Desmond is one of Canada’s most well-regarded lawyers for capital markets work, with a particular focus on IPOs and other equity financing transactions. He co-leads the Firm’s capital markets practice with Rosalind Hunter. Desmond is responsible for the origination and execution of equity and debt financing transactions, and has led numerous initial public offerings, new issues, secondary offerings and private placements for issuers primarily in the diversified, financial services, healthcare, mining, power and utilities, real estate and TMT (technology, media and telecommunications) industries. He has extensive experience as an advisor to investment banks on trading questions and regulatory matters, and has also served as the corporate secretary of a TSX-listed issuer. Desmond earned a B.Sc (Hons.) in geological sciences from Queen’s University in 1993 and an LL.B. from McGill University in 1996. He was named as a partner of Osler in 2005.
According to Chambers, Desmond holds a distinguished reputation among his peers and is “a very talented lawyer who gets to the point quickly”. He is ranked as a leading lawyer for capital markets or securities work by Best Lawyers, Chambers, IFLR1000, The Legal 500, Lexpert and Who’s Who Legal.
Selected transactions include:
- Bank of Montreal – Canadian counsel to the issuer in its $3.1 billion public offering of common shares to provide partial funding for its acquisition of San Francisco-based Bank of the West
- Canada Goose Holdings Inc. – Canadian counsel to the underwriters on the issuer’s cross-border (TSX/NYSE) IPO and subsequent secondary offerings by selling shareholders
- Ceridian HCM Holding Inc. – Canadian counsel to the underwriters on the issuer’s cross-border (TSX/NYSE) IPO. Ceridian at the time was the largest tech company by market capitalization to ever IPO in Canada
- dentalcorp Holdings Ltd. – counsel to the underwriters on the issuer’s IPO and subsequent follow-on offering
- Dream group of companies – counsel to various issuers on their IPOs and follow-on offerings
- DRI Healthcare Trust – counsel to the issuer on its IPO
- Fusion Pharmaceuticals Inc. – Canadian counsel to the issuer on its IPO and ATM program
- Hydro One Limited – counsel to the issuer on its IPO, which was at the time the largest IPO in Canada in the last 15 years and the largest Canadian privatization in the last 20 years
- MDA Ltd. – Canadian counsel to the underwriters on the issuer’s IPO
- Pet Valu Holdings Limited – counsel to the underwriters on the issuer’s IPO and subsequent secondary offering
- TELUS International (Cda) Inc. – Canadian counsel to the issuer on its IPO and subsequent secondary offering
Desmond regularly acts for the underwriters on securities offerings led by major investment banks such as BMO Capital Markets, CIBC Capital Markets, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital Markets, Scotiabank and TD Securities.