
Overview
Steve Halperin serves as counsel at Goodmans after more than 30 years as a partner and more than 20 years as a member of the Executive Committee. He is a past Co-Chair of the firm’s corporate securities group. His practice has for many years been focused upon transactional corporate and securities law, with particular emphasis on domestic and international corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance (including activist shareholders) matters. Between late 2007 and early 2009, Steve acted as lead counsel to the Pan Canadian Investors Committee for Third-Party Asset Backed Commercial Paper, which initiated and successfully implemented the $32 billion restructuring of that market, the largest court supervised restructuring ever undertaken in Canada.
Steve was peer-selected the Toronto Securities Lawyer of the Year in the 2020 edition of Best Lawyers in Canada. He has been selected three times as the Toronto Corporate Lawyer of the Year (most recently for 2019) and four times as Toronto Corporate Governance Lawyer of the Year (most recently for 2018) and as Toronto Mergers and Acquisitions Lawyer of the Year for 2017 by that publication. He was named as one of the top 30 corporate governance lawyers in the world in the 2018 edition of Euromoney’s Best of the Best and one of the top 30 mergers and acquisitions lawyers in the world in the 2017 edition of that publication and is the only Canadian to be so designated. He has previously been named as one of the world’s “top 30” in the separate categories of capital markets, mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance in other recent editions of that series. He was also designated as one of ten “most highly regarded individuals” in each of these three categories in the 2021 edition of Who’s Who Legal Canada and was recently recognized as one of two Canadians in Who's Who Legal: Global Elite Thought Leader - Governance 2022. Who’s Who Legal’s global 2016 survey ranked him as the only Canadian on its list of the seven “most highly regarded” North American M&A lawyers, describing him as “one of the finest lawyers in the world” in this practice area. Who’s Who Legal recognized him as one of two Canadian “Global Thought Leaders for Capital Markets” in its 2018 survey.
Steve was described by IFLR1000 as “one of the most experienced and respected M&A counsel in Canada”; was one of six lawyers profiled as “elite mergers and acquisitions lawyers” in The National Post (Canada); and one of seven lawyers profiled as the “Top M&A Lawyers in Canada” in The Daily Deal (USA). He is the only Canadian to have achieved the highest rating in Corporate/M&A in every edition of Chambers Global (UK) for the past 17 years. Chambers Global has described Steve as “a brilliant lawyer who is practical, knowledgeable and strategic,” “universally acknowledged to operate at the very top level”, a “go-to guy, particularly for complex, larger scale corporate finance and M&A” and “as good as it gets in Canada”. He has also consistently received the highest rating in various fields of corporate and securities law in several other Canadian and international survey based rating services.
Awards & Recognition
-
The Legal 500 Canada Leading Individual, Corporate and M&A 2024
-
Best Lawyers in Canada Recognized, Corporate Governance Practice, Corporate Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law, Securities Law 2024
-
Who's Who Legal Recognized National Leader, M&A, Corporate Governance, and Capital Markets 2023
-
IFLR1000 Canada Expert Consultant, M&A 2023
-
Lexpert Special Edition: Finance and M&A Canada's Leading Finance and M&A Lawyers 2023
-
The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory Most Frequently Recommended, Corporate Commercial Law, Mergers & Acquisitions 2023
Credentials
Professional Involvement
Steve is also a member of the bars of, and has practiced in, Quebec and Alberta. He has held nine public company directorships. He is a governor emeritus of McGill University, Chair of the Nominating, Governance and Ethics Committee and a former member of the Executive Committee of the University’s Board of Governors.
Steve has a strong commitment to legal education. He taught Advanced Corporate and Securities Law at the University of Toronto Law School for seven years and has lectured at several other Canadian law schools, and presented major papers on corporate and securities law topics at the Law Society’s Special Lectures; Meredith Memorial Lectures (McGill University); and Queen’s Annual Business Law Symposium. In 2018, Steve received the F.R. Scott Award from the McGill Faculty of Law, “ for distinguished contribution to McGill and to the law”.
Credentials
- McGill University, LL.B., 1978
- McGill University, B.C.L, 1975
- Concordia University, B.A., 1972, Honours
Professional Affiliations
- Bar Associations of Quebec, Alberta and Ontario
Call to Bar
- Ontario
Insights
-
Mergers and Acquisitions
Roundtable: Canada 2012 Report, Who's Who Legal
Stephen Halperin was one of the three Canadian lawyers interviewed for the Who's Who Legal's "Roundtable: Canada 2012".Excerpt:Stephen Halperin: There has unquestionably been a slowdown in…
News & Events
-
Banking and Financial Services
Who's Who Legal Continues to Recognize Goodmans in the Canada 2023 Guide
We are pleased to share Goodmans lawyers have been recognized across Who's Who Legal's National Guide: Canada 2023. WWL National Guides identify national or regional leaders in a sector, industry… -
Banking and Financial Services
Goodmans Continues to Receive Top Tier Recognition from The Legal 500 Canada
We are pleased to announce Goodmans LLP has once again received top tier recognition from The Legal 500 Canada in their 2024 Guide released today. Recognition from The Legal 500 is based on… -
Private Equity and Venture Capital
100+ Goodmans lawyers recognized in The Best Lawyers in Canada: 2024 Edition
Goodmans is delighted to announce we have been recognized in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada with 101 lawyers ranked across 41 practice areas.Congratulations to Harry Radomski…