Fall Update 2024

We are Moving!

If you can believe it, our 10-year lease in the converted mattress factory on Bridgman Avenue comes to an end this month. After a long search, we are moving to the iconic Weston Centre at Yonge and St. Clair in the heart of midtown Toronto! In our expanded new location, we are installing cutting-edge technology and designing a truly beautiful office that will be SkyLaw’s home for the long term.

Here is our new address for your records. Feel free to scan the QR code to easily add our contact details to your mobile device:
22 St. Clair Avenue East, Suite 200
Toronto, Ontario, Canada  M4T 2S3

Our Office Journey 

For the past year and a half, we have been considering as a team many existential questions about the virtues of office space in the current environment.

Finding long-term, permanent space was one of the biggest factors for our team. Moving is difficult, and it is even more so for us since we are the registered office address for a lot of our clients and we maintain hundreds of physical minute books. Finding permanent space also gives more certainty to our team members as they consider where in the city they want to live. Already, three of our team members settled on a move closer to our new office shortly after we locked in our new space.

Many law firms are reducing their footprints as the hybrid work model becomes more entrenched. We have taken a different approach. We decided we should get more space so that we can continue to grow and have the room to be in the office in person. According to The Economist, a recent global survey found that four-fifths of bosses expect a return to the office five days a week within three years. We agree. Most of our team is in the office every day and most of our work is done collaboratively in person.

The Evolution of SkyLaw’s Office

We have come a long way since SkyLaw was founded 14 years ago. Clearing out our old space we have come across a lot of treasures from the past. As we plan for our new office, we are all very excited for the opportunities that will come!

Yonge and St. Clair

As everyone knows, the three most important factors in real estate are: (1) location, (2) location, (3) location. Yonge and St. Clair is a bustling area with first-class office space, shops and restaurants. Many corporate head offices, family offices and professional services firms are located there.

The Weston Centre

The Weston Centre is the crown jewel in this area. The 20-storey octagonal structure was completed in 1975 and won several architectural awards. The building is owned by Choice Properties REIT, the largest REIT in Canada. The Weston family is a major investor in Choice, and both Weston and Choice, along with Whittington Investments, have their head offices in the building. Check out this fantastic video showcasing the Weston Centre.

The Amenities

The Weston Centre amenities include a Goodlife, a Starbucks and, of course, a Loblaws (which is controlled by the Weston family). There is access from the concourse level directly into the subway so that we can get to meetings in the financial district using the PATH system without stepping outside. Also in the building is the super-trendy Ultra supper club, which was previously located on glitzy Queen West.

The Move!

The office move has been a real team effort with everyone involved in packing boxes and designing the new space. We are so grateful for the incredible services of Moving On Organizing and professional organizer and designer Heather Shute for making our vision a reality. Heather and her team are so patient with us as we keep coming up with great new ideas for the space. We can’t wait to show you!

The Canada Post Strike

On November 15 at 12:01 a.m., the Canadian Union of Postal Workers went on strike. Mail and parcels will not be processed for the duration of the strike. The postal disruption is significant for many businesses, in particular for retailers as we approach the holiday season.

We have once again commissioned artist Martin Russocki to design a beautiful holiday postcard featuring the Weston Centre. Given the postal strike, Andrea has kindly volunteered to rip down to Buffalo on her bike so that we can mail the postcards to our U.S. and international contacts through the U.S. postal service. We also plan to recruit some holiday elves from our office to do some hand deliveries around Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver. Keep an eye on your mailbox this holiday season!

Our Recent Transactions

Sell-side Counsel in the Sale of Claire’s Delivery and Claire’s Logistics

“Service Driven” is built into the identity of Claire’s Delivery Service Limited, a Port Colborne-based delivery, transportation, and logistics business. Founded in 1949 by Claire Simpson on the principle of success through honesty, integrity, and a commitment to customer satisfaction, the company thrived and Claire’s son Larry and daughter JoAnne joined the team in the 1970s. In 2004, Claire’s Logistics Inc. was formed to help provide a complete package of supply management and logistics services.

This fall, SkyLaw served as sell-side counsel in the sale of Claire’s Delivery and Claire’s Logistics. We worked in parallel with the fantastic team at Portage M&A Advisory, a team of M&A and finance experts who draw on decades of experience at national and global firms, together with their own expertise as business founders, to guide owners through transactions.

It was a pleasure to help transform Claire’s, a remarkable multi-generational family business, into a legacy for future generations. With succession planning being top of mind for many other business owners, we look forward to more opportunities like this to be “service driven” legal partners and demonstrate the same integrity and service commitment that helped Claire’s flourish.

Completed Canadian Insider Reports for an Australian Fund Manager

SkyLaw’s blog about crossing the 10% ownership threshold has proven to be one of our most enduringly popular posts. Recently we had the opportunity to work with a global independent investment manager based in Australia in completing its Canadian insider reports after it crossed the 10% ownership threshold of a TSX-listed mining company. SkyLaw advised them in connection with the preparation of press releases, early warning reports, and SEDI filings.

