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D. Robb English
Robb is well-respected as one of Toronto’s most prominent insolvency lawyers providing advice to financial institutions. Robb has extensive experience in insolvency proceedings of all kinds, in both domestic and cross-border cases. He has acted for banks, asset-based lenders and other financial institutions on matters pertaining to debt restructuring, security enforcement, receivership, CCAA and BIA reorganizations and related matters.
Robb has appeared at all levels of court, including appellate levels within the province of Ontario, and has extensive experience in matters on Toronto’s Commercial List.
As well as providing counsel to clients such as TD Bank, Bank of Montreal, Bank of Nova Scotia, HSBC, Wells Fargo and others, Robb has acted as independent counsel to all major Toronto firms acting in the capacity of Trustee, Receiver or Monitor in restructuring proceedings.
Mark van Zandvoort
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Mark is a member of the firm's Litigation and Financial Services Groups, practising a broad range of civil litigation, primarily concerning disputes in the corporate, commercial and financial services sectors. Mark’s clients have included individuals, directors and officers, shareholders, corporations (including not-for-profit corporations), charitable organizations, financial institutions, court-appointed receivers, and small and large businesses, both privately and publicly owned, across a wide array of industries.
Mark has extensive experience litigating matters involving tort, contract, negligence, and allegations of oppression, including pursuant to the oppression remedy provisions of the Ontario Business Corporations Act and the Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act. Over the years, Mark has also developed a niche for obtaining urgent injunctive relief from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on behalf of his clients, often in cases involving fraud, and in other circumstances where his clients require immediate relief from the court. This can include enforcing the terms of an existing contractual arrangement, to prevent a cessation of services by the defendant which would cause irreparable harm to a client’s business, or freezing the assets and accounts of defendants who are alleged to have been the beneficiaries of misappropriated funds. Mark also has experience acting as the Independent Supervising Solicitor with respect to the execution of an Anton Pillar Order. In addition to his extensive civil litigation practice, Mark has also successfully conducted student academic appeals at the university level in Ontario.
As part of his litigation practice, Mark regularly attends to argue motions before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (including the Commercial List Court). Mark has conducted trials at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, appeals at the Ontario Court of Appeal, and has prepared leave to appeal applications to the Supreme Court of Canada. Mark is a regular participant in private and court-mandated mediations, and also has experience successfully litigating disputes through private arbitration.
Kyle B. Plunkett
Kyle is a member of the firm’s Financial Services and Insolvency & Restructuring Groups. His insolvency and restructuring practice encompasses both the litigation and commercial aspects of turnarounds, reorganizations, liquidations, security enforcement, receiverships and plans of arrangement in the context of formal and informal restructuring proceedings. With particular experience in all areas of Canadian insolvency and restructuring proceedings and transactions, Kyle has acted for and advised secured and unsecured creditors, debtor-in-possession lenders, debtors, suppliers, boards of directors, chief restructuring officers, purchasers, receivers, interim receivers, Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act monitors and bankruptcy trustees. He regularly advises parties on issues relating to reorganizations under the CCAA, the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and the Canada Business Corporations Act.
On the corporate and commercial lending side of his practice, Kyle regularly advises and acts for a number of Canada’s largest banks and several alternative asset-based lenders. His lending and finance experience includes asset-based, securitized, structured finance, syndicated, secured, mezzanine and subordinated debt, both domestic and cross-border, transactions.
Karlie Nordstrom
Karlie is an articling student with Aird & Berlis LLP. She recently graduated from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Saskatchewan, where she graduated with Great Distinction. Karlie was a fellow in the 2021-22 Rotman OnBoard Fellowship Program at the University of Toronto. During her fellowship, she worked with the Board of Directors at Casey House, a specialty hospital in Toronto providing ground-breaking care to people living with or at risk of HIV, to complete governance projects relevant to the needs of the organization.
During her first year of law school, Karlie volunteered with Pro Bono Students Canada, working in partnership with the Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women to develop and deliver legal education presentations at women’s shelters. She later took on a leadership role in the project, co-ordinating other volunteers and doing shelter outreach. Karlie was Co-President of the Indigenous Law Students’ Association for all three years of law school and sat on the Dean’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Implementation Committee for two. In her third year, she served as the only student member on the Faculty of Law’s hiring committee for the inaugural role of Assistant Dean, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. She was also actively involved in mentorship, volunteering as a mentor in both the Peer Mentorship Program and the Peer Mental Health Support Program. During her third year of law school, Karlie took on a leadership role as an executive member of the Peer Mental Health Support Program.
In recognition of her leadership as a mentor at law school, she was a 2021 recipient of the Students’ Law Society Upper Year Mentorship Award. She was also a 2022 recipient of the University of Toronto Student Leadership award, recognizing outstanding student leadership, service, and commitment to the university. Karlie is a board member at Aboriginal Legal Services, where she serves as board secretary, chair of the Governance, Policy & Nominating Committee, and member of the Executive Committee.