Davit Akman, who joined Cassels as the Chair of our Competition & Foreign Investment Group in late 2021, recently sat down with Canadian Lawyer to discuss competition law.
As a both a deal maker and a litigator, Davit has a unique viewpoint on the current state – and future – of competition law in Canada.
Davit notes that he has “seen more merger-related litigation in the past two years than in any period in the last 20” and believes that there are indications that there may be changes ahead for the Competition Act. On the deal-making side, the challenge is how to help buyers and sellers make successful deals: “I can paper a deal to provide my clients with the appropriate contractual protections in the event that the Bureau has concerns or launches a challenge. But the reality is that when a client comes to you and spends the time and money to try and get a deal done, yes, they want the contractual protections, but first and foremost, they want to get the deal done.”
This is what Davit can offer clients: “the perspective and experience of a competition lawyer who handles the merger but brings a litigator’s lens from the outset.”
Colin Ground, Chair of the Business Law Group at Cassels agrees, saying that Davit’s views on the future of competition issues in Canada, “particularly the potential for more activism and litigation, demonstrate how the addition of Davit to the team at Cassels even better positions us to handle such matters for our clients, given the importance of protecting their interests.”