Tag Archives: Investment Lawyer

Mark Warner was interviewed on Newstalk1010 in Toronto (Listen from 29:35) about the Canadian government’s options to recover $173 million it gave to soon-to-be defunct medical company Medicago for COVID-19 vaccine development. (November 9, 2023) Mr. Warner is a Canadian and U.S. lawyer who has practiced in Toronto, Washington, D.C., New York and Brussels and has advised governments on trade policy and trade negotiations and previously worked on trade and competition issues as counsel in the OECD Trade Directorate. At the OECD, Mark participated in the negotiations of the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment and represented the OECD at meetings of the WTO Working Groups on Trade and Competition Policies and Trade and Investment Policies.

Mr. Warner has assisted pharmaceutical clients in the global distribution of HIV / AIDS anti-retroviral drugs and the development of innovative patient access programs in the developing world, advised a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company and its French and South African subsidiaries in a cartel investigation involving 11 leading global Pharmaceutical companies in South Africa and advised a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company on competition law issues relating to the distribution of various nuclear medicine imaging agents in Canada. Mr. Warner was Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and advised Ontario on the negotiations of the Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA) including on IP, patent litigation and drug reimbursement issues and on economic development, research and innovation grants and loans to corporations, including leading global pharmaceutical companies for research, manufacture and clinical trial projects. As Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, Mr. Warner also led Ontario’s legal team in creating the $250 million Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund with an emphasis on life-sciences companies, drafted funding agreements, including for the Ontario Research Fund and Ontario Brain Institute, and advised on legal and corporate governance issues in the formation of Clinical Trials Ontario.

In addition, as MEDT Legal Director, Mark led the Ontario’s legal team for the insolvency / restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler in the difficult context of the 2008-2009 Recession.

[Listen from 29:35]

Mark Warner was interviewed by the Financial Post about Canada and the proposed new U.S. rules prohibiting venture capital and private equity firms from pumping more money into Chinese efforts to develop semiconductors and other microelectronics, quantum computers and certain artificial intelligence applications. (August 15, 2023) Mark is a Canadian and U.S. lawyer who has practiced in Toronto, Washington, DC and New York and has advised governments on trade and investment policy and negotiations. Mark previously worked on trade and competition issues as counsel in the OECD Trade Directorate, and participated in the negotiations of the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment and represented the OECD at meetings of the WTO Working Groups on Trade and Competition Policies and Trade and Investment Policies. 

Mark was Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and led Ontario’s legal team for trade negotiations (including the Canada-EU Trade Agreement and the Canada-U.S. Agreement on Government Procurement), advised on trade disputes (including the Green Energy Act and softwood lumber) and various NAFTA Chapter 11 investor-state arbitration matters (including the Ambassador Bridge, Adam’s Mine and St. Mary’s Cement claims) and Investment Canada Act reviews.

As Legal Director for the Ontario Ministry of Research & Innovation, Mr. Warner led Ontario’s legal team in creating the $250 million Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund, the $205 million Ontario Venture Capital Fund and establishing the Ontario Capital Growth Corporation.

As MEDT Legal Director, Mark advised on economic development, research and innovation grants and loans to corporations, including Chinese telecommunications firm, Huawei. Mark has been an adviser to the Governments of Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam on competition and trade policy and at the invitation of the U.S. Department of State lectured in five cities in Japan on international antitrust law and policy.

Mark Warner was featured in an article The Logic about Canada and the proposed new U.S. rules prohibiting venture capital and private equity firms from pumping more money into Chinese efforts to develop semiconductors and other microelectronics, quantum computers and certain artificial intelligence applications. (August 10, 2023) Mark is a Canadian and U.S. lawyer who has practiced in Toronto, Washington, DC and New York and has advised governments on trade and investment policy and negotiations and previously worked on trade and competition issues as counsel in the OECD Trade Directorate, and participated in the negotiations of the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment and represented the OECD at meetings of the WTO Working Groups on Trade and Competition Policies and Trade and Investment Policies. 

