PRACTICE

John is Managing Partner of the Vancouver office of Fraser Milner Casgrain. He is also the Vancouver Chair of the Insolvency and Workout Group and regularly acts for companies in need of restructuring as well as for trustees, receivers, financial institutions, commercial lenders, noteholders and other creditors. John practiced in the insolvency area with Cassels Brock in Toronto until 1997, when he relocated to Vancouver.

John has extensive experience with restructurings under both the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act and the Canadian Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. He also has a working familiarity with the United States Bankruptcy Code. Additionally, in his practice, John regularly advises internationally based companies on lending and remedy issues in Canada and is frequently retained by major United States based law firms on Canadian bankruptcy issues.

John has specific expertise in the area of fraudulent transactions, particularly in the context of multi-jurisdictional insolvency cases involving the coordination of foreign legal proceedings to effect recovery, and has been a driving force in Canada with respect to developing joint insolvency protocols to harmonize legal proceedings in the context of cross border insolvencies.

John has authored, presented and published several articles and papers in the insolvency and creditors' rights areas. He is a contributing author to the Annual Review of Law and Practice and the Continuing Legal Education Society in British Columbia. As well, John is a member of the Insolvency Institute of Canada, an executive member of the Insolvency Section of the Canadian Bar Association and an active member of the insolvency sections of the Turnaround Management Association, the International Bar Association and the American Bankruptcy Institute.

John has been recommended as leading lawyer for Insolvency/Restructuring in Chambers Global 2008: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business. Chambers is considered by many to be the pre-eminent international directory for business lawyers, ranking both firms and individual lawyers in their respective areas of expertise.

PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT

• "Receivership and Insolvency: When Things Go Bad", presented to the Western Forum on Commercial Loan Finance and Security Conference, The Canadian Institute, Calgary, May 29, 2007
• "Cross-Border Income Trusts", presented to the INSOL International Toronto Seminar, Toronto, ON, October, 2006
• "Cross-Border Insolvency Remedies in Canada", presented to the 19th Annual Northwest Bankruptcy Institute, Portland, Oregon, April 14-15, 2006 (Published, Oregon State Bar [2006])
• "The Year in Review from British Columbia: Significant Cases in Commercial Insolvency and Corporate Restructuring", presented to the Canadian Bar Association Pan Canadian Conference on Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law, Quebec City, September 2005
• "Jurisdiction of the Court in CCAA Proceedings: Inherent Jurisdiction vs. Statutory Discretion", presented to the Canadian Bar Association Pan Canadian Conference on Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law, Quebec City, September 2005
• "Case Study: Commercial Restructuring", presented to the Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals Annual Conference, Kelowna, August 2005
• "Statutory Considerations When Dealing with Agricultural Insolvencies", presented to the Canadian Bar Association Legal Conference and Expo 2005, Vancouver, August 2005
• "Investigation and Pursuit - on the Asset Trail, Unique Canadian Tools and Issues", presented to a conference of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Creditors' Rights Section of the International Bar Association, Salzburg, Austria, May 2005
• "The Role of Court-Appointed Officers in the Governance of Financially Distressed Corporations", presented to the UBC Conference on Corporate Governance, February 8 and 9, 2002 (Revised for publication September 3, 2002) (Published: J. Sarra, "Corporate Governance in Global Capital Markets", UBC Press [2003])
•  "Canada- U.S. Cross-Border Insolvencies: Ancillary Proceedings", presented as part of the Continuing Legal Education Society of BC, Bankruptcy & Insolvency Practice, May 17, 2002

RECOGNITION

• Recommended as leading lawyer for Insolvency/Restructuring in Chambers Global 2008: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business.
• Recommended by Lexpert in the area of Insolvency and Financial Restructuring in the 2008 Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory
• Recognized by the Global Insolvency and Restructuring Review as one of the top 40 insolvency and restructuring lawyers under the age of 40 years old in the world

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

• Member, British Columbia Law Society (1997 - present)
• Member, Law Society of Upper Canada (1991 - present)
• Member, Insolvency Institute of Canada
• Member, International Bar Association, Insolvency and Creditors' Rights section
• Executive Member, The National Bankruptcy & Insolvency Section of the Canadian Bar Association
• Member, The American Bankruptcy Institute
• Member, Editorial Board of the National Creditor Debtor Review
• Member, The Turnaround Management Association
• Past Executive of the Insolvency Subsection, B.C. Branch, Canadian Bar Association

EDUCATION 

• Year of Call: 1991 (Ontario); 1997 (British Columbia)
• University of Toronto, LL.B, 1989

OTHER INTERESTS

• Former board of trustees member of the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame & Museum
• All Sports