Course Chairs
Fred R. Pletcher — Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Vancouver
Leo Raffin — McMillan LLP, Vancouver
About the Course Chairs
Fred Pletcher is chair of the Mining Group and a partner in the Securities and Capital Markets Group at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. Fred has 30 years' experience advising public companies, boards and underwriters in connection with a broad range of transactions and issues. He has a particular focus on companies in the mining industry, both domestically and internationally, and also has considerable experience in the field of shareholder activism.
Fred has led over $30 billion of public M&A transactions in his career and has been listed on the MergerLinks Top Ten M&A Lawyers in Canada league table for each of the past three years. Fred is recognized as a leading lawyer by all major ranking publications, including Chambers, Best Lawyers, IFLR 1000, The Legal 500, Lexpert, and Reuters.
He has degrees from Columbia University (LLM), University of Toronto (LLB), Harvard University (AB), and was called to the BC bar in 1993. Outside of the practice of law he is a director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
Leo Raffin is a partner in McMillan LLP's Vancouver office and is co-chair of the firm's national Capital Markets Group as well as co-chair of the Public M&A Group (BC). His primary practice areas are securities and corporate law—acting for technology, industrial, and natural resource issuers. His experience includes public and private offerings, mergers, acquisitions and take-over bids, proxy contests, corporate reorganizations, business alliances, licensing transactions, and corporate governance matters.
Leo was listed in The Legal 500 Canada 2015 as a leader in Corporate and M&A and in Best Lawyers in Canada 2015 as a leading lawyer in the areas of Securities Law and Technology Law. He was recognized as a leading lawyer in Global Mining in the 2014/15 Lexpert Special Edition and received a "BV" Peer Review Ranking from Martindale-Hubbell. Leo was called to the BC bar in 1987.
Planning Committee
Noreen Bent — BC Securities Commission, Vancouver
Julie Bogle — Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Vancouver
M. Joanna Cameron — Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, Vancouver
Jennifer Hansen — Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP, Vancouver
Tamara Howarth — Vice President, Legal, Wheaton Precious Metals Corp., Vancouver
Cory Kent — McMillan LLP, Vancouver
Sven O. Milelli — McCarthy Tétrault LLP, Vancouver
James R. Munro — McMillan LLP, Vancouver
Michelle Noorani — Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, Vancouver
Gordon Smith — BC Securities Commission, Vancouver
Teresa Tomchak — Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, Vancouver
Faculty
Narendra Acharya — Baker & McKenzie LLP, Chicago
James Beeby — Bennett Jones LLP, Vancouver
Charlotte Bell — Senior Policy Counsel, TMX Group, Vancouver
Chris Birkett, CPA, CA — Vice President, Toronto Stock Exchange, Vancouver
Julie Bogle — Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Vancouver
Michael Brady — Deputy Director, Capital Market Regulation, BC Securities Commission, Vancouver
M. Joanna Cameron — Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, Vancouver
Liz Coape-Arnold — Senior Legal Counsel, Capital Market Regulation, BC Securities Commission, Vancouver
Jennifer Hansen — Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP, Vancouver
Ian Hazlett — Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, Toronto
Tamara Howarth — Vice President, Legal, Wheaton Precious Metals Corp., Vancouver
Cory Kent — McMillan LLP, Vancouver
Andrew MacDougall — Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, Toronto
James R. Munro — McMillan LLP, Vancouver
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