Mark was Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and led Ontario’s legal team for trade negotiations (including the Canada-EU Trade Agreement and the Canada-U.S. Agreement on Government Procurement), advised on trade disputes (including the Green Energy Act and softwood lumber) and various NAFTA Chapter 11 investor-state arbitration matters (including the Ambassador Bridge, Adam’s Mine and St. Mary’s Cement claims) and Investment Canada Act reviews.

As MEDT Legal Director, Mark advised on economic development, research and innovation grants and loans to corporations, including Chinese telecommunications firm, Huawei. Mark has been an adviser to the Governments of Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam on competition and trade policy and at the invitation of the U.S. Department of State lectured in five cities in Japan on international antitrust law and policy. As Assistant Director of the University of Baltimore’s Centre for International and Comparative Law, Mark hired a Chinese scholar to begin a research program on reforming anti-monopoly law in China, one of the first such efforts at the time. He is frequently interviewed in print, radio and television on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement.

Mark Warner participated in the Dalhousie University Schulich School of Law 2nd Viscount Bennett Roundtable on International Economic Law panel about the proposed changes to the Investment Canada Act to update the national security review process for foreign investments. (March 6, 2023) Mark is a Canadian and U.S. lawyer who has practiced in Toronto, Washington, DC and New York and has advised governments on trade and investment policy and negotiations and previously worked on trade and competition issues as counsel in the OECD Trade Directorate, and participated in the negotiations of the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment and represented the OECD at meetings of the WTO Working Groups on Trade and Competition Policies and Trade and Investment Policies. 

Mark was Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and led Ontario’s legal team for trade negotiations (including the Canada-EU Trade Agreement and the Canada-U.S. Agreement on Government Procurement), advised on trade disputes (including the Green Energy Act and softwood lumber) and various NAFTA Chapter 11 investor-state arbitration matters and Investment Canada Act reviews. As MEDT Legal Director, Mark advised on economic development, research and innovation grants and loans to corporations, including Chinese telecommunications firm, Huawei.

Mark provides international trade and investment law advice to natural resources clients on trade agreements, trade remedies, sanctions, export and import controls, anti-corruption, corporate social responsibility and compliance issues as a colleague at Pilot Law which provides comprehensive legal services for developing resource businesses in the mining, energy and renewables sectors.

Mark Warner was featured in Globe and Mail and Dow Jones Newswire (below) articles about the proposed changes to the Investment Canada Act to update the national security review process for foreign investments. (December 7, 2022) Mark is a Canadian and U.S. lawyer who has practiced in Toronto, Washington, DC and New York and has advised governments on trade and investment policy and negotiations and previously worked on trade and competition issues as counsel in the OECD Trade Directorate, and participated in the negotiations of the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment and represented the OECD at meetings of the WTO Working Groups on Trade and Competition Policies and Trade and Investment Policies. 

Mark was Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and led Ontario’s legal team for trade negotiations (including the Canada-EU Trade Agreement and the Canada-U.S. Agreement on Government Procurement), advised on trade disputes (including the Green Energy Act and softwood lumber) and various NAFTA Chapter 11 investor-state arbitration matters and Investment Canada Act reviews. As MEDT Legal Director, Mark advised on economic development, research and innovation grants and loans to corporations, including Chinese telecommunications firm, Huawei.

Mark provides international trade and investment law advice to natural resources clients on trade agreements, trade remedies, sanctions, export and import controls, anti-corruption, corporate social responsibility and compliance issues as a colleague at Pilot Law which provides comprehensive legal services for developing resource businesses in the mining, energy and renewables sectors.

Mark Warner was interviewed on iHeartRadio’s The Late Showgram with Jim Richards about the U.S. decision to negotiate a “waiver” from the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)for COVID19 vaccines and the evolving Canadian government response. (May 6th & 7th, 2021) Mr. Warner is a Canadian and U.S. lawyer who has practiced in Toronto, Washington, D.C., New York and Brussels and has advised governments on trade policy and trade negotiations and previously worked on trade and competition issues as counsel in the OECD Trade Directorate. At the OECD, Mark participated in the negotiations of the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment and represented the OECD at meetings of the WTO Working Groups on Trade and Competition Policies and Trade and Investment Policies.

