Lexpert presents Toronto’s top mining lawyers based on the results of our extensive yearly peer review. The full list of Ontario’s most recommended mining lawyers and law firms can be viewed on our practice area rankings.
In our survey, mining law encompasses all legal issues relating to the mineral exploration, development, production and reclamation cycle from raw grass roots exploration through to the fabrication and sale of finished metal products and mine closure and reclamation.
Most frequently recommended mining lawyers
Law firm: Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP
Year called to the bar: 2001
Chad Accursi is a partner at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP. He devotes his practice to securities law, with a focus on corporate finance matters. Accursi represents public companies and independent and bank-owned investment dealers on public and private security offerings, mergers and acquisitions and general securities compliance matters. He has represented investment dealers and companies on initial public offerings and stock exchange listings. Accursi has advised clients in connection with cross-border inter-listed financings and business combinations. He also has experience advising boards of directors on corporate governance, disclosure matters and securities law compliance, including mineral project disclosure.
Law firm: Bennett Jones LLP
Year called to the bar: 2001
Abbas Ali Khan is a partner at Bennett Jones LLP’s corporate and securities group. He focuses on corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions in the natural resources sector. Khan acts for Canadian and international mining companies involved in public equity and debt offerings, private placements, reverse takeover transactions, joint ventures, partnerships, M&A and stock exchange listings with properties in Canada, the US, South America, Europe, Africa and Australia. He also advises mining companies on Canadian securities law matters – including mineral project disclosure – property acquisitions, royalty acquisitions and earn-in agreements. Khan advises investment dealers in equity and debt offerings and M&A transactions. He also advises boards of directors and special committees on securities law compliance matters, corporate governance, proxy contests, related party transactions and crisis response and management. Khan is a member of the Ontario Securities Commission Continuous Disclosure Advisory Committee.
Read more about Bennett Jones LLP in when a purchaser reneges on a deal due to the pandemic
Law firm: McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Year called to the bar: 2002
Eva Bellissimo is a partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP, where she co-leads the global metals and mining group. Her practice is focused on mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance. Bellissimo develops deal strategy for acquirors, target companies and special committees. She assists clients in developing and executing a variety of transactions, including arrangements, reverse takeovers, going-private transactions, takeover bids and other business combinations. In her corporate finance practice, Bellissimo advises strategic investors, issuers and investment banks on strategic investments, public equity offerings, convertible debt transactions and initial public offerings. She has also helped issuers navigate through proxy contests and advised with respect to activist shareholder actions. Bellissimo is a lecturer on financing mining projects at the Osgoode Certificate in Mining Law Program and is the chair of the DAN Management Program at the University of Western Ontario.
Law firm: Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP
Year called to the bar: 1995
Mark T. Bennett is a managing partner at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP. He devotes his practice to corporate and securities law, primarily in the natural resources sector, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance. Bennett acts for Canadian and international mining companies involved in negotiated business combinations, contested takeover bids, domestic and cross-border public equity and debt offerings, private placements and stock exchange listings. He advises exploration, development and producing natural resource companies on property acquisitions, joint ventures and option agreements. Bennett also represents investment dealers retained as underwriters or financial advisors and has acted on deals involving resource properties in the Americas, Africa, Europe and Australia. He also advises boards of directors and special committees on related-party transactions, corporate governance and securities law compliance, including mineral project disclosure.
Law firm: Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
Year called to the bar: 1986
Michael J. Bourassa is a partner at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP. He devotes his practice to the mining industry. Bourassa is a member of the firm’s global mining group and has acted as the team’s coordinator from 2004 to 2012. He boasts extensive experience in Canadian and international mining projects. Bourassa is also an expert in international mining due diligence issues concerning title, technical matters and environmental risks. He provides advice on public financings, commercial mining agreements, and corporate social responsibility and litigation support. Bourassa serves as co-chair of the International Bar Association’s mining executive committee and is a past director of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada. He frequently writes on important corporate social responsibility trends in the mining industry and speaks on a wide range of mining-related topics.
Law firm: Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP
Year called to the bar: 1990
Jay Goldman is a partner at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP. He focuses on securities and corporate finance law. His experience includes structuring and negotiating mergers and acquisitions and securities, joint ventures, commercial and financing-related transactions and providing guidance on corporate governance matters. Goldman regularly acts for issuers, boards, investment dealers and investment advisors in a broad range of areas. He is a member of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.
Law firm: Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG)
Year called to the bar: 1999
Erik Goldsilver is a partner at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. He practises corporate and securities law, with an emphasis on mining and natural resources. Goldsilver acts for Canadian and international mining companies on acquisitions and dispositions of mines, mining projects and mining companies, project development and mine operations in Canada and throughout the world. He also advises on the structuring and negotiation of option and joint venture agreements, shareholder agreements, royalty arrangements, streaming transactions and off-take agreements. Goldsilver has extensive experience with all legal aspects of the development, construction and operation of mining projects, including advising on Indigenous issues and claims, environmental and regulatory compliance matters, permitting issues and mine closure, decommissioning and reclamation issues. He also advises mining clients on energy-related issues such as power procurement, interconnection and transmission services.
Read more about Borden Ladner Gervais LLP in the trends to watch in business and law
Law firm: Bennett Jones LLP
Year called to the bar: 1998
Sander Grieve is a partner and the head of Bennett Jones LLP’s mining group. He devotes his practice to mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance in the global mining industry. Grieve acts for issuers, investors and underwriters in international securities issues and in a range of M&A mandates. He has led several of the largest Canadian mining M&A transactions, including the $3.9-billion alternative transaction response of Osisko Mining Inc., the Goldcorp hostile offer, the $3.8-billion sale of Meridian Gold Inc., the sale of Andean Resources Limited for $3.6 billion and the $1.125-billion portfolio acquisition by Osisko Gold Resources Ltd from Orion Mine Finance Group.
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Law firm: Stikeman Elliott LLP
Year called to the bar: 1988
Jay C. Kellerman is a partner head of the mining group at Stikeman Elliott LLP. He is also a member of the firm’s mergers and acquisitions and capital markets groups. He served as the managing partner of the firm’s Toronto office from 2012 to 2018. His clients include public companies, investment banks, investors and boards of directors. Kellerman frequently speaks at seminars on corporate and securities law topics. He is a member of Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada. Kellerman also spent one year seconded to the general counsel’s office of the Ontario Securities Commission.
Law firm: Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP
Year called to the bar: 1983
Paul M. Stein is a partner at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP. He acts as lead counsel for public clients in mergers and acquisitions, takeover bids, proxy fights, going-private transactions, spin-off transactions and corporate finance and corporate governance matters. Stein frequently acts as counsel for special committees of boards of directors. His practice includes assisting mining clients in the negotiation of joint ventures, farm-in agreements, and the financing of exploration and development projects, both domestically and internationally. Stein is a member of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation.
Law firm: Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
Year called to the bar: 1989
John S.M. Turner is a partner and the leader of the Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP’s global mining group. His practice is focused in the resource sector, where he has been involved in many leading corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions deals. Turner represents issuers and underwriters in capital markets and mergers and acquisitions involving resource companies active throughout the globe. He also regularly advises corporate boards, senior management and special committees on a breadth of transactional and governance matters.
Read more about Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP in the risks and rewards of cryptocurrencies