Kip Daechsel, former national co-managing partner and Toronto office managing partner of the collapsed Heenan Blaikie, has found a new home at McMillan. Daechsel is an M&A specialist, and also handles financial services regulatory matters, shareholder disputes, commercial agreements, structured finance, and creditor remedies. His fluency in English, French, Italian, and Spanish enables him to jump into deals that other lawyers might shy away from because of language barriers.
“I was looking for a firm that has a strong national profile and platform and a firm that matched some of the values of Heenan Blaikie,” he said. “They also do work all over the globe. They are very active in the U.S. and Asia. I want to help them continue to build in Canada and help with their international reach, which I’ve done a lot of work on.”
"Kip Daechsel is a seasoned lawyer with an enviable reputation for handling complex business challenges. His broad range of experience and innovative approach to helping clients makes him an excellent fit with the rest of the firm," said Andrew Kent, CEO of McMillan.
After a marked slowdown in Canada’s M&A market in 2013, Daechsel was positive that things are steadily rebounding.
“There has been a slight increase in activity,” Daechsel said. “It’s not a bubbling market, but it is increasing slowly because of the Canadian and U.S. economies improving. The low Canadian dollar is drawing in more U.S. acquisitions.”
A report published recently on the PricewaterhouseCoopers website suggested that M&A activity took a hit from much lower levels of activity in the oil and gas sector, along with an almost complete standstill in the mining sector.
Daechsel is the eighth lawyer to join McMillan from Heenan Blaikie over the past several weeks. Other refugees from the imploded firm include Geza Banfai, Caireen Hanert, Laura Brazil, Kosta Kostic, Eugene Chen, Dawn Mains, and Allison Wong.
As recently as January 30, an article in Toronto’s Globe and Mail repeated assurances from Daechsel regarding the health and solvency of Heenan Blaikie. The article repeats a claim by Daechsel about Heenan Blaikie having recently hired about 20 lawyers.
At one point, the article states, “[Daechsel] said billing levels were ‘much more encouraging’ since November, and dismissed rumours the firm could collapse.”