Mr. Warner has assisted pharmaceutical clients in the global distribution of HIV / AIDS anti-retroviral drugs and the development of innovative patient access programs in the developing world, advised a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company and its French and South African subsidiaries in a cartel investigation involving 11 leading global Pharmaceutical companies in South Africa and advised a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company on competition law issues relating to the distribution of various nuclear medicine imaging agents in Canada. Mr. Warner was Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and advised Ontario on the negotiations of the Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA) including on IP, patent litigation and drug reimbursement issues and on economic development, research and innovation grants and loans to corporations, including leading global pharmaceutical companies for research, manufacture and clinical trial projects. As Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, Mr. Warner also led Ontario’s legal team in creating the $250 million Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund with an emphasis on life-sciences companies, drafted funding agreements, including for the Ontario Research Fund and Ontario Brain Institute, and advised on legal and corporate governance issues in the formation of Clinical Trials Ontario.

In addition, as MEDT Legal Director, Mark led the Ontario’s legal team for the insolvency / restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler in the difficult context of the 2008-2009 Recession.

[Listen to the May 6th Interview on the U.S. Decision from from 17:20]

[Listen to the May 7th Interview on the Canadian Response from from 23:36]

Mark Warner was invited to appear before the Canadian House of Commons’ Standing Committee on International Trade as part of its study of Canada’s trade and investment policy, and trade agreements in respect of how they may help or hinder the production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in Canada and across the world. (April 23, 2021) [Transcript] Mr. Warner is a Canadian and U.S. lawyer who has practiced in Toronto, Washington, D.C., New York and Brussels and has advised governments on trade policy and trade negotiations and previously worked on trade and competition issues as counsel in the OECD Trade Directorate. At the OECD, Mark participated in the negotiations of the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment and represented the OECD at meetings of the WTO Working Groups on Trade and Competition Policies and Trade and Investment Policies.

Mr. Warner has assisted pharmaceutical clients in the global distribution of HIV / AIDS anti-retroviral drugs and the development of innovative patient access programs in the developing world, advised a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company and its French and South African subsidiaries in a cartel investigation involving 11 leading global Pharmaceutical companies in South Africa and advised a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company on competition law issues relating to the distribution of various nuclear medicine imaging agents in Canada. Mr. Warner was Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and advised Ontario on the negotiations of the Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA) including on IP, patent litigation and drug reimbursement issues and on economic development, research and innovation grants and loans to corporations, including leading global pharmaceutical companies for research, manufacture and clinical trial projects. As Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, Mr. Warner also led Ontario’s legal team in creating the $250 million Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund with an emphasis on life-sciences companies, drafted funding agreements, including for the Ontario Research Fund and Ontario Brain Institute, and advised on legal and corporate governance issues in the formation of Clinical Trials Ontario.

In addition, as MEDT Legal Director, Mark led the Ontario’s legal team for the insolvency / restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler in the difficult context of the 2008-2009 Recession.

Mark has provided technical assistance / legislative drafting advice to senior government officials and international institutions relating to law & policy in Africa, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, South America and Central & Eastern Europe. His academic experience includes a tenure-track teaching position at the University of Baltimore School of Law and serving as Assistant Director of its Center of International & Comparative Law; part-time teaching positions at the University of Leiden Law School, the World Trade Institute, the International Institute for Management in Telecommunications, the Howard University Summer program at the University of the Western Cape (Cape Town), the International Law Institute African Centre for Legal Excellence and Addis Ababa University Faculty of Business and Economics and appointments as Visiting Fellow at Osgoode Hall Law School and Executive Fellow at the Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation at the University of Toronto.

Mark Warner appeared before the Canadian House of Commons’ Standing Committee on International Trade as part of its study of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanisms. (March 22, 2021) Mark’s opening statement is here along with responses to questions from Committee Vice-Chair Tracy Gray, M.P., Ben Lobb, M.P., Rachel Bendayan, M.P. and Randy Hoback, M.P. and Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, M.P.

