Blakes strengthens tax practice with 2 senior hires from Borden Ladner Gervais

Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP (Blakes), one of Canada’s leading business law firms, has announced that senior practitioners Bruce Sinclair and Robert Kopstein have joined its Vancouver office.

Bruce Sinclair is a senior chartered accountant and tax practitioner. He has a national and international profile and practice, and is widely regarded as one of the Canada’s best mining tax practitioners. He works extensively with clients in domestic and international settings on tax and associated accounting and financial matters related to mergers, acquisitions and structured financings. Mr. Sinclair has an extensive list of professional affiliations including the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants in British Columbia, the Canadian Tax Foundation and the International Fiscal Association. He is a former governor and a member of the Executive Committee of the Canadian Tax Foundation. He writes extensively, including articles for the Canadian Tax Journal, and is co-author of Taxation of Canadian Mining Income for Carswell publishers. He also lectures regularly at regional and national conferences. He is ranked in The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2007.

Robert Kopstein practises in the domestic and international tax fields with a particular emphasis on Canada-U.S. cross-border transactions. He also has a national practice, and has extensive experience in corporate finance, structured finance, and mergers and acquisitions involving public and private companies and governmental agencies. Mr. Kopstein has lectured and published papers on a variety of topics to various regional and national organizations. He also co-authored the book Mergers and Acquisition of Privately Held Businesses, contributed to a United Nations’ study on tax treaties between developed and developing countries, and assisted the Attorney General of B.C. with drafting certain amendments to the Company Act relating to limited liability companies. He was principal adviser to the B.C. government on the creation of the B.C. Unlimited Liability Company legislation. He is also ranked in The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2007, The Best Lawyers in Canada 2007 and Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business 2008. Mr. Kopstein is called to the bar in B.C., Alberta and Ontario. He has an LL.M. in taxation from the University of Florida.

Before coming to Blakes Bruce Sinclair and Robert Kopstein were partners with Borden Ladner Gervais.

Founded in 1856, Blakes has more than 550 lawyers and offices in Canada, the United States, Europe and China. Blakes was recently named “Canadian Law Firm of the Year” by Chambers and Partners Legal Publishers. In October 2007, and for the fifth consecutive year, Blakes was the only law firm named one of “Canada’s Top 100 Employers” in Maclean’s newsmagazine. More information on Blakes is available by visiting the Firm’s Web site at www.blakes.com.