Jason J. Brooks

Jason is a partner in our Securities and Capital Markets Group in our Vancouver office, and is the Vancouver Regional Leader of our Investment Management Focus Group. Jason’s practice focuses on advising Canadian and foreign-based clients engaged in all aspects of the investment management industry, including investment fund managers, portfolio managers, dealers, financial institutions and service providers. He has extensive experience advising clients on the formation, management and operation of public and private investment funds in Canada and the offering of their securities in public offerings and private placement transactions.

Jason also regularly advises and assists clients seeking to obtain and maintain registration with Canadian securities regulators and/or self-regulatory organizations, and provides advice on a wide range of registration, regulatory and compliance matters affecting registered firms and individuals, including developing, reviewing and assessing compliance procedures and practices. He has obtained novel exemptive relief from a wide variety of prospectus, registration, conflict of interest and other compliance requirements under Canadian securities laws.

In addition, Jason advises clients on merger and acquisition transactions, corporate finance transactions, shareholder and corporate governance matters, the securities-related activities of financial institutions, and securities-related activities on the Internet.

Representative work

• Advising on all issues related to the formation, organization and ongoing operations of retail mutual funds, hedge funds, pooled funds and other investment funds.
• Advising Canadian and foreign advisers, dealers and investment fund managers with respect to registration and on-going securities regulatory and compliance matters. Extensive experience in assisting firms obtain registration with securities regulators in all jurisdictions of Canada, from start-up fund managers and exempt market dealers to multi-billion dollar global asset managers.  
• Has obtained novel and complex exemptive relief from a wide variety of prospectus, dealer registration, conflict of interest and other compliance requirements under Canadian securities laws.
• Advising on the formation, organization and ongoing operation of mortgage investment corporations and other similar entities, and on the registration and other securities regulatory and compliance issues applicable to those involved in the administration and distribution of such entities.
• Advising on the corporate, securities and securities regulatory issues applicable to mergers & acquisition transactions for participants in the investment management industry.
• Led the BLG team that represented Phillips, Hager & North Investment Management Ltd. (PH&N) in relation to the sale of PH&N to Royal Bank of Canada in 2008, a transaction that created the largest retail mutual fund company in Canada, one of the top five managers in the Canadian institutional market for defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans, and one of the largest private client investment counselling businesses in Canada.