Mark is a Canadian and U.S. lawyer who has practiced in Toronto, Washington, DC and New York and has advised governments on trade policy and trade negotiations and previously worked on trade and competition issues as counsel in the OECD Trade Directorate. At the OECD, Mark participated in the negotiations of the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment and represented the OECD at meetings of the WTO Working Groups on Trade and Competition Policies and Trade and Investment Policies.

Mark was Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and led Ontario’s legal team in the CETA negotiations, provided advice on the design of the Green Energy Act and related WTO dispute settlement proceedings, advised on various NAFTA Chapter 11 investor-state dispute arbitrations (including the Ambassador Bridge, Adam’s Mine and St. Mary’s Cement), and on the Canada-U.S. Agreement on Government Procurement.

Earlier in his career, Mark participated in an international arbitration relating to the expropriation of the assets of a U.S.-based oil company in Libya and related issues under applicable sanctions and foreign asset control rules. He is co-author of a leading Canadian trade law treatise, has also published numerous articles and has been invited to speak at conferences around the world.

Mark Warner was interviewed by CBC News about Canada’s decision to block the takeover of TMAC Resources Inc., owner of a Nunavut gold mine project, by a Chinese state owned enterprise Shandong Gold Mining Co. Ltd,, after an Investment Canada national security review. (December 22, 2020) Interestingly, the acquisition by Chinese tech giant Tencent of Leyou Technology (owner of London, Ontario-based video gaming studio Digital Extremes) which was conditioned on Investment Canada national security review appears to have closed successfully around the same time notwithstanding heightened scrutiny of Tencent and gaming investments. Mark is a Canadian and U.S. lawyer who has practiced in Toronto, Washington, DC and New York and has advised governments on trade and investment policy and negotiations and previously worked on trade and competition issues as counsel in the OECD Trade Directorate. Mark was Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and led Ontario’s legal team for trade negotiations (including the Canada-EU Trade Agreement and the Canada-U.S. Agreement on Government Procurement), advised on trade disputes (including the Green Energy Act and softwood lumber) and various NAFTA Chapter 11 investor-state arbitration matters and Investment Canada Act reviews. As MEDT Legal Director, Mark advised on economic development, research and innovation grants and loans to corporations, including Huawei. Mark has been an adviser to the Governments of Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam on competition and trade policy and at the invitation of the U.S. Department of State lectured in five cities in Japan on international antitrust law and policy. As Assistant Director of the University of Baltimore’s Centre for International and Comparative Law, Mark hired a Chinese scholar to begin a research program on reforming anti-monopoly law in China, one of the first such efforts at the time. He is frequently interviewed in print, radio and television on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement. 

Mark provides international trade and investment law advice to natural resources clients on trade agreements, trade remedies, sanctions, export and import controls, anti-corruption, corporate social responsibility and compliance issues as a colleague at Pilot Law which provides comprehensive legal services for developing resource businesses in the mining, energy and renewables sectors.

Mark Warner was interviewed quoted in the Canadian Bar Association National Magazine about the impact on Canada of President Trump’s decision to lift the ban against U.S. citizens filing lawsuits against foreign companies that use properties seized by Cuba’s government since the 1959 revolution. (April 30, 2019) The U.S. Congress passed the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act in 1996 (more commonly known as the Helms-Burton law) which included a section known as Title III that authorized compensation claims against foreign companies over their use of seized assets. The law allowed the president to temporarily waive Title III, and all four presidents since then have done so, until the Trump administration decided et Title III take effect. Mark, a Canadian and U.S. attorney, is a former Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and has worked on trade and competition issues as counsel in the OECD Trade Directorate. He advises on economic sanctions, foreign corrupt practices, foreign asset controls, anti-money laundering and export controls issues, including assisting various multinational firms in developing compliance programs in these areas. He is co-author of a leading Canadian trade law treatise, has also published numerous articles and has been invited to speak at conferences around the world.