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Jay Lefton Toronto Lawyer

Jay A. Lefton

Partner Fasken
With companies varying widely in their maturity, financing, negotiating leverage and dynamics, preparing for acquisitions, financings and strategic alliances requires the right balance of strategy and practicality.
Jurisdiction Ontario, 1983
Language(s) English
Office(s) Toronto
Contact

Overview

Jay Lefton practices corporate and securities law. Jay advises clients on public and private mergers & acquisitions transactions, private equity matters and public and private financings, as well as assisting with strategic alliances, technology transfer and licensing. He works predominantly in the technology and life sciences sector.

Assisting acquirers and target companies and their boards of directors, Jay advises on negotiated transactions and unsolicited takeover bids, most of which are multi-jurisdictional.

Jay also represents issuers, both public and private, as well as advisers, venture capitalists, institutional investors and private equity funds. Working with universities, hospitals, research institutions and researchers, Jay advises at various stages in the commercialization of their discoveries.

Jay takes a leading role in the firm’s Israeli and West Bank initiative, and travels to the region several times a year.

Jay is a former member of the Ontario Securities Commission's Securities Advisory Committee, advising the Commission on various matters, including legislative and policy initiatives.  Jay was an adjunct faculty member at Toronto’s Osgoode Hall Law School and has also instructed at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

 

Achievements

Career & Education

Education

  • LLB University of Toronto
  • B Comm University of Toronto

Community involvement

  • Member, Startup Companies Committee, Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto)
  • Former Member, Board of Directors, Ontario Genomics Institute
  • Former Chair, Board of Directors, Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute
  • Former Member, Board of Governors, University of Ontario Institute of Technology
  • Former Member, Board of Governors, Mount Sinai Hospital
  • Former Chair, Cell Therapy Advisory Board of Princess Margaret Hospital (Toronto)
  • Former Member, Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • Former member, Canadian Friends of the Tel Aviv Foundation
  • Former Member, Board of Directors, University of Toronto Innovations Foundation, whose mandate was to commercialize technologies developed at the University
  • Former Member, Board of Directors, ThinkFirst Foundation of Canada (Former Chair)
  • Former Member, the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation
  • Former Member, Adjudication Panel of the Premier's Catalyst Awards Program, sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation

Memberships & Affiliations

  • Member, Mergers and Acquisitions Committee (Business Law Section), American Bar Association
  • Member, International Bar Association
  • Member, Canadian Bar Association
  • Former Adjunct Faculty Member, Osgoode Hall Law School
  • Former instructor, University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management
  • Delegate, Ontario trade missions to Israel and the West Bank led by the Premier of Ontario (2010; 2016)
  • Chair, Canadian Organizing Committee for NanoIsrael (2010)
  • Member, Toronto Academic Health Sciences Council Subcommittee on Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer (2000-05)
  • Member, Biotechnology Council of Ontario (which provided guidance to the Government of Ontario on the development of Ontario's strategy for this sector) (1999-2001)

News

Publications

Article, Editor Financial Assistance Guide Corporate and M&A Law Committee, International Bar Association
Guide, Editor Takeover Guide Multinational Takeover Bids Task Force of the Corporate and M&A Law Committee, International Bar Association
Article Toronto and Tel Aviv Exchanges Sign MOU: Is Dual-Listing on the Horizon? Canadian Securities Law News

Speaking Engagements

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