Davit Akman* (he/him/his) serves as Chair of the firm’s Competition & Foreign Investment Group. A leader in his field, he advises market-leading domestic and international firms on all aspects of Canadian competition and foreign investment review law, including mergers & acquisitions, cartels and other criminal matters, private actions (including class actions), advertising and marketing practices, abuse of dominance and other reviewable trade practices.
Davit has cleared major multi-jurisdictional and domestic mergers in a wide array of industry sectors and advises non-Canadian investors (including state owned enterprises (SOEs)) on Canadian foreign investment issues under the Investment Canada Act (ICA) and other federal legislation and policies. He is a market leader in advising Canadian and foreign-owned mining companies as well as SOEs with respect to the Government of Canada’s October 2022 Policy Regarding Foreign Investments from State-Owned Enterprises in Critical Minerals under the ICA.
Davit has also served as counsel in a number of Canada’s most important competition litigation cases, including matters before the Supreme Court of Canada and the Canadian Competition Tribunal.
He has been described in recent editions of Chambers as a “true leader in his field,” “extraordinarily smart and practical,” and as having a “really strong reputation at the [Canadian Competition] Bureau.”
Davit’s experience includes:
- Serving as global lead competition and foreign investment counsel for Lundin Mining Corporation in connection with its US$4.1 billion joint acquisition with BHP of Filo Corp. and the subsequent formation of a 50/50 joint venture;
- Serving as competition and foreign investment counsel for Velocity Vehicle Group, an industry leader in supplying and servicing commercial vehicles, in connection with its C$94.6 million acquisition of Western Star Trucks (North) Ltd., Custom Vacuum Services Ltd., and WSN Financial Corporation;
- Serving as global lead competition counsel for WMG Technologies, a leading manufacturer and supplier of custom, highly engineered, technical plastics, and lightweighting innovations to the global automotive industry, in connection with its US$62 million acquisition by ABC Technologies Inc.;
- Serving as Canadian competition and foreign investment counsel to Alcogroup SA in connection with its acquisition of the share capital of Integrated Grain Processors Co-operative Inc.;
- Serving as global lead competition and foreign investment counsel for Allied Gold Corporation in connection with its US$5.1 billion acquisition by Zijin Gold International;
- Serving as lead counsel on behalf of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc., USA and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc. in defeating a proposed C$5 billion class action alleging that the world’s leading generic drug makers conspired to allocate the market, fix prices and limit the supply of generic drugs in Canada;
- Serving as global lead competition and foreign investment counsel to Sandstorm Gold Ltd. in connection with its US$3.5 billion acquisition by Royal Gold Inc.;
- Serving as global lead competition counsel for acted for Calibre Mining Corp. in connection with its US$2.56 billion acquisition by Equinox Gold Corp., creating the second largest gold producer in Canada;
- Serving as competition counsel to Canopy Growth Corporation in connection with its C$125 million acquisition of MTL Cannabis Corp., establishing the leading medical cannabis platform in Canada by revenue;
- Serving as Canadian competition and foreign investment counsel to Sompo Holdings, Inc. in connection with its US$3.5 billion acquisition of Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited;
- Serving as global lead competition counsel for Lundin Mining Corporation in connection with the US$1.52 billion disposition of its Neves-Corvo operation in Portugal and Zinkgruvan operation in Sweden to Boliden AB;
- Serving as global lead competition counsel to SilverCrest Metals Inc. in connection with its US$1.7 billion acquisition by Coeur Mining, Inc. to create a leading global silver company;
- Serving as Canadian competition and foreign investment counsel to Berkshire Hathaway in connection with its US$11.6 billion acquisition of Alleghany Corporation;
- Serving as competition and foreign investment review counsel for Davies Group, a UK-based insurance services and technology firm, in connection with its acquisition of SCM Insurance Services, Canada’s largest claims processing and risk solutions provider, creating a US$4.3 billion global insurance services entity;
- Serving as global lead competition counsel for Dundee Precious Metals Inc. in connection with its £930 million acquisition of Adriatic Metal Plc;
- Serving as Canadian competition counsel to Evraz plc in connection with the US$500 million acquisition by Altas Holdings of Evraz Inc. NA and Evraz Inc. NA Canada and their respective subsidiaries, a leading producer of engineered steel products in the US and Canada;
- Serving as global lead competition counsel for Yamana Gold Inc. in connection with its US$4.8 billion acquisition by Pan American Silver Corp. and Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.;
- Serving as global lead competition and foreign investment review counsel to Essity in respect of its US$320 million acquisition of 80% of Knix Wear, Inc.;
- Serving as co-lead counsel to Parrish & Heimbecker, Limited (P&H) in defeating the Commissioner of Competition’s challenge to P&H’s acquisition of Louis Dreyfus Company’s Canadian grain elevators. This was only the second merger challenge decided on the merits since the Competition Act was amended in 2009;
- Serving as co-lead counsel to Loblaw Companies Limited and George Weston Limited in criminal, immunity and civil proceedings arising from what has been described by the former Commissioner of Competition as “the largest alleged conspiracy in the history of Canadian competition law enforcement”;
- Serving as counsel to Canadian Chamber of Commerce before the Supreme Court of Canada in Sun-Rype Products Ltd v Archer Daniels Midland, one of Canada’s leading antitrust class action cases; and
- Serving as counsel to the Commissioner of Competition in Commissioner of Competition v Visa Canada Corporation and MasterCard International Incorporated, the first (and only) price maintenance case heard by the Competition Tribunal; Serving as counsel to Canada Pipe in Commissioner of Competition v Canada Pipe Company Ltd, the seminal abuse of dominance case in Canada.
See more of Davit’s work here.
He is an active member of the Canadian and international competition bars. Davit is a Vice-Chair of the Global Private Litigation Committee of the ABA Antitrust Law Section. He is also the immediate past Chair of the Antitrust Law Committee of the ABA Business Law Section and a former Chair of the Criminal Matters and Legislation & Competition Policy Committees of the CBA National Competition Law Section.
A prolific writer, he has written extensively on a wide array of competition law-related topics. Davit also regularly participates as a subject matter expert in domestic and international conferences and events.
Davit clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada for Justice Louise Arbour. Prior to joining Cassels, he was a partner at another leading national firm.
*Services provided through a Professional Corporation
