvency Law, (2020)
• To Vest, or Not to Vest? Royalties and the Court’s Power to Extinguish Third-party Interests in Land Through a Vesting Order, (2019)
• Re-ordering Priorities: A Review of Recent Jurisprudence Regarding the Categorization of Debt vs. Equity and Equitable Subordination, Insolvency Institute of Canada, (2019)
• Substance Over Form? A Review of the Evolving Practice of Approving the Fees of Court Officers, Annual Review of Insolvency Law, (2016)
• Is That My Receivable? Annual Review of Insolvency Law, (2016)
• TLC The Land Conservancy of Canada: The Evolution of the Role of “Other” Interests in Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act Proceedings, Annual Review of Insolvency Law, (2015)
• New Developments in Receivership Law: A Survey, Insolvency Institute of Canada, (2012)