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PROFILE By Vawn Himmelsbach Cross-border counterparts Building pipelines is a North American affair for Enbridge. Running pipelines from Alberta across the border into the U.S. has its challenges — not only from a business perspective, but a legal one as well. The legal environments on both sides of the border are similar, but the devil is always in the details, and the legal teams have to work together to keep business running smoothly, no matter where they're located. Enbridge Inc. operates the world's longest crude oil and liquids pipeline system in Canada and the U.S. It has stretched across North America for 55 years, delivering more than 2 million barrels of crude oil and liquids per day. Enbridge also owns and operates Canada's largest natural gas distribution company. "We have a significant number of liquids assets in the U.S.," says Joel Kanvik, senior counsel and assist- ant secretary with Enbridge Energy Company, Inc., which supports opera- tions of the liquids pipeline group in the U.S. "The basic pipeline system that comes into the U.S. from Canada has about 1,900 miles of pipe in the U.S., so I'm responsible for supporting [the pipeline group] and everything they need, which basically means one day is different from the next." His practice touches on several areas (L to R) Tyler Robinson of Enbridge Inc., in Canada and Joel Kanvik of Enbridge Inc., in the U.S. of law, including contract review and negotiation, advising on public affairs, dealing with regulatory matters at both a federal and state level, and managing litigation when Enbridge finds itself involved in suits both as a plaintiff and defendant. He also handles much of Enbridge's U.S. intellectual prop- erty matters and business development initiatives, as well as mergers and INHOUSE DECEMBER 2009/JANUARY 2010 • 41