Insolvency & Restructuring

Our Group

Miller Thomson’s Insolvency and Restructuring Group has the depth and experience necessary to advise and assist clients across the full range of insolvency proceedings, from simple collection to national and international financial reorganizations. We are asked routinely to represent major stakeholders in Canada’s largest insolvency matters.

Our Clients

We bring a knowledge of the law in various jurisdictions in Canada, plus the experience gained from acting for Canadian and foreign banks, wholesale financiers, insurance companies and other financial institutions, bankruptcy trustees, receivers, liquidators, pension fund trustees, creditors and landlords. Our Group works closely with other specialty groups within the firm, and can draw on expertise in areas such as security, environmental, pensions and benefits, commercial litigation, and purchase and sale of assets.

Our Expertise

We actively participate in the Insolvency Institute of Canada, Insolvency subsections of the Canadian Bar Association and INSOL International. Members are asked regularly to lecture at meetings of professional organizations, and have authored many books and articles.

Our lawyers have been involved with some of Canada’s most complex insolvency matters and can handle a wide range of issues for different clients.

Representative Work

Recent transactions which we have been involved in include:

• Court-appointed representative counsel for the Ad Hoc Committee representing investors holding approximately $2 billion of non-bank sponsored Canadian Asset Backed Commercial Paper (ABCP) in responding to the freeze in trading in the $32 billion ABCP market beginning in August, 2007 and the subsequent reorganizational plan under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). Counsel on several critical reported decisions on the ABCP restructuring which has been called “the largest and by far the most complex restructuring in Canada’s history” (American Lawyer Magazine).
• Representing the court-appointed receiver of Tiercon Industries Inc., a major international automotive parts supplier
• Represented Cu-Connect, a company providing Internet switching services to credit unions and other financial institutions, as well as automatic teller machine services, in its reorganizational proceedings under the CCAA
• Represented GE Capital Corporation in the international insolvency of the Calpine Group
• Court-appointed representative counsel for the Ad Hoc Committee of Tort Claimants in the international insolvency of the Muscletech group of companies pursuant to the CCAA and Article 15 of the United States Bankruptcy Code
• Representing a group of major Canadian airport authorities in the Air Canada
  CCAA restructuring
• Representing two major Canadian banks in the Air Canada CCAA restructuring
• Representing a major Texas-based telecom company in the CCAA restructuring of Teleglobe
• Representing a major Canadian Bank in the cross-border Restructuring of the Laidlaw group of companies
• Acting for the Bankruptcy Trustee of Bre-X Minerals including obtaining Mareva injunctions and coordinating collection activities in several foreign jurisdictions
• Acting for a secured creditor of Solvex, a U.S. / Canada cross-border reorganization
• Representing the agent for the liquidator in the Sovereign Life Insurance Company liquidation
• Representing a variety of stakeholders, including a pipeline company, a gas marketer, joint venturers, and secured creditors in the CCAA restructurings of Blue Range Resources Corp. and FracMaster
• Acting for the biggest single creditor organization in the Confederation Life liquidation—the largest insurance company liquidation in North American history
• Advising a significant landlord in the Eaton’s / Dylex / Dalmy’s CCAA restructurings and other major retail CCAA and BIA reorganizations
• Acting for the Government of Québec and Héma-Québec in the CCAA proceedings by the Canadian Red Cross Society
• Acting for the Government of Newfoundland in Royal Oak Mines’ CCAA proceedings
• Acting as Alberta counsel for the noteholders of Hurricane Hydrocarbons and the Creditor Committee of Smokey River Coal, current CCAA restructurings
• Representing the British Columbia and Ontario Governments in the Canadian
  Airlines restructuring
• Representing the British Columbia Government in the Skiing Louise restructuring
• Representing the purchaser of an operating subsidiary of American Eco in the American
  Eco restructuring
• Representing the pension fund administrators or custodians in many major
  Canadian insolvencies
• Representing banks, life insurance companies and other financial institutions in many major receiverships and reorganizations
• Advising receivers and bankruptcy trustees in many major corporate administrations