Nigel Johnston is a partner in our Tax Group in Toronto. His practice focuses on corporate income tax issues, resource taxation (including renewable energy), providing tax advice to the investment funds industry and the creation of new financial products. He has advised numerous clients with respect to investments in offshore investment funds.

Mr. Johnston’s recent engagements include:

• acting for the issuers and agents in initial public offerings of numerous closed-end funds including Padlock Partners UK Fund I and Fund II, Northview Canadian High Yield Residential Fund, Big Pharma Split Corp. and Global Real Estate & E-Commerce Dividend Fund
• providing tax advice to numerous mutual fund groups including with respect to fund launches and reorganizations and the acquisition of fund managers
• acting for an independent global private firm markets investment with respect to investments in Canadian and foreign private equity funds and co-investment opportunities
• managing responses to requirements from the Canada Revenue Agency to provide information about offshore accounts

Mr. Johnston appears in the current Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, a guide to the leading law firms and practitioners in Canada, as a leading lawyer in the areas of investment funds and asset management, and corporate tax. He is recognized as a leading lawyer in the area of corporate tax in the current edition of Who's Who Legal: Canada. He also appears in the most recent editions of Chambers Global: Guide to the World’s Leading Lawyers for Business and Chambers Canada as a leading lawyer in the area of tax, and in Lexpert’s 2006 US Guide to Canada’s Top 100 Industry Specialists. Mr. Johnston is listed as one of The Best Lawyers in Canada in the field of tax law.

He is a member of the Industry Regulation and Taxation Committee of the Portfolio Management Association of Canada and the Taxation Working Group of the Investment Funds Institute of Canada. He was a member of the “Informal Consultative Group on the Taxation of Collective Investment Vehicles” and of the “Pilot Group on Improving Procedures for Cross-Border Tax Claims” organized by the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration. He is a member of the editorial board of the Canada Tax Service (Carswell). He was formerly a technical adviser to the CBA-CICA Joint Committee on taxation and has spoken and written widely on income tax matters.

Mr. Johnston received his BA (magna cum laude) in 1979 from Queen’s University and his LLB in 1982 from the Osgoode Hall Law School. He was called to the Ontario bar in 1984.