Our Core Team Members
Ken Atlas
Ken Atlas contributes consulting and advisory services to Consilium Counsel based on over forty years of business law and corporate finance experience. Ken practised in the Montreal and Toronto offices of Heenan Blaikie LLP for 24 years, where he acted as Commercial Group leader, member of the Management Committee and national Financial Services Group leader, before departing in 2005. He then practised at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP for the balance of his law firm career, in both Montreal and Toronto, where he acted as national Financial Services Group leader for many years.
As a lawyer, Ken’s practice focused principally on corporate banking, including secured and unsecured, syndicated, and cross-border lending, as well as project finance. He also focused on the flip side, including corporate restructuring, bankruptcy, and insolvency, and was actively involved in numerous Canadian and cross-border insolvencies. Ken also practised in the venture capital area, and continues to work with small businesses and startups in the health and tech fields. Ken is best known as a lawyer who remains calm and finds solutions to difficult problems.
Ken taught Business Law at McGill University for 13 years, and Bankruptcy and Insolvency law for 34 years. He has served on numerous boards of directors and committees, both commercial and not-for-profit, most recently on the Quebec regional board of The Nature Conservancy of Canada.
Education. BCL and LLB from McGill University, 1980. Member of the Quebec Bar since 1981 and of the Law Society of Ontario from 1987 to 2022.
Jacques Demers
In contributing to Consilium Counsel, Jacques integrates direct experience in business law and investing.
Lawyer since 1977, his practice has comprised several pioneering corporate and project financings, as well as infrastructure-related investments, e.g. Canada’s first airport, courthouse, hospital and toll highway PPPs; Canada’s first diamond projects and first environmental agreements with resource developers, First Nations and relevant governmental authorities; infrastructure-related privatizations and PPPs both in Canada and in developing economies.
Investor, since 1987, (initial investor in DIY and wellness retail, airlines and airports, UK healthcare start-up, and others). He served, between 2008-15, as President & CEO of OMERS Strategic Investments where he managed a portfolio of $3.5B of investments and led a number of innovative, strategic investment initiatives, including the $12.6B Global Strategic Investment Alliance infrastructure fund (together with institutional investors from Japan and USA), OMERS Ventures program and Airports Worldwide (now in Vinci Airports). He co-founded AGAWA Partners in 2015 and continues to originate and manage investments. In May 2025, he became the Chairman of the newly formed, UK-headquartered group, 7+seven.
Boards: He serves as a member of corporate (asset management, corporate finance and manufacturing) and other boards, including as a member of the World Ocean Council board of directors, the York University Pension Fund Investment Committee and a private family foundation. Prior board experience: 2015-23 on York University’s Board of Governors (serving as Chair, Investment Committee and Pension Fund Board) and previous boards in the aviation (both air carrier and airport), banking, energy, engineering and retail sectors.
Formal Education: economics, history and philosophy at McGill University followed by law at Université Laval (LL.B.’76).
Member: Barreau du Québec (admitted 1977), Law Society of Ontario (admitted 1984), American Bar Association, International Bar Association.
Rod Seyffert
Rodney (Rod) Seyffert, a practising lawyer and consultant, supports the legal, consulting and advisory offerings of Consilium Counsel based on his more than forty years of experience practising in the areas of commercial real estate, securities, business law, corporate governance and holding management and Board positions.
Rod is an alumnus partner of Gowling WLG LLP (“Gowlings”) and its predecessor firm, Smith Lyons, retiring from the Firm upon reaching retirement age. Since then, he has practised as a sole practitioner and consultant except for two stints as, effectively, a locum with the legal department of a leading national grocery chain. He is also licensed as a non-practicing solicitor in England.
