Background
John Blair is the Practice Group Leader of the Commercial Litigation Group in the Calgary office, currently comprised of 25 lawyers. John graduated from the University of Alberta with an LL.B. in 1980 and was called to the Alberta Bar in 1981. In 1977, he graduated from the University of Alberta with a B.A. (with distinction).
John practised in Edmonton with an Alberta firm but relocated to Calgary in 1997 to better serve the expanding needs of his clientele.
Areas of Practice
· Commercial litigation and securities litigation
Ranking and Recognitions
· Martindale-Hubbell BV® Distinguished™ 4.4 out of 5 Peer Review Rating
Commercial Litigation
· John has considerable experience acting for brokers, issuers, financial institutions and others before regulatory tribunals including the Alberta Securities Commission, the Investment Industry Regulation Organization of Canada (IIROC) and the TSX and TSX Venture Exchanges among other regulators. This experience runs the gamut from preparing for and attending investigation interviews, to hearings before the various tribunals and to Queen's Bench or Court of Appeal hearings arising from the decisions or actions of such tribunals.
· In particular, he appears very regularly before the Alberta Securities Commission and has been counsel in responding to scores of investigations and hearings conducted by that body including matters involving frauds, takeover bids, shareholder rights plans, insider trading, non-compliant disclosure, market manipulation, unregistered advertising and illegal distributions.
· John regularly advises boards of directors, committees and offices on responding to regulatory issues, takeovers and other corporate events.
· In addition to his practice in the area of regulatory defense and prevention, John has also been counsel on innumerable civil commercial litigation matters regarding securities fraud, white collar crime, shareholder disputes, directors' liability, oppression, real estate disputes, corporate restructurings and employment issues.
Professional and Community Activities
· Member, Law Society of Alberta.
· Member of the Canadian Bar Association and Calgary Bar Association.
· Director, Hypertension Canada.
· Community Liaison Committee Member, Scenic Acres Community Association.
· Coach and Treasurer, Pee Wee and Atom minor hockey teams.
· Chair, Monitoring and Admissions Committee (Calgary).
· Chair, Associates Committee (Calgary).
· Chair, Conflicts Committee (Calgary).