Profile

Karen is a partner in our Halifax office and practices in our Business Law Group with an emphasis on banking and financial services, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate and commercial law. Karen has significant experience in debt financing matters, including the negotiation and drafting of commitment letters, loan agreements and security documentation, and has represented lenders and borrowers in financing transactions involving a broad range of credit facilities and asset securitizations.

Karen regularly acts as agent counsel for Canadian and international law firms and their clients, both lenders and borrowers, in jurisdictions outside of Nova Scotia with respect to the securitization of assets of Canadian or international companies carrying on business in Nova Scotia and in mergers and acquisitions involving the use of Nova Scotia unlimited liability companies.

Karen also has experience in the purchase and sale of businesses and in the utilization of various forms of commercial financing security documents, as well as experience in the preparation of legal opinions required by vendors, purchasers and lenders in connection with these transactions.

Karen is a member of the Canadian Bar Association and the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society and is the past Vice Chair of the Securities Law section of the Canadian Bar Association, Nova Scotia branch. She is an avid golfer and is actively involved in the St. Francis Xavier University Alumni Association.

Karen is listed in Best Lawyers in Canada in the area of Banking and Finance.

Karen’s representative work includes:

● Nova Scotia counsel to Clearwater Seafoods Limited Partnership and certain of its affiliates in connection with the financing by GE Canada Finance Holding Company and a syndicate of lenders

● Nova Scotia counsel to Ally Credit Canada (formerly GMAC Canada) in its participation in the C$12 billion secured credit facility

● Nova Scotia counsel to Canada’s Wonderland Company in connection with the US$1.45 senior secured credit facility agented by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

● Nova Scotia counsel to Ally Credit Canada (formerly GMAC Canada) in its US$11.4 billion secured facility as part of its global refinancing transaction

● Nova Scotia counsel to Caxton-Iseman Capital, Inc. in connection with the acquisition of all the assets of KCP Income Fund for C$804 million

● Nova Scotia counsel to Metro Inc. in connection with its acquisition of the shares of A&P Canada from the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc. for approximately $1.7 billion

● Lender’s counsel on C$78 million structured credit facilities for a Nova Scotia university

● Lender’s counsel in financing the acquisition of assets of KFC/Taco Bell and Pizza Hut locations in Canada and the US

Education

• LL.B., University of New Brunswick (1996)
• B.B.A., St. Francis Xavier University (1989)

Bar Admissions

Nova Scotia (1997)