John Clifford
Contents
Country
Canada
Birth - Death
September 29, 1962
Occupation
Law
Notable Achievements
In 2007, John founded exeQutive, a forum for LGBT business leaders in Toronto, a group that he continues to lead. exeQutive has become the leading forum of Toronto’s LGBT business leaders. In 2016, John received a Lexpert Zenith Award in recognition of his efforts and many accomplishments to promote diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and was selected by Out On Bay Street to receive a “Leaders To Be Proud Of” Award in recognition to his exemplary achievements and community service within the LGBTQ community.
Recognized internationally for his legal expertise and experience, Who's Who Legal identifies John as one of the top M&A lawyers in Canada (The International Who's Who of M&A and Governance Lawyers) and a leading business lawyer (The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers), and states that John is "very client focused" and "always delivers". Lexpert recommends John as a leading mid-market corporate lawyer and John is or has recently been identified as a leading antitrust/competition lawyer in Best Lawyers, Chambers Global, Euromoney's Guide to the World's Leading Competition and Antitrust Lawyers and PLC's Which Lawyer?
Named to the 2017-2020 OUTstanding-Financial Times’ Leading LGBT Global Business Executives List.
Description
John is a partner of McMillan LLP, one of Canada’s leading business law firms. John's law practice is focused on M&A transactions. He has extensive experience advising Canadian and international clients on domestic and cross-border acquisitions and divestitures, debt financings and complex re-organizations and regularly advises clients on legal requirements for establishing new businesses in Canada, including complying with Canada's foreign investment review legislation. For seven years, John chaired a working group of Canadian M&A deal lawyers that studies and develops reports for the ABA's M&A Committee on trends in deal terms used in Canadian private company acquisitions. Currently, he is Co-Chair of a Task Force that is updating the ABA's Model Asset Purchase Agreement.
John also is a recognized expert on antitrust/competition matters. He has advised on the Competition Act implications of hundreds of merger transactions and regularly assists clients to defend investigations and litigation relating to matters such as alleged unlawful conspiracies, abuse of dominance and distribution practices.
John's industry-specific experience is broad. He advises a diverse range of clients in the automotive, business services, consumer goods, distribution, financial services, investment fund, manufacturing, entertainment and pharmaceutical sectors, including some of the world's best known Europe- and Asia-based automotive companies.
John has held a number of leadership positions within McMillan. Currently, John leads the firm’s Business Law Group and is co-Chair of McMillan’s Inclusion and Diversity Committee, and he represents McMillan on Canada’s Law Firm Diversity and Inclusion Network (a national network of law firms committed to working together to promote diversity and encourage a culture of inclusion in their firms and the legal professional generally). Previously, John served as the firm's Chief Marketing Partner and leader of the firm's student program.
