Lazaridis Institute partners with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP as exclusive Canadian legal provider
Waterloo – The Lazaridis Institute for the Management of Technology Enterprises at Wilfrid Laurier University announced a partnership with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) a leading, national, full-service Canadian law firm.
BLG is Canada’s law firm with more than 700 lawyers, intellectual property agents and other professionals in five cities across Canada. The firm uses its experience in areas ranging from major litigation and financing to trademark and patent registration, to support Canadian tech companies as they grow. BLG will be the exclusive Canadian legal services sponsor for the Lazaridis Institute’s ScaleUp Program.
The mandate of the Lazaridis Institute is to support Canadian technology companies with the tools, knowledge and networks they need to scale rapidly into globally competitive enterprises. Companies in the institute’s ScaleUp Program work with global experts, like the legal advisors at BLG, to address the issues they are facing in real time.
“This relationship will provide companies in the ScaleUp Program access to Canada’s largest, most diverse group of lawyers,” said Kim Morouney, managing director of the Lazaridis Institute and professor of Executive Development in the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics at Laurier. “Their expertise in facilitating transactions for a broad range of national and international businesses is hugely valuable for the companies in our program.”
“We’re very excited to partner with the Lazaridis Institute to support high-growth Canadian companies,” said Frank Callaghan, BLG’s national group head of Corporate and Capital Markets. “The firm’s broad range of legal expertise uniquely positions us to assist companies in the ScaleUp Program.”
BLG is a strong supporter of the vibrant startup community in Canada via DRIVEN BY WOMENTM, a BLG initiative tailored to meet the needs of female-led and female-founded companies. This program supports female entrepreneurs through community-building events, value-added seminars and flexible fee arrangements. BLG’s support coincides perfectly with the Lazaridis Institute’s launch of its Women Founders Cohort in March 2019.
The Lazaridis Institute is currently recruiting the most promising Canadian tech companies with a woman founder, co-founder or CEO, for the fourth cohort of its ScaleUp Program. The program retains its focus on helping tech companies overcome the challenges of scaling, while addressing the specific issues faced by women leaders.
The program addresses constraints to growth with a customized approach, heavily oriented toward execution. After just one year, 100 per cent of the first cohort of 10 companies reported increased revenues; 90 per cent had launched a new product or service, increased exports, and received external financing.
Applications for the Women Founders Cohort close Jan. 11, 2019.
About the Lazaridis Institute
As part of the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University, the Lazaridis Institute is creating direct links between international research, best practices in global scaling, and curriculum to prepare the next generation of business leaders to face tomorrow’s challenges in the tech industry.
About Borden Ladner Gervais
As the largest full-service Canadian law firm, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) delivers the most comprehensive legal solutions and client services for domestic and international clients – across more practice areas and industry sectors – than any other Canadian firm. With over 700 lawyers, intellectual property agents and other professionals, BLG