Massimo (Max) Starnino

Rep. Work

Representative Work

• Court appointed counsel to the holders of preferred shares of PACE Financial Limited and First Hamilton Holdings Inc. in connection with the winding-up of those and other related entities before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
• Insolvency counsel to the provinces of Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador in respect of the CCAA restructuring of Canada’s big 3 tobacco companies before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
• Insolvency counsel to the class action plaintiff group in respect of the CCAA restructuring of Montreal Maine & Atlantic Canada Co., the company at the center of the Lac Megantic railway disaster, before the Quebec Superior Court.
• Insolvency counsel to the class action plaintiff group having claims against Poseidon Concepts Corporation and its directors, officers, auditors and underwriters in the CCAA restructuring of the company before the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta.
• Represented an ad hoc committee of securities holders, including a number of representative plaintiffs having claims against Sino-Forest Corporation and its directors, officers, auditors and underwriters, in connection with the CCAA restructuring of that company before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
• Represented the Superintendent of Financial Services of Ontario in the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (“CCAA”) restructuring of the Nortel Networks Corporation and its subsidiaries before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
• Represented the United Steelworkers in insolvency proceedings in respect of, among others, Essar Steel Algoma Inc., Terrace Bay Pulp Inc., Marathon Pulp Inc., Amcan Consolidated Technologies Corp, Collins & Aikman Automotive Inc. and Hamilton Specialty Bar Corporation
• Represented the administrator of the pension plans of NewPage Port Hawkesbury Corporation, in connection with the CCAA restructuring of that company before the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia.
• Represented a number of dissident note-holders opposed to the restructuring of Canada’s non-bank asset backed commercial paper market before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
• Appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada on behalf of the Canadian Federation of Pensioners, in connection with the insolvency of Indalex Limited.
• Represented the proposed representative plaintiffs in a franchise class action against Shoppers Drug Mart.
• Appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada in the Canadian Securities Act reference, on behalf of the Canadian Foundation for the Advancement of Investor Rights.

Presentations

• Panel member – Representative Counsel: When, How and Who? – The Advocates’ Society – March 2022
• Presenter – The Use of Pierringer Releases in CCAA Restructuring Plans: A Bicycle for a Fish? – Insolvency Institute of Canada (articles), IIC-ART Vol.10-13 –  2021 Annual Conference of the Insolvency Institute of Canada
• Presenter – Freedom 55 Lost? The Recent Treatment of Pensions in Insolvency Proceedings – National Creditor Debtor Review, Volume 25, No. 3 – October 2010 (with Mary Picard) – first presented at the Commercial List Users Committee summer conference (2010)
• Presenter – The Intersection of Labour and Restructuring Law in Ontario: A Survey of the Current Law – Ontario Bar Association; Building Bridges: Discussing Labour Issues in Restructuring Proceedings, cited and relied upon by the court in the case of Fraser Papers Inc. CanLll 39776 (Ont. S.C.). – 2009 (with Jean-Claude Killey and Clifton Prophet)
• Presenter – Risk Management for Directors and Officers in CCAA Restructuring – The Canadian Institute’s 10th Annual Conference on Directors’ & Officers’ Liability – October 2006 (with Leslie Wittlin)