Meet Ian D. Shewan
Land Development & Municipal Law Lawyer"I take great pride in knowing that my efforts as counsel contribute to my client's success in a very real way."
Professional Highlights
- Practice Group Leader, Business Law Group (2012 to present)
- Partner, Lerners LLP (1992 to present)
- Member of Lerners LLP Executive Committee (2000-2002)
- Associate lawyer, Lerners LLP (1987-1992)
- Corporate and Infrastructure Finance – acted for both corporate borrowers and institutional lenders, with expertise in acting for construction companies in Infrastructure Ontario transactions
- Purchase and Sale of Businesses – significant experience in acting for both vendors and purchasers of a wide variety of businesses in various sectors including commercial, industrial, institutional, multi-unit residential, retail and agricultural
- Business Agreements – expertise in drafting a wide array of agreements, including purchase and sale agreements, Shareholders’ Agreements, Partnership Agreements and Joint Venture Agreements
- Corporate restructurings – relevant experience includes the implementation of succession plans for businesses
- Resolution of business disputes – includes expertise in both shareholder and professional disputes
- Corporate Governance – includes advice regarding by-laws, shareholder and board meetings
- Acted for London Ontario based developer in sale of shopping mall, office building and 13 residential apartment buildings totalling approximately 2,325 units to developer syndicate for $215,000,000.00. The Globe and Mail reported the transaction was “the highest price ever commanded in Canada for a single-site apartment sale”.
- Counsel to a Metropolitan Toronto based general contractor in $150 million Infrastructure Ontario financing.
- Acted for Southwestern Ontario based public body in $65 million financing to fund capital improvements with two chartered banks.
- Counsel to a Metropolitan Toronto based general contractor in $60 million Infrastructure Ontario financing.
- Acted for a Southwestern Ontario based corporation in acquisition, development and financing of a commercial greenhouse operation, including negotiation of a carbon dioxide and high grade heat transfer agreement.
- Counsel to a Metropolitan Toronto based general contractor in joint venture RFP with Infrastructure Ontario.
- Acted for a post-secondary institution in $30 million interest rate swap financing for construction of a residence and dining pavilion.
- Acted for numerous co-operatives in Feed-In-Tariff Programs for the development of solar, wind and biogas projects.
- Counsel to a Southwestern Ontario based general contractor in $25 million Infrastructure Ontario financing.
- Acted for vendors in sale of shares of Southwestern Ontario based environmental consulting firm.
- Acted for purchaser of $13 million edible bean processing facility.
- Resolved family shareholder dispute through successful completion of butterfly transaction..
- “Thank you for your leadership and creativity in dealing with the Town. Thank you for orchestrating an extra 2 months for Whitchurch-Stouffville Community Energy Co-operative. I am very happy that you are in our camp!”
T. S., Whitchurch-Stouffville Community Energy Co-operative - “…email is cheap and two dimensional but I just wanted to say thanks very much… I appreciated your diligence and your “there’s a problem but here’s how I plan to address it” approach to the various obstacles we encountered.” J.H., Ontario Telecommunications Association, Toronto
- "We knew what we wanted to do and we also knew it had never been done before. … Ian came up with the idea of trying to get an exemption from the Canadian Securities Administrators … Ian helped us create something totally new and different for the industry that has nothing but upside for Canadian agricultural producers." T. A., Canadian Lamb Producers Co-operative Inc.
- “We want to thank you for all your assistance and patience as we worked through this lengthy process. I have personally appreciated all of your advice, wisdom and support. The merger … has been very positive for us and we are excited about the future.” - D.G
- Selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in Canada for Corporate Law
- Speaker, "Tricks and Traps of Farm Succession Planning", Hensall District Co-operative, February 2019
- Lecturer, Ontario Bar Admission Course, The Purchase and Sale of Commercial Real Estate
- Lecturer, Due Diligence issues in Buying and Selling a Business, Law Society of Upper Canada Continuing Legal Education Program
- Author, London Business Magazine, articles such as Shareholders’ Agreements, Succession Planning for Business
- Lecturer on co-operatives in Law Society of Ontario continuing legal education program in spring, 2018
- Ontario Co-operative Association
- Middlesex Law Association
- Canadian Bar Association
- Board Member and Member of Executive Committee of Sunshine Foundation of Canada
- Chair, Regulatory Affairs Committee of Ontario Co-operative Association
- Former Board Chair of Hutton House Foundation (2011 - 2018)
- Former Board Member, London Health Sciences Centre
- Member of Board of Hutton House Association for Adults with Disabilities (1998-2010)
- Chair of Board of Hutton House Association for Adults with Disabilities (2001-2004)
- Former Board Member, Thames Valley Children’s Centre
- Former Board Member, Matthews Hall independent school
- Former Senior Inter-County League baseball player
- Admitted to Ontario Bar (1987)
- Bachelor of Laws, The University of Western Ontario (1985)
- Bachelor of Arts, Carleton University (1982)
Contact
- Phone:
- 519.640.6334/416.867.1137
- Fax:
- 519.932.3334