As a lawyer Rod’s experience has been diverse and includes commercial real estate (he led teams in support of the owner, developer or investment advisor of trophy projects such as Scotia Plaza, Brookfield Place, Rideau Centre and live theatres on Broadway and Chicago’s Loop), effective general counsel to a leading auto parts manufacturer both when it was a public company and subsequent to it being taken private by its U.S. parent, corporate finance on behalf of investment dealers and their banking industry owners, mergers and acquisitions, corporate and commercial law, project finance and public-private partnerships. His practice included advising owners and minority shareholders of private companies, boards, counsel and investment officers of public corporations, banks and other financial institutions, pension plans and their property subsidiaries, not-for-profit corporations, and private equity investors. Rod served a term on the national executive of Gowlings and served as managing partner and other management positions in the Toronto office of Gowlings and its predecessor law firm where he was responsible and accountable for the office’s financial and reputational success.
Board & Related Experience: Rod serves as a director of a vertically integrated energy firm focused on the distribution and sale of petroleum products and services for the trucking industry, the chair of the independent review committee for a mutual fund offering its units to the public and counsel and corporate secretary to an auto parts manufacturer with operations in Canada, Mexico and the U.S and a start-up quantum security firm. In the past he has served as director and for a term as chair of a financial institution and scholarship fund dealer with over $4 Billion in AUM and as a director of private corporations including a privatized international airport terminal, an airport duty free retail chain and a casual dining restaurant chain. Rod is now, and has been in the past, involved with a number of not-for-profit organizations including for some 40 plus years as a co-founder, director and chair of a three-tower residential care complex in central Toronto, as a director and for a term, chair of the Royal Canadian Military Institute and as a director of the umbrella membership organization of Ontario hospices and palliative care unit medical staff. As a director, he has, among other committee assignments, chaired audit, finance and investment committees. Rod has served as the Honorary Counsel for Air Cadets in Ontario for more than 20 years.
Rick Sutin
As a lawyer, Rick Sutin practiced corporate/securities and M&A law for over 40 years until retiring from full-time practice as a senior partner in the Toronto office of the global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright (previously Ogilvy Renault and Meighen Demers) in December 2018. Since that time he has continued a part-time practice as a sole practitioner, with a focus on early-stage technology businesses.
Throughout his full-time career, Rick represented issuers and underwriters on multiple IPO’s ( including representing the underwriters on the IPO of the Toronto Stock Exchange and on the first bond offering by Toronto General Hospital ). He also represented several special committees of directors of public companies, including board committees of Rogers Wireless in connection with several matters involving its parent, Rogers Communications, including the combination of the two.
In the latter part of his career at Norton Rose Fulbright, Rick focused on early-stage technology businesses, which he has continued on a part-time basis to the present time.
Board Experience. Rick served on several mid-market public company boards while in full-time practice, and currently sits on the board of JC Clark Ltd., a private client investment manager. He also serves on the Investment Committee for the United Jewish Welfare Fund Employee Pension Fund.
Education. BA ( Hons) from York University, 1972 and LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School, 1975
David Thring
David Thring contributes consulting and advisory services to Consilium Counsel based on over forty years of business law and corporate governance experience .
David was admitted to the Law Society of Ontario in 1981. He retired from the LSO in 2023. He was partner of Lang Michener LLP in Toronto from 1987 to 2011 when the firm merged with McMillan LLP, where he continued as a partner in Financial Services until retiring in 2022.
As a lawyer David’s experience has been diverse and includes corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions (domestic and international), corporate and commercial law, project finance and public-private partnerships. His practice included advising owners and minority shareholders of private companies, boards and general counsel of public corporations, banks (domestic and foreign) and other financial institutions in secured financings, Ontario government ministries, not-for-profit corporations, and private equity investors.
Board Experience: David is a former Chair of the board of directors of Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (the successor to Lyndhurst Spinal Cord Centre and now part of University Health Network) and served as a board trustee of the Hospitals of Ontario Pension Plan (now known as Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan). He has been a director of various private companies in multiple industries and has served as a director of a reporting issuer in the oil and gas sector.
Scope: David’s experience with business clients has included project management, strategic planning, restructurings, dispute resolution, proxy solicitations and advising on executive compensation and pensions.
Formal education: economics and political science at Western University (Hons BA ’76) followed by law at University of Toronto (LLB ’79).