Charlene Ripley, top in-house lawyer at mining giant Goldcorp Inc., received the highest honour at the Western Canada General Counsel Awards this week.
Ripley was named Western Canada General Counsel of the Year at the fourth annual award gala, which took place Monday night in Vancouver. The awards, founded by the National Post and ZSA Legal Recruitment, are presented every other year to the best in-house lawyers west of Ontario.
“It’s been a great ride for me the last two and a half years at Goldcorp,” said Ripley, the company’s executive vice-president and general counsel. She joined the Vancouver-based gold miner after spending 11 years in the oil and gas business in Houston, Texas.
Since her arrival, she has been involved in several high profile matters, among them Goldcorp’s hostile bid for Osisko Mining Corp. and a major Supreme Court of Canada ruling involving aboriginal treaty rights called Grassy Narrows First Nation v. Ontario (Natural Resources).
She thanked four “teams” who have helped her succeed: the in-house legal staff at Goldcorp, the company’s management, the company’s outside legal counsel at Cassels Brock and Blackwell LLP, and her “home team,” which includes her husband and two cats.
“It’s a tough job. One of the important keys to being a successful general counsel is to surround yourself with some great teams,” she said.
Six awards were presented at the gala. Lawyers from natural resource companies dominated, taking home awards in five of the six categories.
Curt Bernardi, senior vice-president, legal and corporate secretary with Vancouver-based Silver Wheaton Corp., received the deal-making award.
Silver Wheaton pays a fixed, up-front fee to secure the silver production that is incidentally recovered in mines that target other metals. For that to work, Silver Wheaton needs to sign a lot of streaming deals. Bernardi said he didn’t do it all alone.
“As anyone who’s ever worked on a deal before knows, no one person alone gets deals done. It definitely takes a team. I’m very fortunate to work with two phenomenal teams, one at Silver Wheaton and one at Cassels Brock.”
Bob Rooney received the Business Achievement award for his leadership roles at Talisman Energy Inc., which is now owed by Repsol SA.
“It’s been quite a journey. It’s been really fun, sometimes tough. I’ve learned a lot,” Rooney said.
Peter Forrester, senior director for aboriginal and legal affairs at Kinder Morgan Canada Inc., received the Litigation Management award.
The company is trying to permit and build a $5.4-billion pipeline from Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C. The project has triggered litigation before the National Energy Board, the Federal Court of Canada, the British Columbia Supreme Court and the B.C. Court of Appeal. Forrester has to manage it all.
“Unfortunately, more and more, mega projects attract mega politics, and that attracts major litigation aimed at achieving the political ends of those folks,” Forrester said.
The Tomorrow’s Leader award, which recognizes an up-and-coming member of the in-house bar, went to Chris Hoeschen, executive vice-president, general counsel and corporate secretary of UrtheCast Corp.
The Vancouver-based company has teamed up with NASA to stream high definition video from the International Space Station. The company’s name is a play on words that allows you to call it both “You are the cast” and “Earth cast.”
Hoeschen was the only lawyer from a non-resource firm to receive a WCGCA this year. “I want to say thanks to the folks at Urthecast. They’ve given me a great opportunity and they allow me to do some really fun things,” Hoeschen says.
As we told you last month, Anne Giardini, currently chancellor of Simon Fraser University, but previously a president and general counsel with giant forest company Weyerhaeuser Canada, received the Lifetime Achievement honour.
“It’s an honour to have a lifetime achievement award, though I have to say, I hope I still have a little chunk of my time on this Earth left,” she said. “I’ve had the good fortune of an interesting career, working on interesting issues with wonderful people in a wide range of practice areas.”
We’ll have more coverage of the 2015 WCGCA gala in Friday’s Financial Post.
Financial Post
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