Stephen Poloz arrives for a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on March 18, 2020.The Canadian Press
Stephen Poloz has added another high-profile appointment to his résumé, joining prominent Bay Street law firm Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP as a special adviser.
Since stepping down as governor of the Bank of Canada in early June, Mr. Poloz has been named to the boards of directors of Enbridge Inc. and CGI Inc. and, on Monday, Western University and Ivey Business School announced that he would chair the university’s top economic think tank, Ivey’s Lawrence National Centre for Policy and Management.
Osler, which has more than 400 lawyers in five Canadian offices as well as New York, said Wednesday that Mr. Poloz will join the firm on Aug. 1.
Mr. Poloz was governor of the Bank of Canada for the past seven years and, before that, the economist by training was president and chief executive officer of Export Development Canada. Doug Bryce, Osler’s national managing partner, said the firm’s clients will benefit from Mr. Poloz’s “strategic insights,” based on his experiences with government and trade organizations.
“Having guided Canada’s monetary response, particularly through the turbulent period of the past six months, that experience has further demonstrated Stephen’s singular ability to convey complex financial and market information in an accessible and practical way,” Mr. Bryce said in a statement.
Osler regularly ranks among the top Canadian law firms for its work on mergers and acquisitions. According to data from Refinitiv, in 2019, the firm advised on 92 deals that were worth a combined US$64.5-billion (that figure includes the net debt of target companies). That came second only to Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, which advised on 105 deals worth $64.7-billion.
Monique Jérôme-Forget, who was Quebec’s finance minister from 2007 to 2009, joined Osler as a special adviser to its Montreal office in 2010, and Brad Wall, former premier of Saskatchewan, became special adviser to the firm in 2018.
Former politicians and government officials regularly join law firms in their postgovernment lives and are often prized for their public profile as well as their experience navigating political and regulatory matters. In recent years, Dentons Canada LLP has attracted a number of big names – the firm has a global affiliation with former prime minister Stephen Harper, his former industry minister James Moore is a senior business adviser and another former prime minister, Jean Chrétien, is counsel to the firm.
Stockwell Day, the former leader of the Canadian Alliance Party, stepped down from an advisory role with McMillan LLP earlier this month after he made comments on television denying the existence of systemic racism. (Mr. Day also resigned from his role on the board of directors at Telus Corp.)
Your time is valuable. Have the Top Business Headlines newsletter conveniently delivered to your inbox in the morning or evening. Sign up today.