The early warning system is designed to provide information to the marketplace about significant accumulations of shares and other securities of a public company. If the 10% ownership threshold is crossed, an acquiror must immediately issue and file a press release, file an early warning report within two business days of the acquisition, and not acquire or offer to acquire any further shares (or other securities of the applicable class of securities) of the company until the end of one business day after the early warning report is filed.

Certain institutional investors may instead file alternative monthly reports, which are somewhat less onerous. For example, alternative monthly reports can be filed within 10 days of the end of the month in which the trade occurs (rather than immediately), and updated reports are required upon crossing thresholds which are multiples of 2.5% (a subsequent early warning report is required for every increase or decrease of 2% or more). This more relaxed alternative reporting structure is only available to qualifying investors which, among other things, are located within certain geographic jurisdictions, and have no current intention of acquiring control of the reporting issuer.

We are delighted to be able to assist teams from around the world as they participate in Canadian capital markets. Feel free to reach out to us if you’d like to discuss any of these topics further.

More News from the Firm

SkyLaw Gets Published on Mondaq

We are delighted to announce that SkyLaw is now an official contributor to Mondaq, a leading global provider of content for professional services firms. Mondaq is a resource for lawyers, including in-house counsel, as well as corporate directors and decision-makers, and their tax, finance, and compliance advisors around the world. The platform boasts more than 2.2 million total users in Canada alone (and more than 20 million users worldwide), and counts more than 90% of the Fortune 500 company roster among its audience.

SkyLaw’s firm profile on Mondaq went live just this month together with our initial publication: our article about Limited Partnerships, exploring the characteristics and frequently-asked questions about this special form of partnership.

We take pride in our publications, and we’re excited for the new places that Mondaq can take us. Keep an eye out for more articles in the coming weeks, including about earn-outs, dissolutions and revivals, and directorships, as we continue to share our insights on some of the key questions in corporate and securities law that come across our desks.

SkyLaw Gains Recognition

SkyLaw was recently awarded by The Globe and Mail as one of Canada’s Best Law Firms for 2025! We’re proud to be recognized as one of only 200 firms in 31 different fields of law. You can check out the full list of winners on their website here. Thank you to all of our supporters who voted for us!

Our First Declaration of Love

Earlier this month, our senior law clerk, Estahil Aden, received this response from a client. We’ve had some nice compliments in the past, but this is the first declaration of love that we can remember. It is so gratifying to see the genuine respect and appreciation that our clients have for our team.

Our Firm Continues to Grow

SkyLaw was delighted to welcome Rose Stacey to the team in early September of this year. Prior to joining SkyLaw, Rose completed her articles at a corporate law firm in Toronto where she gained extensive M&A experience representing both buyers and sellers in a variety of complex transactions.

Prior to attending Osgoode Hall Law School, Rose worked in the mineral industry providing sustainability policy guidance to Canadian junior exploration companies.

Rose’s full bio and contact information can be found on SkyLaw’s website here.

We are always happy to speak with talented professionals who might be interested in joining our team. Feel free to connect with us!

In Person Meetings are Back!

In pre-pandemic days, it would be very common for all of the parties to meet together to negotiate a transaction. We would meet together in a boardroom and we wouldn’t leave until the deal was done.

We are so delighted that more and more transactions are now being negotiated in person. In August, Kevin travelled to Montreal to meet our European clients for the final negotiations of a transaction and the closing. In September, Kevin went to Paris for meetings with a Canadian client negotiating with a French company.

The value of meeting in person cannot be overstated. You can more easily determine what is really going on, where the real pain points are, and who the true decision makers are. The information gained while walking to lunch is often impossible to ascertain if you only connect remotely. As clients see the value of these meetings and travel becomes easier, we hope to see many more in person meetings, whether in far-flung destinations or in our new premises!

SkyLaw Goes to U of T

Priya Ratti and Meryam Kellow recently went back to school…    as guest lecturers for the graduate program on Social Entrepreneurship in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering at the University of Toronto, taught by Alex Kjorven of Ourboro.

We were honoured to be invited back to speak for the second year in a row on this important topic. For many years, our good friend Norm Tasevski taught this course along with Alex. Norm is dearly missed, and we are proud to help continue his legacy.

The presentation, which can be found here, focused primarily on comparing and contrasting various legal structures for social enterprises and outlining some key considerations when choosing the right structure to set up a social enterprise.

After the presentation, SkyLaw hosted its very own edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (with several disclaimers, of course). We quizzed the students’ knowledge on legal structures and were pleased to see the students displaying a healthy dose of competition and demonstrating that they had been paying attention during class!

We look forward to being back on campus next year!