Compliance, Risk & Crisis Response

Our multidisciplinary compliance, risk management and crisis management team provides timely, co-ordinated and integrated advice in various practice areas, including occupational health and safety, environmental, competition/anti-trust, tax, securities, mergers & acquisitions, anti-corruption, immigration, regulatory and criminal law.

Proactive mitigation

We use our experience to identify, review and provide advice on risks, potential gaps and regulatory compliance, and help clients develop, evaluate and manage policies, programs and programs with respect to many areas, including:

• workplace policies
• environmental management
• competition/anti-trust issues
• corporate governance
• anti-corruption and bribery
• ethical practices
• corporate social responsibility
• immigration and foreign worker management
• due diligence

We can also provide training sessions to simulate real-life experiences with regulators in order to assist your organization become more responsive in a time of crisis.

Emergency situations

In emergencies, our practitioners have extensive experience in providing on-site representation and crisis-management advice on very short notice at any time of day or night and at any time of year. Our on-site presence is designed to mitigate the risk of any ensuing regulatory investigation and interviews of employees under statutory compulsion, and to ensure compliance with statutory reporting obligations. We also scrutinize, monitor and challenge, if necessary, the execution of any search warrants, compliance orders and cease work orders.

Investigations support

We are also equipped to conduct internal investigations where wrongdoing, questionable or unethical behavior exists, and to advise on remedial measures to prevent such situations from recurring.

We understand that regulatory investigations can have a critical impact on your organization. We know the importance of dealing with sensitive matters in a timely and discrete manner, and we work diligently to help our clients avoid the cost and stigma of a protracted investigation and further proceedings. In the event of a prosecution or regulatory hearing, our experienced trial lawyers will provide practical advice and knowledgeable representation.

• Numerous retainers as defence counsel on workplace accidents, investigations and charges under The Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993 and The Saskatchewan Employment Act.
• Counsel to a publicly-traded company regarding evaluation, development and management of its competition/anti-trust compliance policy.
• Counsel to a publicly-traded company regarding the evaluation and administration of its anti-corruption/bribery compliance program.
• Defence counsel to a publicly-traded mining corporation on a significant Fisheries Act (Canada) prosecution.
• Defence counsel to a junior exploration company on a prosecution under The Environmental Management Protection Act, 2002, The Clean Air Act and The Forest Resources Management Act.
• Numerous retainers as defence counsel on tax evasion and related charges under the Income Tax Act.
• Provision of competition/anti-trust and anti-corruption/bribery training to various public and private entities.
• Provision of advice to entities investigated by the Saskatchewan Real Estate Commission.
• Advice to a range of businesses regarding The Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act.
• Commission Counsel, Inquiry into the Wrongful conviction of David Milgaard (2004-2007), a public inquiry spanning 192 days of hearings with more than 125 witnesses and 100,000 documents.
• Counsel for the Province of Saskatchewan on the North Battleford Water Inquiry (2001).
• Counsel to a Northern Health Region on a four-day Coroner’s Inquest (2014).
• Defence counsel to a First Nations Chief on a significant fraud prosecution related to alleged misuse of Treaty Land Entitlement Funds (2011).
• Advising and preparing legal registers for risk assessment and mitigation purposes.
• Counsel to several companies and organizations regarding the evaluation, development and management of immigration and foreign worker compliance policies.
• Representation of employers during active compliance audits and investigations conducted by Service Canada and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the province of Manitoba under the Manitoba Worker Recruitment and Protection Act, and the province of Saskatchewan under The Foreign Worker Recruitment and Immigration Services Act.