Companies look to David for his insight into restructuring and intellectual property law, gained over nearly twenty years of practice, as well as his proven ability to find outside-the-box solutions in situations where they may believe that all their options are already exhausted. Whether it is a company facing a business ending copyright infringement suit, or a company facing a seemingly insurmountable onslaught of unhappy creditors, David’s calm and goal oriented approach has helped his clients avoid disaster and survive in this uncertain environment.
A nationally recognized restructuring expert, David spent the first decade of his career acting principally for major financial institutions, before expanding his practice to use his knowledge from the creditor side to help debtor companies negotiate solutions to their creditor issues. His knowledge of the issues faced on both sides of the aisle often makes him counsel of choice for court officers in a variety of insolvency proceedings. He was recently appointed by the court to a special consultative committee to represent the landlord stakeholders in the Target Canada insolvency proceedings, where he dealt with in excess of $6 billion in creditor claims.
Officers and directors of both public and private companies who sit on the boards of companies entering the zone of insolvency turn to David to understand their options and to ensure their preservation in an uncertain and precarious situation. David is able to set a clear path for senior executives to follow in the crisis period that often accompanies a restructuring by explaining how choices effect director and officer liabilities, or by helping directors negotiate and interpret directors and officers insurance policies. David was counsel to the directors and officers of the Priszm (KFC and Pizza Hut) insolvency.
David has been involved in several insolvencies in the construction industry involving complex multiparty, multi-province issues, construction lien and trust issues. He has also worked through the completion of construction projects during restructurings, the sale of construction businesses, quarries and significant ongoing contracts for both private and crown construction projects.
The mainstream media and academic conference developers seek David’s opinion routinely. He speaks at several national level conferences on issues related to insolvency, intellectual property, the Internet, copyright, and trademark issues. David has appeared several times on Canada AM, CBC Newsworld, BNN as well as in print in the Globe and Mail, Canadian Lawyer Magazine, Lawyer’s Weekly, the Toronto Star and The New York Times. He has also consulted with the Provincial and Federal government on the development of bankruptcy and insolvency legislation from his position as an executive member of both Ontario Bar Association and Canadian Bar Association insolvency and restructuring sections.
David came to law from a family of musicians and he has a background in music, technology and the arts. Early in his career he worked for organizations such as SOCAN, Cancopy and the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency and he brings this perspective as well as his hands on knowledge about the application of intellectual property law to Canadian businesses. He is a past winner of the Gordon F. Henderson national prize in Copyright Law and past faculty at the Harris Institute for the Arts.
Keenly aware of the importance of brand protection issues, David has been a registered trademark agent for more than a decade and has considerable expertise in protecting the brand rights of his clients. He has also been the lead counsel involved in drafting complex multiparty enterprise software and web portal agreements, in particular in the financial services sector. In addition, David has recently developed considerable expertise in assisting clients facing a software audit in particular with respect to the BSA | The Software Alliance.
David’s intellectual property knowledge has also uniquely qualified him to assist clients in the media and technology sectors in large insolvency matters such as Nortel, Canwest, Allarco (Superchannel), TQS Inc., PSInet and Teleglobe.
In addition to being a capable solicitor, David is a fixture at several different levels of court in Ontario. He has appeared before the Ontario Superior Court and the Registrar in Bankruptcy on Insolvency matters, and has appeared before the Federal Court in connection with Copyright, Trademarks and technology issues.