William Grant & Sons Purchases Canadian Whisky Brand

William Grant & Sons Ltd., the Scottish distilling firm that produces Glenfiddich, Grant’s and Balvenie Scotch brands, purchased for an undisclosed amount the Canadian whisky brand, Gibson’s Finest, from Quebec-based Diageo Canada Inc. The deal closed on October 4, 2002.

William Grant & Sons was represented by Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, along with in-house counsel George Tait. The Blakes team consisted of David Glennie, John Wilkin and Bob Wooder (corporate) in London and Jack Quinn and Chris Hersh (competition and regulatory), Greg Kanargelidis (commodity tax), Gary Daniel and Janice Przystal (intellectual property) and Leslie Morgan (tax) in Toronto.

Diageo was represented by McCarthy Tétrault LLP, along with in-house counsel Robin Adelstein. The McCarthy Tétrault team was comprised of Rene Sorell and Shea Small (corporate), Danielle Bush and Éric Gosselin (regulatory) and Judith Woods and James Warnock (commodity tax); by Omar Wakil and Neil Campbell (competition) of McMillan Binch LLP; and by Anita Polott (intellectual property) of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in Washington, D.C.