Background

Patrick McCarthy is a partner in our Calgary office. He graduated from the University of Windsor with a Bachelor of Laws in 1975, after obtaining a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Calgary, and was admitted to the Alberta Bar in 1976. He was named a Queen's Counsel in 1998.

Areas of Practice

• Pat practises insolvency and restructuring law, with an emphasis on the energy industry and international and cross-border insolvency.
• He is co-chair of the Insolvency and Restructuring Group.

Rankings and Recognitions

• Recognized in the 2010 edition of Chambers Global – The World's Leading Lawyers (Restructuring/Insolvency)
• Selected by peers for inclusion in the 2010 edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada (Insolvency and Financial Restructuring)
• Recognized as a leading lawyer in the 2009 edition of IFLR1000
• Martindale-Hubbell AV® Preeminent™ 5.0 out of 5 Peer Review Rating
• Recognized in the 2009 Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory (Insolvency & Financial Restructuring)
• Recognized in the 2009 Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada (Insolvency & Financial Restructuring)
• Recognized in the 2008 Lexpert Guide to the Leading U.S./Canada Cross-border Litigation Lawyers
• Pat was appointed to the Insolvency Institute of Canada in 1996. The IIC is a limited membership organization for Canadian insolvency professionals from the legal, accounting and banking professions. Pat was president of the IIC from 2006-2008 and was made a Fellow of the IIC in 2008.
• In 2008 Pat was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. The American College of Bankruptcy is an honorary association of bankruptcy and insolvency professionals. Nominees are selected based on a record of the highest standards of professionalism and service to the profession. Pat is one of nine Canadian members of the College.
• Pat is a founding member of the International Insolvency Institute, a limited membership organization of senior international insolvency professionals.

Professional Experience

• Pat has an active insolvency practice, representing monitors, receivers and trustees in bankruptcy, in insolvency proceedings as well as debtors, creditors and other stakeholders in national and international insolvencies and restructurings, and is responsible for managing and setting direction on large, complex, high profile restructurings and insolvencies.
• After initially conducting a general commercial litigation practice, Pat's focus shifted increasingly to insolvency matters during the turbulent 1980s in Calgary. Since 1992, Pat has restricted his practice to insolvency, restructuring and related matters.

Representative Work

• Represented the court-appointed monitor in numerous cross-border restructuring proceedings including those commenced under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act ('CCAA') by Canadian subsidiaries of SemGroup, L.P., Calpine Corporation, and Mirant Corporation;
• Counsel to the monitor in numerous CCAA proceedings including those commenced by Victoria Park Limited Partnership, the Skiing Louise group, Canadian Airlines Corporation and Canadian Airlines International Ltd., and Bre-X Minerals Ltd.;
• Debtors' counsel in a number of successful restructurings including those of Questerre Energy Corp., Blue Range Resource Corporation, and Polaris Geophysical Inc.;
• Acted for the receiver of Three Sisters Mountain Village ULC, a resort property development company with extensive holdings in Canmore, Alberta.
• Acted for creditors in connection with diverse companies including Enron Canada, Probe Exploration Inc., Meadow Lake Pulp, and Fairmont Resort Properties Ltd..
• Represented a group of European bondholders in the Confederation Treasury Services Ltd. insolvency, and in that capacity sat as a member of the CTSL creditors' committee and an inspector in the bankruptcy of CTSL. Creditors of CTSL eventually recovered in excess of 100% of the principal amount of their claims.
• Represented Blue Range Resource Corporation in its restructuring under the CCAA, which involved the first judicial consideration of the eligible financial contracts in Canada.
• Acted as co-counsel for the secured debenture holders in the restructuring of Trizec Corporation.
• Acted for Paris-based Schlumerger in the bankruptcy of Chauvco Resources International Ltd., a Bermudian corporation conducting oil exploration in the west African nation of Gabon, which involved insolvency proceedings in Canada, England, Gabon and Bermuda.
• Represented the monitor of Solv-Ex Corporation in relation to simultaneous CCAA and U.S. Chapter 11 reorganization proceedings commenced by that corporation. In that capacity arranged for what are believed to be the first cross-border hearings between U.S. and Canadian courts, and drafted a cross border protocol to coordinate the Canadian and U.S. proceedings which has served as a precedent for subsequent Canada/U.S. cross border insolvency proceedings.

Professional and Community Activities

Pat has prepared papers for and participated in programs and conferences for various organizations, including the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Insolvency Institute of Canada, the Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Practitioners, the Legal Education Society of Alberta, the Alberta branch of the Canadian Bar Association, and has been an instructor in both advocacy and 'Interviewing, Negotiating and Counselling' at the University of Calgary Faculty of Law. Pat has taught insolvency courses at the faculties of law of both the University of Windsor (2005, 2007) and the University of Calgary (2008). Pat is contributing editor to the Annual Review of Insolvency Law and a past director of Theatre Calgary.