Mr Patrick T McCarthy QC Partner Borden Ladner Gervais LLP - Lawyer Biography - International Law Office

Background

Patrick McCarthy is a partner in our Calgary office. He graduated from the University of Windsor with a Bachelor of Laws in 1975, after obtaining a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Calgary, and was admitted to the Alberta Bar in 1976.

Areas of Practice

• Mr. McCarthy practices insolvency and restructuring law, with an emphasis on international and cross-border insolvency.
• He is co-chair of Borden Ladner Gervais’ Insolvency and Restructuring practice group.

Professional Experience

• Pat has an active insolvency practice, representing receivers, trustees in bankruptcy, and monitors in insolvency proceedings as well as debtors, creditors and other stakeholders in national and international insolvencies and restructurings, and is responsible for managing and setting direction on large, complex, high profile restructurings and insolvencies.
• Pat was named by LEXPERT as one of the “Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada.” As well, Pat has received LEXPERT’s highest ranking as a “leading practitioner” in the insolvency area. He was also named as a leading practitioner in the insolvency field by Euromoney’s International Financial Law Review. Pat was appointed to the Insolvency Institute of Canada in 1996, an organization for Canadian insolvency professionals from the legal, accounting and banking professions. Pat was appointed to the board of directors of the Institute in 1999.
• Pat is also a founding member of the International Insolvency Institute, a newly formed organization of senior international insolvency professionals.
• After initially conducting a general commercial litigation practice, Pat’s focus shifted increasingly to insolvency matters during the turbulent 1980's in Calgary. Since 1992, Pat has restricted his practice to insolvency and related matters.

Representative Work

• Acted for the monitor in Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (“CCAA”) proceedings commenced by Canadian Airlines Corporation and Canadian Airlines International Ltd.
• Acted for the receiver in the Smoky River Coal Ltd. liquidation, a case involving what is believed to be the first use of s. 14.06 of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act to allow the disclaimer of property (consisting of open-pit and underground coal mines, as well as plant facilities) having significant environmental issues.
• Acted for the monitor in CCAA proceedings commenced by Bre-X Minerals Ltd, and its sister companies Bresea Resources Ltd. and Bro-X Resources Ltd., and subsequently for the Interim Receiver of Bresea. In that capacity, advised the Interim Receiver regarding several hostile takeover bids for Bresea, believed to be the first such takeover bids launched in Canada for a corporation in receivership.
• Represented a group of European bondholders in the Confederation Treasury Services Ltd. insolvency, and in that capacity sat as a member of the CTSL creditors’ committee and an inspector in the bankruptcy of CTSL. Creditors of CTSL eventually recovered in excess of 100% of the principal amount of their claims.
• Represented Blue Range Resource Corporation in its restructuring under the CCAA, which involved the first judicial consideration of the “eligible financial contract” amendments to the CCAA.
• Acted as co-counsel for the secured debenture holders in the restructuring of Trizec Corporation.
• Acted for Paris-based Schlumerger in the bankruptcy of Chauvco Resources International Ltd., a Bermudian corporation conducting oil exploration in the west African nation of Gabon, which involved insolvency proceedings in Canada, England, Gabon and Bermuda.
• Represented the monitor of Solv-Ex Corporation in relation to simultaneous CCAA and U.S. Chapter 11 reorganization proceedings commenced by that corporation. In that capacity arranged for what are believed to be the first cross-border hearings between U.S. and Canadian courts, and drafted a cross border protocol to coordinate the Canadian and U.S. proceedings which has served as a precedent for subsequent Canada/U.S. cross border insolvency proceedings.

Professional and Community Activities

Pat has prepared papers for and participated in numerous insolvency and advocacy programs and conferences for various organizations, including the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Insolvency Institute of Canada, the Canadian Insolvency Practitioners’ Association, the Legal Education Society of Alberta, the Alberta branch of the Canadian Bar Association, the Canadian Institute, and has been an instructor at the University of Calgary Faculty of Law.

Practice areas to which Patrick T. McCarthy Q.C. belongs:

• Commercial Litigation
• Financial Services
• Insolvency and Restructuring