Jay Duffield

Jay Duffield is a Partner in the Business Law group at Dentons Canada LLP, based in Toronto, including the corporate and securities practice groups. He joined Dentons in 2014 after practising as a partner with another major Canadian law firm. His practice focuses on Mergers and Acquisitions.

Jay's practice focuses on corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, fund formation, strategic contracting and growth company transactions. He has extensive experience advising clients in a variety of industries, at various stages of development, and with a wide range of legal needs.

His corporate finance and M&A expertise includes domestic and cross-border private equity and debt financings for issuers and investors; share and asset acquisitions and dispositions for purchasers and vendors; and public offerings and private placement financings for issuers and dealers. His fund formation expertise includes investments in private equity funds by institutional and other investors, and formation of private equity funds by sponsors and other investors.

His strategic contracting expertise includes domestic and cross-border joint ventures and strategic alliances for parties in technology, manufacturing, communication and other industries; licensing, distribution and supply arrangements for software, hardware and other technologies; and outsourcing and other strategic contracting transactions for information technology and other services.

His growth company expertise includes acting as corporate counsel for businesses undergoing significant change in demanding market conditions, including structuring and implementing early-stage, strategic, venture capital, banking and later-stage financing arrangements; tax, cross-border and related arrangements; intellectual property protection strategies; share option and other compensation plans; employee and executive employment arrangements; development, licence and services arrangements with key customers, suppliers and distributors; shareholder and other stakeholder disputes; and exit and liquidity transactions.

His experience includes advising Bonnefield Financial Inc. on the formation and first closing of the CA$137 million Bonnefield Canadian Farmland LP V, and on the formation and financing of the CA$211 million Bonnefield Canadian Farmland LP IV and the CA$261 million Bonnefield Canadian Farmland LP III, the largest institutional farmland fund in Canada; advising ADRM Software, Inc. on its sale to Microsoft Corp.; advising Root Data Center Inc. on its sale to Compass Datacenters, LLC; advising ole Media Management LP on investments by Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and on CA$300M in acquisitions of production music and related businesses; advising Rogers Communications Inc. on the CA$155 million acquisition of Pivot Data Centres; and advising SecureKey Technologies Inc. in relation to CA$27M of strategic equity investments from six leading Canadian financial institutions.

He holds an LL.M. from the University of Cambridge (1994), an LLB from York University, Osgoode Hall Law School (1990), and an H.B.A. from the University of Western Ontario, Richard Ivey School of Business (1987).

He is recognised by The Best Lawyers in Canada for Corporate Law, Private Funds Law and Technology Law, by The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory for Technology Transactions, Corporate Mid-Market, Computer & IT Law and Corporate Commercial Law, in the Lexpert Special Edition as one of Canada's Leading Lawyers for Technology and Health Sciences, and Finance and M&A, and by IFLR 1000 Canada for M&A. He is a member of Canada's Venture Capital & Private Equity Association, the Canadian Bar Association and the Canadian IT Law Association (IT.Can).