Dalhousie University Wins 2009 Corporate/Securities Moot

Justice Kathryn N. Feldman (Ontario Court of Appeal), Chrissy Giannoulias and Bill O'Reilly (from Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP), Danielle Toigo, Ken Jennings, Jennifer Hodgins, Dan McGruder, Professor Mohamed Khimji (Photo courtesy of Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP)

Dalhousie University has won the top prize in the 2009 Canadian Corporate/Securities Law Moot Court Competition. The Dalhousie Law School team of Jennifer Hodgins, Ken Jennings, Dan McGruder and Danielle Toigo beat out 12 other law schools from across Canada for their first place finish. The moot took place at the Federal Court of Appeal in Toronto on March 6th and 7th.  The final round was argued before Justices Kathryn N. Feldman, Robert A. Blair, and John I. Laskin of the Ontario Court of Appeal, along with Lucien Bouchard, PC, GOQ (former Premier of Quebec) and Lawrence Ritchie (vice-chair of the OSC).

The team's faculty supervisor, Mohamed Khimji, said, "For me, the best part was watching four young people transform themselves from students into professional advocates in just two months' time. The University can be very proud of them as they certainly represented us well." Dalhousie University thanks the many faculty members from the Law School and lawyers from the firms Cox & Palmer, Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP, McInnes Cooper, Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and Stewart McKelvey Stirling & Scales who assisted by acting as practice judges while the team was preparing.

The problem argued by the team was designed to test the boundaries of the recent landmark decision by the Supreme Court of Canada in the BCE bondholder litigation.  It involved a proposed transaction whereby a corporation would "spin-off" one of its subsidiaries to its shareholders by way of a plan of arrangement and the attempt by certain holders of notes to prevent court approval of the transaction.

The only competition of its kind in Canada, the annual Corporate/Securities Moot provides an opportunity for top students from Canadian law schools to debate current legal issues in corporate and securities law with senior practitioners from Toronto law firms and corporations, regulators from the Ontario Securities Commission, and judges. The Moot is sponsored and administered by the Toronto law firm Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP.