CANADIAN BUSINESS EXPANSION

Doing what is legally best for your business and its advancement into Canada, as opposed to protecting prior legal work.

Contact Neufeld Legal PC at 403-400-4092 / 905-616-8864 or Chris@NeufeldLegal.com

Expanding your business into Canada is not as straightforward as most lawyers would have you believe, and if they tell you otherwise, you need to seriously question their understanding of the Canadian laws that impact foreign businesses expanding into Canada, whether through a corporate acquisiton, partnership, joint venture, branch office, or the launch of a new subsidiary company. The operational dynamics of Canadian law is such that most larger Canadian law firms are largely incapable of rendering the best possible legal advice with respect to a foreign entrant pursuing commercial operations in Canada, since taking that legal position would compromise their legal advice to their existing corporate clients situated in Canada.¹ And because of that legal liability exposure, in our professional opinion, they are unwilling to provide new Canadian business entrants with the best possible legal advice to advance their Canadian commercial enterprise, and instead look to protect their own professional interests by maintaining the status quo with their current corporate clients and failing to render appropriate legal advice to new foreign clients.

After 25 years of legal practice, that would appear to be a pretty audacious statement, let alone a lead-in to our legal practice for international corporate clients seeking to expand their business into Canada. Nevertheless, given that most international corporate clients are seeking the best legal advice, and could care less about protecing a law firm's other corporate clients, or that law firm's legal practices in contravention of the law, they should be looking for a lawyer that will provide the best business transaction and contract legal advice for their business, irrespective of the legal implications to others. And at Neufeld Legal, we are focused on working to assist your expanding business make its Canadian venture a success, as opposed to being an exercise in protecting the legal exposure of unrelated parties.

We take our legal work very seriously, and firmly believe that international corporate clients seeking to expand into Canada must have dedicated legal representation when establishing their Canadian business presence. And unfortunately, there are far too few law firms that are capable of providing such legal representation given the inherent conflicts that they are unwilling to recognize and/or address, and for which your business should not be denied transactonal, contractual and operational legal advice that is consistent with the law. That is what your company requires and what our law firm is capable of providing.

To learn more about how our law firm stands apart when it comes to expanding your business into Canada, in what we do differently from most larger law firms and how this can properly protect and advance your Canadian commercial venture,² contact our law firm today for a confidential initial consultation at Chris@NeufeldLegal.com or 403-400-4092 / 905-616-8864.  

Canadian Business Expansion Incorporation: Undertaking the appropriate incorporation and business structuring when expanding one's commercial enterprise into Canada is critical to navigating around avoidable complexities and problems, while optimizing opportunities that are available through decisive corporate structuring within the Canadian system. Read more.

 

Partnering with Canadian Business (Joint Ventures): Forming a partnership or joint venture with a Canadian business partner is a common strategy for international companies looking to enter the Canadian market, and thereby leveraging local business knowledge, established networks, and resources while sharing the risks and costs associated with a new venture in a foreign country. Read more.

 

Acquiring a Canadian Business: The acquisition of a domestic Canadian buisness (corporation or partnership) by an international corporate enterprise requires local Canadian legal representation that is not afraid of addressing key legal issues associated with the target business, which all too often exist, yet due to serious inherent conflicts that we have previously identified within larger law firms, which can pose serious post-acquisition legal and financial problems that we are focused on addressing. Read more.

 

Hiring Employees and Contractors in Canada: Canada has distinctive employment laws at both the federal and provincial level, which impacts the hiring of employees and contractors in Canada, with some serious inherent conflicts that we perceive within larger law firms, making them unwilling or incapable of properly representing new foreign corporate entrants in their legal representation of employee and contractor hiring. Read more.

 

Tax Considerations when Expanding Business into Canada: Expanding your international corporate business into Canada involves navigating a complex landscape of federal and provincial tax laws, with the resultant tax implications heavily dependent on the selected Canadian business structure, its Canadian business activities, and particulars related to the home country from which the expansion is being undertaken. Read more.

 

1. The contentions raised on this webpage are not made lightly, being based on extensive legal research and analysis of publicly available information, with the application of the pertinent law, as opposed to the improper application of laws that are evident from publicly-available documentation that are applicable to other jurisdictions but not the jurisdiction to which the matter is legally required to be applied.

2. Even where your company's intent is to work with a larger Canadian or multi-national law firm for its business expansion into Canada, you may also look to consider the value of a second opinion when it comes to certain legal work that is being undertaken for your Canadian business venture, given that your goal should be to attain the best legal input for your international company, and not be fixated on relying exclusively on a single law firm, where that law firm may well have inherent conflicts of interest, even if they are not aware of those conflicts. Meanwhile, if the areas of legal concern have been properly addressed, we will serve as confirmation thereof, nevertheless, given our own review of publicly-available materials, that would in our professional estimation be quite infrequent.