Torys has appointed two co-heads of its competition and foreign investment review practice in Toronto.
Omar Wakil and Dany Assaf take up the reins of a practice that advises clients on issues similar to those addressed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The attorneys bring to bear considerable academic and practical legal experience in addressing whether investments and combinations involving foreign entities are permissible under Canadian law. Wakil, a vice chair of the Foreign Investment Review Committee of the National Competition Law division of the Canadian Bar Association, has represented clients including TMX Group, National Bank of Canada, and BlackBerry. Assaf has been on the faculty of the University of Western Ontario and is a widely published writer on competition and foreign investment review.
“In Canada right now, there’s a great deal of attention and focus on the foreign investment review regime. National security in particular is an area of increasing attention and uncertainty due to a non-transparent review process,” Wakil commented.
“What Dany and I bring to the table, along with the depth of our team, is having worked on numerous complex foreign investment review transactions. We differentiate ourselves from many of our peers through this experience on the leading transactions that have gotten scrutiny over the past couple of years,” he added.
Assaf commented, “I’m looking forward to working with Omar to expand our practice in conjunction with the firm’s outstanding corporate and litigation practices.”