Christian Jacques, Jean-Nicolas Delage
Mar 8, 2023
Osler is pleased to welcome Christian Jacques and Jean-Nicolas Delage, who are joining the firm’s Montréal office as partners in the Emerging and High Growth Companies Group (EHG).
“The addition of two of the most prominent lawyers in the Montréal tech startup ecosystem to our EHG team further augments our leadership and footprint in the knowledge-based economy in Québec and across Canada and adds to our leading practices in capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, litigation, tax and VC fund formation,” says Osler’s National Co-Chair, Shahir Guindi.
Christian Jacques specializes in venture capital financings, and mergers and acquisitions for high growth emerging companies while Jean-Nicolas Delage specializes in intellectual property strategy for high growth and emerging technology companies.
“With Christian and Jean-Nicolas joining our Montréal office, our clients will have access to experienced market-leading professionals with deep connections in the Québec tech market,” says Sandra Abitan, Osler’s Montréal Managing Partner. “They will be part of our expanding national EHG practice as we continue to focus on providing our innovating clients with specialized expertise.”
In his practice, Christian has worked with technology companies, guiding them from inception to liquidity events, mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, financing rounds, initial public offerings and other exits. Prior to his work in the private sector, Christian worked as a corporate financing analyst for the Capital Market Division of the Autorité des marchés financiers (the Québec Securities Commission). For Christian, joining Osler is a homecoming as he started his career at the firm as an articling student and then associate lawyer.
Jean-Nicolas has over 25 years of experience working with emerging and high growth companies and their investors on intellectual property issues and transactions. Throughout the years, he acted as a director on the board of different startup accelerators.
“We are excited to welcome Christian and Jean-Nicolas to Osler. They have been instrumental in building out Montréal’s modern startup ecosystem,” says Chad Bayne, partner, and Co-Chair of Osler’s Emerging and High Growth Companies Group. “I have long dreamed of combining their practices with Osler’s market-leading platform. I now look forward to collaborating with them to take our platform to the next level!”
Osler has the leading emerging and high growth companies practice in Canada. It is the only firm with Band 1 ranking in Chambers Canada and acts for more than 1,500 early, growth and late-stage ventures along with venture funds and private investors across Canada, the United States and around the world. The firm draws on the collective expertise of its legal practitioners in all major markets across Canada through its five offices nationwide including Toronto, Vancouver, Montréal, Ottawa and Calgary.
In 2022, Osler’s EHG team released Deal Points Report: Venture Capital Financings — its first comprehensive study of 332 anonymized venture capital and growth equity financings from 2019–2021, valued at US$5.7 billion, providing data and insights for founders, entrepreneurs, investors and advisors contemplating transactions this year and beyond.
Media contacts:
Rebecca Goldberg, Media and Public Relations Manager, 416.646.4485, rgoldberg@osler.com
Véronique St-Germain (Montréal), Director, Business and Client Development, 514.904.8176, vstgermain@osler.com