Global law firm Shearman & Sterling announced today the appointment of a new Toronto office leadership team comprised of senior lawyers Jason Lehner, Pamela Gibson and Richard Alsop.

Lehner, a Toronto-based capital markets partner, has deep client relationships on both sides of the Canadian-US border, representing issuers and investment banks in a broad range of public and private capital markets transactions, as well as corporations on a variety of corporate governance and other matters. Gibson, a Canadian, opened Shearman & Sterling's Toronto office in 1989, the first permanent presence by a US firm in Canada, and was the managing partner until 1995. She then transferred to the firm's London office where she served as the managing partner for eight years. Alsop was a lawyer in the firm's Toronto office for a number of years before moving to Merrill Lynch, where he served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Law before rejoining Shearman & Sterling in New York.

"Our service to our clients and our continued growth in Canada is very important to us," said Rohan S. Weerasinghe, Shearman & Sterling's senior partner, "and Jason, Pam and Richard, with the support of our many partners who serve Canadian companies' interests around the world, have the experience and the right skill set to make this happen."

Shearman & Sterling's Toronto office has a leading position in the Canadian market, having been involved in almost every significant development in Canadian cross-border transactions over the past two decades. The firm regularly advises Canadian clients across a broad range of practices on transactions around the world, including in emerging markets such as Africa, Asia and Latin America. Lawyers in the firm's Toronto office represent Canadian issuers and US and Canadian financial institutions in both public and private financings, mergers and acquisitions, US stock exchange listings, and corporate governance matters. Shearman & Sterling lawyers were actively involved in the creation of the Canada-US Multi-jurisdictional Disclosure System (MJDS).

"Our firm's global network is critical to our Canadian clients and to our global clients that invest in Canada," Lehner said. "Our firm has a long history and an unmatched reputation in Canada and, with our new leadership team, we intend to build on that."