Cassels

Canadian Corporate Law Firm

Osgoode Hall Law School

Ann Watterworth

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Ann Watterworth* serves as senior counsel in the Business Law and Mining Groups at Cassels. Ann has a corporate practice with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions. She frequently acts for business owners on restructuring, mergers and acquisitions and providing general corporate advice. She also regularly acts for the Canadian subsidiaries of international corporations and assists international corporations with setting up their Canadian operations. In addition, Ann advises clients on a wide range of commercial agreements including, in the mining context, option agreements, off-take agreements, joint venture agreements, drilling contracts, mining services agreements and EPCM contracts.

Ann is co-chair of, and a lecturer at, Western University’s Mining Law course.

*Services provided through a Professional Corporation

Stephanie Voudouris

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Stephanie Voudouris (she/her/hers) is a partner in the Litigation Group at Cassels. Stephanie has an active commercial litigation practice with a focus on securities litigation. Stephanie brings a practical, strategic, and analytic approach to complex disputes while maintaining a focus on achieving effective and efficient resolution. Stephanie has acted for companies, directors and officers, and shareholders in transactional litigation arising from shareholder disputes, oppression claims, proxy fights, and class actions, including primary and secondary market liability claims. She has also acted in a wide-range of commercial litigation matters involving contract disputes, real estate disputes, and insolvency proceedings. Stephanie has appeared before the Court of Appeal for Ontario, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Ontario Securities Commission, and other commissions and tribunals, and has experience with private arbitration and mediation proceedings.

Examples of representative work include:

  • Defending issuers and individual directors and officers in securities class actions, including numerous cross-border securities class actions involving allegations of misleading and inaccurate financial, operational, and technical disclosure
  • Representing issuers and individual directors and officers in regulatory proceedings before the Ontario Securities Commission
  • Representing shareholders in oppression and breach of contract proceedings

Stephanie received her J.D. from Osgoode Hall Law School in 2013 where she graduated in the top ten percent of her class. Stephanie is an active member of the Hellenic Canadian Lawyers’ Association and sits on the Board of Directors of Young Women in Law.

John P. Vettese

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John Vettese* is a Senior Strategic Advisor at Cassels. He has acted as lead counsel for public clients and investment dealers involved in complex and innovative securities matters. His practice is focused in the mining, income trusts, technology and diversified industries sectors, and he has acted as lead counsel on several M&A transactions. John has significant experience advising emerging and mid-market companies navigating their way through the public markets for the first time. His strong understanding of the commercial objectives of a transaction, together with his practical approach, are frequently relied upon by companies that require more than just legal advice when facing such critical decisions as structuring a going-public transaction, choosing and structuring a business relationship with an underwriter, constructing a management team and developing an overall approach to matters of executive compensation and corporate governance.

He has also developed an expertise in cross-border initial public offerings by US emerging and mid-market issuers seeking listings on Canadian stock exchanges.

John is recognized as a leading lawyer by Chambers Global, Chambers Canada, Best Lawyers, the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, the Lexpert Guide to the Leading US/Canada Cross-Border Corporate Lawyers in Canada, and the Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada.

*Services provided through a Professional Corporation

Jennifer Traub

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Jennifer Traub* is a partner in the Capital Markets Group at Cassels and serves as Co-Chair of the firm’s Mining Group. Jennifer represents both issuers and investment dealers in connection with public and private securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions and other financing transactions. She has particular expertise and experience in the resource sector and has played an integral role in managing some of the largest and most complex corporate finance and M&A deals in the mining industry in Canada. Jennifer has completed the Osgoode Certificate in Mining Law. In addition to transactional work, Jennifer regularly advises public companies regarding general corporate and securities law matters, including continuous disclosure, corporate governance and Canadian stock exchange issues.

Jennifer was selected as one of Lexpert’s Rising Stars: Leading Lawyers Under 40 in 2011 and received a Lexpert Zenith Award for Mid-Career Excellence in 2018. She is also recognized as a leading lawyer by the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, Chambers Canada, and Best Lawyers in Canada. At Cassels, Jennifer is a past member of the firm’s Executive Committee and Corporate Responsibility Committee. Jennifer currently serves as the Chair of the board of directors at Denison Mines Corp.

*Services provided through a Law Corporation

Nicole Teehan

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Nicole Teehan (she/her/hers) is the Director of Professional Resources, Learning & Development at Cassels. In this role, Nicole is responsible for administering the firm’s national training and development program for associates and students. Nicole is passionate about professional development and lifelong learning. She completed a Master of Laws at Dalhousie University, focusing her research on administrative law and alternative dispute resolution processes. For almost a decade, she has taught the theory and practice of negotiation as an adjunct faculty member at her alma mater, Osgoode Hall Law School.

Nicole summered and articled with a large full-service Bay Street law firm. Following her call to the Bar in 2010, she returned to firm’s litigation and dispute resolution group. Since 2012, she has focused her career on legal professional development, skills training and adult education.

Kristin Taylor

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Kristin Taylor (she/her/hers) serves as the firm’s Managing Partner and is a partner in the Employment & Labour Group. Kristin provides practical and strategic advice to employers on a wide range of employment matters including employee hiring, discipline and termination; severance packages; corporate restructuring; employment agreements and personnel policies; certification applications; privacy and AODA compliance; mergers & acquisitions and employment standards and human rights issues. Kristin regularly represents employers in court in wrongful dismissal actions, severance pay class actions, restrictive covenant disputes and injunctions; in grievance arbitrations, in collective bargaining and before various administrative tribunals, including the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, and labour relations boards. She also conducts supervisory development and harassment prevention training to proactively prevent workplace disputes.

Kristin’s experience includes:

Kristin is a former Editor-in-Chief of the monthly CCH publication, Canadian Employment & Equality Rights, specializing in recent developments in human rights law. She authored the Employment Issues in a Sale of Business segment for the LexisNexis Practice Advisor Canada and the Employment Law Issues in Business Transactions chapter of the text New Perspectives on Canadian Employment Law. She is also a frequent presenter and contributor to firm’s publications on trends in employment law, with a particular focus on issues faced by Ontario employers.