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Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/1540359
38 www.canadianlawyermag.com FEATURE IN-HOUSE PROFILES Best of in-house interviews Our sister publication, Lexpert, profiles in-house counsel regularly online at lexpert.ca/news/in-house-lawyer. Below is a selection of profiles featured by Lexpert this year FEATURE Ross makes clear that the complexity wasn't just about dollars. "HSBC Canada had 10 separate legal entities that we had to integrate into RBC," she says. That required a full-scale plan involving amalgamations, windups, and regulatory approvals across a highly scrutinized financial landscape. "We had to get regulatory approval from the Department of Finance, the Competition Bureau, securities regulatory bodies," she says. Legal restrictions on pre-close client data meant RBC couldn't preload everything into their systems. Instead, the team engineered a legal and operational workaround under the microscope of regulators. The operation took over 60 of RBC's legal group members working around the clock in shifts over a single weekend. "There was a command centre with people from different operations, teams, functions, businesses, making sure that we were there to work with our colleagues to advise on any issues that came up in order to make this happen," Ross says. Her team also won for Banking & Financial Services Law Department of the Year and Canadian Law Department of the Year; these awards were presented to the entire legal group. "[The awards] recognized the people who didn't work on the HSBC transaction," Ross says. They "had to keep the bank running and had to cover for the people who were working on the deal." TRACY ROSS Company: RBC, Royal Bank Title: Senior vice president and deputy general counsel EXECUTING CANADA'S BIGGEST BANK ACQUISITION IN RECORD TIME Royal Bank of Canada's legal team didn't just handle the largest banking transaction in Canadian history – they redefined how major acquisitions are executed. According to Tracy Ross, the transaction "was closed over a four-day weekend … which was unheard of, and I'm still surprised that it was done." That quote encapsulates what made this deal historic. It wasn't just the $13.5 billion acquisition of HSBC Bank Canada. The scale, speed, and legal choreography behind it likely impressed the judging panel that awarded it M&A Deal of the Year at the Canadian Law Awards.