Gregory Winfield is a partner in our Pensions, Benefits & Executive Compensation Group. Since joining the group in 1990, he has provided strategic legal advice to employers with respect to pension plans, profit sharing plans, registered retirement savings plans, welfare benefits plans, retirement compensation arrangements and other areas of executive compensation.
Mr. Winfield has over 20 years experience in connection with the administration, operation and taxation of pension and other benefit plans and with respect to legislation governing administration of plans. In addition, he as broad experience with respect to the treatment of plans on purchase or sale of a business and corporate reorganizations (including CCAA) and provides advice as to entitlement to use of surplus assets.
Mr. Winfield has been involved in many of the leading pension and benefits matters of the past 20 years including the first decisions relating to contested partial wind ups of pension plans and the deemed trust provisions of the Pension Benefits Act (Ontario). He acted as lead pension counsel for Algoma Steel in its pension restructuring under CCAA in 2001 and has participated in a number of other restructurings (most recently Chrysler Canada Inc.) with key benefits issues. He represented the employer concerning the first Employee Life and Health Trust to be established in Canada. Mr. Winfield frequently acts on pension investment matters for the largest pension plans in Canada and has a particular expertise in dealing with public sector pension plans, including structuring of investments and debt offerings.
Mr. Winfield was the lead lawyer among the McCarthy team that contributed the Canadian research and analysis in the seminal ESG work "A legal framework for the integration of environmental, social and governance issues into institutional investment" produced for the Asset Management Working Group of the UNEP (United Nations Environmental Program) Finance Initiative, October 2005.
He has written and spoken at numerous industry conferences in virtually all areas of pension law, including obligations of administrators and other fiduciaries, governance, communication and legal liability, mergers and acquisitions, insolvencies, investments, executive pensions and risk management.
Prior to joining McCarthy Tétrault, he worked for the Pension Commission of Ontario ("PCO") (predecessor to the Financial Services Commission of Ontario ("FSCO")) in its policy branch and for an international pension consulting firm. Mr. Winfield has acted as special advisor to the PCO in respect of pension reform matters.
Mr. Winfield has been rated as a leading lawyer in the area of pensions and benefits in Best Lawyers in Canada Chambers Global 2011 and Martindale Hubbell. He currently serves on the Legal Advisory Committee to the FSCO and on the editorial board of the Federal Press journal "Taxation of Executive Compensation and Retirement". He also instructs directors in a certified directors program in matters of pension governance and is an instructor for the Osgoode Certificate in Pension Law program offered by Osgoode Professional Development.
Mr. Winfield received his BA from the University of Toronto in 1982 and his LLB from Queen's University in 1986. He was called to the Ontario bar in 1988.