People

• Directory

Contact Information

amanzer@casselsbrock.com

Telephone: 416 869 5469
Fax: 416 350 6938

Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP
2100 Scotia Plaza
40 King Street West
Toronto, ON M5H 3C2
Canada

Download vCard

Profile

Alison R. Manzer

Alison Manzer is a partner in the Financial Services Group at Cassels Brock & Blackwell in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Alison's practice encompasses a broad range of commercial practice in the financial services sector, including financial institution regulation, corporate and commercial lending, asset-based financing, securitization, insolvency, equipment leasing, business reorganization, syndication, and related areas. A significant part of her practice involves multi-jurisdiction transactions where she has expertise in the structuring requirements of financing, investment and securitization transactions to solve taxation, conflicts of laws, document structure, currency and rate issues, among others.

She is a member of the Association of Commercial Finance Attorneys, based in New York, sitting on its executive, and is one of a very few Canadians elected to The American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers, having been a regent of the College. Those involvements reflect the multinational nature of her practice. Alison has been active with the Canadian Bar Association, has been chair of the national committee on Financial Institutions, a member of the national liaison committee with the accounting profession, chair of continuing legal education and a member of the finance committee. In July 2010, she was nominated as a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Alison has also chaired several other national and provincial committees for the Canadian Bar Association.

She has lectured and written extensively on legal matters, particularly dealing with financial institution issues. Alison has authored Canada - U.S. Commercial Law Guide; A Guide to Canadian Money Laundering Legislation; The Bank Act Annotated; A Practical Guide to Canadian Partnership Law; the banking chapters of the CCH Canadian Commercial Law Guide; a book on Banking and Credit Relationships, several chapters for Falconbridge on Mortgages, and recently, Asset-Based Lending in Canada and Law on International Finance, both published by national legal text publishers. She is an editor of the CCH Canadian Commercial Law Guide, and the Federated Press Corporate Financing Journal. Her list of published articles includes over 200 titles written for a wide range of publishers in areas including financial institution regulation, commercial finance, asset based lending, international and cross-border finance and specialty finance products, among others.

Alison has been a director of several financial institutions, including a Schedule II bank, insurance companies, leasing finance companies, securitization trusts and other financial services industry corporations. She has been recognized in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory each year starting with its first publication in 1997, in Structured Finance (Asset/Equipment Finance & Leasing) and Banking & Financial Institutions (and has been listed each year since) and in the Guide to the Leading Lawyers in Canada directory published by Lexpert and American Lawyer Media in those same categories. Alison has been listed in the Euromoney Legal Media Group Guide to the World's Leading Banking Law Experts, Chambers Global (in the area of Banking & Finance) and in Best Lawyers in Canada publications as an expert in equipment finance. She has also been listed in more than 40 international Who's Who publications, in a wide variety of categories.

In addition to her LL.B. (Law) and a B.Sc. Hon. (Biochemistry), Alison has an M.B.A. and an LL.M. in banking and financial services. She has also completed the Canadian Securities Course and the advanced securities programs, Canadian Investment Finance I and II with the Canadian Securities Institute. Alison is an adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School teaching the Masters of Law program in international finance. She was called to the Ontario Bar in 1979.

Education

LL.M., Osgoode Hall, York University, 1996
LL.B., Dalhousie University, 1977
M.B.A., University of Toronto, 1984
B.Sc., Hons., Dalhousie University, 1977
B.Sc., Dalhousie University, 1974

Achievements

• Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2010
• Chambers Global 2010 (Banking & Finance)
• Examiner, Toronto Board, Oral Exam for bankruptcy trustee licencing; Canada Federal Superintendant of Bankruptcy
• The Best Lawyers in Canada 2010 (Equipment Finance Law)
• Lexpert Zenith Award 2009
• Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2009
• Euromoney Expert Guide's leading lawyers 2009 (Banking)
• Chambers Global 2009 (Banking & Finance)
• The Best Lawyers in Canada 2009 (Equipment Finance Law)
• Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2008
• The Best Lawyers in Canada 2008 (Equipment Finance Law)
• Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2007
• Martindale-Hubbell, BV Distinguished™ rating
• The Best Lawyers in Canada 2006/2007 (Equipment Finance Law)
• Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2006
• Euromoney Expert Guide's leading lawyers 2006 (Banking)
• Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2005
• Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2004
• Euromoney Expert Guide's leading lawyers 2003 (Banking)
• Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2003

Call to the bar

Associations

• American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers
• Association of Commercial Finance Attorneys
• Canadian Bar Association
• Ontario Bar Association

21 Cassels Brock Lawyers Named in Lexpert's 2010 Directory

Cassels Brock Recognized in Chambers Global 2010

Alison Manzer Wins Inaugural Zenith Award

More