Lawyer Profile
John J. Ciardullo
Toronto, Ontario
Overview
John Ciardullo is the Managing Partner of the Toronto office and a member of the Firm's Partnership Board and Executive Committee. In the Toronto office, he chairs the Management Committee, is a member of the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee, and was previously the Head of the Corporate Department and of the Public Mergers & Acquisitions and Capital Markets Groups.
John has extensive expertise in a broad range of corporate transactions and has led some of Canada's most noteworthy domestic and cross-border M&A mandates. In the last 12 months alone, John has led multiple high-profile transactions, including Sunoco's $13B acquisition of Parkland Corporation, the $12B sale of CI Financial to Mubadala Capital, BHP Group Limited's $4.5B acquisition of Filo Corp. and related joint venture with Lundin Mining, Stelco's $3.4B sale to Cleveland-Cliffs, Travelers Companies' $3.3B sale of its Canadian P&C insurance business to Definity Corp., and United Parcel Services' (UPS) $2.2B acquisition of Andlauer Healthcare Group.
John's stand-out M&A expertise is recognized by the legal industry's most reliable and trusted sources. John was the only Canadian lawyer named among the "Top 50 Global M&A Lawyers" by Global M&A Network , which identifies highly respected, successful and innovative lawyers from worldwide deal-making communities. Chambers and Partners , a leading independent legal research firm, notes that clients describe John as "an amazing client-facing counsel well-versed in all major transactions", "a standout lawyer and relationship manager, with legal skills second to none and top-notch negotiation skills," and "a terrific lawyer that is pragmatic, has great relationships with clients and is incredibly practical". Clients note that John is "overall excellent" with a "combination of technical skills, strategic thinking and experience that place him at the top of his peer group". Chambers further describes John as "unbelievably driven and super hard-working," and notes that "he provides not just pure legal advice but strategic and commercial advice as well," is "practical and solutions-oriented," and is recognized by clients as a "brilliant, creative, likeable and a true businessman's lawyer," "a true deal maker" and "a trusted adviser." The Legal 500 also characterized John as a "strategic counsel steeped in business sense."
From 2008 to 2010, John was a member of the Securities Advisory Committee to the Ontario Securities Commission, a body that provides advice to the Commission and its staff on a variety of matters including policy initiatives, capital markets trends and legal, regulatory and market implications of Commission rules, policies, operations and administration.
Practice Areas
Bar Information
Called to the bar: 1997 (ON)