On April 1, 2024, in a true cross-practice effort, BLG's team of lawyers represented University Health Network (UHN), Ontario's largest public hospital network, on its strategic merger with West Park Healthcare Centre, creating a world class rehabilitation centre. This transaction merges UHN's and West Park's specialized expertise to enhance care by expanding the scope and range of services available to support some of Canada's most complex continuing care patients. The amalgamated entity continues to operate under the name University Health Network.
The transaction was structured as a statutory amalgamation pursuant to the Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, 2010 (Ontario). BLG's cross-practice team provided multidisciplinary guidance throughout the process on corporate, governance, regulatory, real estate, construction, litigation, employment, infrastructure development, finance, health law, tax and intellectual property matters.
As part of this mandate, BLG also assisted UHN with modernizing its corporate governance framework including by continuing out of its special act: the University Health Network Act, 1997, prior to amalgamating with West Park Healthcare Centre.
BLG represented UHN with a team led by Nick Pasquino and included: Ryma Nasrallah (Charity and Income Tax), Christine Ferguson (Corporate and Due Diligence), Jessica Recine (Corporate and Due Diligence), Holly Ryan (Corporate, Health Law, Professional Staff Integration and Physician Privileges issues), Ben Fuhrmann (Corporate and Regulatory), Patrick Hawkins (Health Law and Physician Privileges Issues), Brennan Carroll (Commercial Real Estate), Justin Cuperfain (Commercial Real Estate), Beverly Gilbert (HST), Kathleen Lemieux (Intellectual Property), Denes Rothschild (Competition Regulatory), Ronald Foerster (Litigation), Heather Pessione (Corporate, Governance, Health Law and Litigation), James Fu (Employment, Pensions and Benefits) and Daniel Girlando (Privacy).