Craig Thorburn specializes in restructurings and mergers and acquisitions. He is also the relationship partner for many major corporate clients. Craig was voted by peers as one of the leading lawyers in corporate law in The Best Lawyers in Canada 2010 and is ranked as a leading corporate/M&A lawyer in Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business 2009.
From late 2001 through early 2006, while a Partner with Blakes, Craig also served as the senior vice-president of mergers and acquisitions, and corporate secretary of Geac Computer, a large Canadian software company listed on the TSX and NASDAQ. He spearheaded the legal team that completed the strategic acquisitions of Extensity and Comshare, each of which was an American software company listed on NASDAQ and the first of which involved the registration of Geac's common shares under U.S. securities laws. He also led the legal team that advised on a public offering of purchase warrants and a subsequent public offering of common shares. He advised Geac on its quarterly, annual and continuous disclosure obligations. He assisted Geac in the successful defence of a proxy contest, the renewal of its shareholder rights plan, the creation of a restricted share unit plan for senior officers and a deferred share unit plan for directors, and the implementation of normal course issuer bids. He played a key role in the strategic review process that resulted in the negotiation and completion of the sale in March 2006 of Geac to Golden Gate for US$1-billion (when Craig first began advising Geac in 2001, it had a market capitalization of US$72-million).
Craig has lectured as an adjunct professor in securities law at the Faculty of Law, Queen's University, and has spoken and written on a wide range of subjects, including mergers and acquisitions, securities compliance, corporate restructurings, shareholder agreements and directors' liabilities.