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34 www.canadianlawyermag.com INHOUSE INTERVIEWS FEATURE than a decade. During the crisis, he watched the phrase "essential workers" appear on the front page of newspapers every day, and the same lens quickly applied to property. As he puts it, "COVID was... a huge inflection point for a lot of people, and it really brought what is deemed essential to the forefront." That clarity reinforced Slate's view that assets enabling the distribution of vital goods and services are inherently defensive and should command serious long-term capital. In addition to its footprint in Canada and the US, that strategy has pushed the firm deep into Europe, transforming what began as a German beachhead into a broader Western European platform. Murray has been closely involved in this build-out, not as a local-law specialist but as the Canadian generalist who knows how to frame risk and structure commercial priorities across jurisdictions. Looking ahead, Murray expects those decisions to continue favouring Europe as tariff disputes and political uncertainty steer capital flows. At the same time, he notes pressure in Canada to build more renewable power, data centres, and other energy-intensive infrastructure at home, which aligns with Slate's focus on essential real estate and infrastructure tied to everyday needs. JOHN MURRAY Company: Slate Asset Management Title: Managing director, legal A European expansion and shift from offices into grocery, logistics, and energy Essential real estate and infrastructure have become a core focus for investors seeking defensive, resilient assets, according to John Murray, and that shift is reshaping how capital, deals, and legal advice are structured across borders. In his role as managing director, legal at Slate Asset Management, a global investment and asset management firm focused on essential real estate and infrastructure, he sees every day how assets tied to groceries, logistics, health, and energy hold up when markets turn and investors become nervous. Murray traces the strategy back well before the pandemic, but he says COVID made the market finally catch up to a thesis Slate had been building for more step outside her comfort zone has defined her career, from moving to Brazil to practise law to embracing high-stakes complex transactions at TELUS. For Lau, her legal career isn't about staying in a prescribed lane – it's about asking, "What will make my career flourish, and what will make me satisfied and happy with the career decisions I've made?" and then having "the will- ingness to jump in and embrace or create those opportunities," she says. Lau's appetite for risk has shaped her approach at TELUS, where she leads major transactions across business units. She joined as senior counsel, M&A/TELUS global ventures in 2022 after working in-house at Barrick Gold Corporation and practising corporate law at Shearman & Sterling in Brazil. Lau was at the centre of a $1.2 billion carve- out transaction and joint venture involving TELUS' wireless tower infrastructure. "We made an announcement at the beginning of August about the creation of Terrion: we are carving out TELUS' passive wireless infrastructure busi- ness as a stand-alone entity and have created Canada's largest dedicated wireless tower oper- ator in partnership with La Caisse," she says. The deal closed on September 10, 2025. Her track record extends beyond this most recent deal. Lau led the legal team on TELUS Health's approximately $500 million acquisition of Workplace Options, as well as TELUS' acquisition of Vivint Security Canada for $123 million. Early in her career, she had represented YM BioSciences in its $510 million acqui- sition by Gilead Sciences. She then drove the restructuring of Lupatech Group's $300 million cross-border debt – a trans- action that won the Global M&A Network's Energy & Services Turnaround of the Year Award. At Barrick, she supported the $6.5 billion merger with Randgold Resources and a joint venture with Newmont that resolved an $18 billion hostile takeover. JENNIFER LAU Company: TELUS Title: Senior counsel, M&A/TELUS global ventures Leading on risk, innovation, and billion- dollar deals "Taking calculated risks is where growth comes," Jennifer Lau says. That willingness to