Brian Temins* (he/him/his) is a partner in the Business Law Group at Cassels, where he provides strategic and practical legal advice to clients on all elements of mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, and corporate and commercial matters. His practice focuses primarily on a wide range of domestic and cross-border private M&A transactions — including share and asset purchases and sales, as well as business combinations through mergers and reorganizations — and all areas of corporate law from shareholder, partnership, and joint venture agreements to corporate governance. Brian also acts on a range of transactions throughout the private equity industry, from fund formation and fund raising, through acquisitions and recapitalizations to dispositions and exits, with an emphasis on growth-oriented businesses.
Brian concentrates on acquiring a clear understanding of the client’s business objectives, and then creates solutions to achieve those objectives. This allows him to provide a thorough legal solution in all phases of a transaction, as well as advise on day-to-day business matters and long-term strategic goals. Brian has deep experience advising private companies on corporate governance issues and a range of commercial matters including acquisitions and divestitures, business structuring, supply, licensing and distribution agreements, outsourcing services agreements, regulatory compliance, and private equity investments including venture capital and financing arrangements.
Brian regularly advises private equity funds such as Lynx Equity Ltd., The Shotgun Fund, FirePower Equity, and Area One Farms’ family of funds, as well as large Canadian, US & international companies and emerging companies, including numerous technology clients. He brings an owner’s mindset to some of the largest transactions to promote flexibility in deal structuring and provides in-depth buy-side legal support and flexible, adaptable, and practical solutions on a deal-to-deal basis to address the legal needs of both traditional and non-traditional private equity transactions. For example, as lead counsel to Lynx Equity Ltd. in connection with more than 25 acquisitions as well as various financing rounds, Brian’s counsel was instrumental.
Brian’s extensive experience in assisting high growth and emerging businesses to protect and successfully grow their portfolio of companies has provided him with a deep, nuanced understanding of the legal obligations of private equity funds, investment dealers and strategic investors, search funds and independent sponsors. Recognized as a leader in his field by Best Lawyers, Brian has presented at national conferences and has been interviewed by a variety of leading legal publications including Law Times and Canadian Lawyer. His detailed knowledge of M&A and corporate/commercial matters ensures insightful, cost-effective legal solutions for his clients.
Examples of Brian’s recent experience include acting for:
- Commercial Bakeries Corp., a cookie manufacturer of private-label and co-manufactured cookies and biscuits that sells its products to blue-chip retail and CPG customers, in its sale to Graham Partners, a private investment firm
- House of Cool, one of the top pre-production companies in the global animation industry, in its sale to WildBrain Ltd., a global leader in kids’ and family entertainment
- Lynx Equity Limited in its acquisitions of, among others:
- Henry’s: Canada’s Greatest Camera Store – the leading specialty digital imaging retailer in Canada and one of the largest, most recognizable players within Canada’s digital imaging industry – this addition was the first of its kind for Lynx;
- Buse Timber & Sales Inc., located in Everett, Washington, expanding Lynx’s presence in the wood re-manufacturing market;
- Resource4Floors, a full-service commercial flooring contractor providing distribution and installation of flooring materials headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida;
- Sorrento Lighthouse Market, a community destination for groceries, liquor, and tobacco located in Sorrento, BC – this acquisition extended the Lynx grocery portfolio footprint in western Canada (which includes Blind Bay Village Grocer); and
- Blind Bay Village Grocer, the community’s premier destination for fuel, liquor, and groceries since 1997 located in Blind Bay, BC; as a market leader with three distinct revenue streams (grocery, liquor, and an on-site gas bar)
- Minus Forty Group, a North American manufacturer of commercial refrigeration equipment and merchandising products, and the industry’s largest provider of pet food coolers that has developed product presentation coolers and freezers for the micro market and food industries using smart technology, in its sale to Ronin Equity Partners – listed in Lexpert’s “Big Deals”
- FirePower Equity, a division and the private equity arm of FirePower Capital focused on the mid-market space, in:
- its significant private equity investment in Wesbell Technologies, a leading Canadian telecommunications services provider offering cell tower engineering, site acquisition, steel fabrication, installation, and investment recovery services to a variety of carrier, broadcast, and corporate clients
- the acquisition of specialty cyber security distributor, Interwork Technologies Inc., which serves a broad network of Solution Providers in the US and Canada and has over 25 years of channel and distribution experience
Prior to joining Cassels, Brian served as Managing Partner at a Toronto-based full-service business law firm where he was also a Senior Member of the Business Law Group.
*Services provided through a Professional Corporation
