With more than four decades of experience, Bruce advises clients on public and private financings, mergers and acquisitions, friendly and hostile take-over bids, plans of arrangement, asset and securities purchase and sale transactions, and corporate and trust reorganizations. His capital markets experience includes initial and secondary public offerings involving a variety of equity, debt and other securities. He also regularly advises on corporate governance, securities regulatory compliance and day-to-day corporate and commercial matters.
Bruce has extensive experience in the natural resources sector, particularly in oil and gas and mining. He has acted as lead counsel to oil and gas companies on matters ranging from debt and equity financings and conventional bank financings to take-over bids, mergers and acquisitions and going-public transactions. His experience also includes advising service companies, the sale and licensing of seismic data, and the purchase and sale of hard-rock mining interests and companies. Bruce has also advised multinational oil companies on Canadian securities regulatory matters and acted as Canadian counsel to international mining companies.
Beyond the natural resources sector, Bruce has advised clients across a diverse range of industries, including technology, engineering, real estate, automotive, insurance, hospitality and health care. His experience includes advising engineering firms on financings, acquisitions and domestic and international joint ventures; acting for a technology company from its emergence and growth through to its eventual sale; leading a multidisciplinary legal team on the sale of a specialty insurance agency to a private equity firm; and advising businesses on reorganizations and strategic sales.
Selective Transactions
- Advising on conventional and frontier oil and gas operations, including lease acquisitions and interpretations, area acquisitions and dispositions, and the negotiation and finalization of agreements relating to facility construction, ownership and operations.
- Acting for oil and gas drilling and completion companies.
- Advising on oil sands initiatives involving acquisitions, ownership and management, as well as the negotiation and finalization of supply, transportation and sales agreements for bitumen and refined products and operational agreements relating to mining, refining and co-generation facilities.
- Providing counsel on the purchase and sale of hard-rock mining interests and companies.
- Acting as local counsel to Australian mining operators.
- Leading a multidisciplinary legal team on the sale of a specialty insurance agency to a private equity firm.
- Representing key shareholders in the sale of a specialty insurance agency to a global insurance enterprise.
- Acting as primary legal counsel to an intellectual property and software developer from its emergence as a new market participant through its growth into a leading global provider and eventual sale.
- Managing a legal team advising an artificial intelligence company on all aspects of its operations, including its initial ownership and governance structure, private equity and convertible debt financings, and multiple private placements.
- Advising engineering firms on their operations, financing requirements, acquisitions, and domestic and international joint ventures.
- Advising automobile dealerships on day-to-day operations, restructurings and sales to consolidators.
- Acting as lead counsel to a major real estate developer.
- Acting as counsel to a leading ski and snowboard resort in Western Canada.
- Advising on plans of arrangement involving take-over bids, mergers, public company spinouts and cross-border take-over bids using exchangeable shares.
- Advising on private placements across Canada and the United States.
- Advising on corporate governance matters, including the development of policies relating to whistleblowing, reserve committees, audit committees and insider trading, as well as acting as counsel to special and independent committees.
- Advising on day-to-day corporate matters, including stock option plans and grants, board meetings, and contract review and drafting.
- Advising on franchise operations, including management, financing, and the preparation and review of franchise offering documents and agreements.
