Patrick Westaway is a business lawyer of more than twenty years’ experience who has represented clients in such technology industries as animated feature film production, online gaming, telecommunications and virtual reality content distribution. Patrick combines tax expertise in cross-border enterprise and investment structuring with experience as a start-up founder and in-house legal counsel.

Patrick began his career at the Toronto office of Deloitte & Touche where he practised cross-border enterprise and investment tax structuring for multinationals before moving into the practice of law, ultimately joining one of Canada’s leading law firms, Lang Michener LLP (now McMillan LLP). While continuing to develop expertise in complex tax structuring, Patrick concurrently developed considerable experience in such niche areas as the procurement and installation of computer hardware, software licensing and the negotiation of related IT-consulting agreements. Along the way, he also played a key role in funding a manufacturer of fully electric cars and an innovative financial services provider by means of reverse take-overs using capital pool companies.

While maintaining his law practice, Patrick co-founded a company which provided all pre-production services for an IMAX feature film commissioned by NASA (featuring a voice cast drawn from the world’s two most renowned sci-fi franchises) as well as pre-production and business services for a wide-release feature film. And, in 2009, Patrick was seconded to serve as in-house counsel to Wind Mobile (now Freedom Mobile) in which role Patrick negotiated all manner of agreements involved in the start-up of a national telecom company.

In 2011, Patrick re-entered private practice and, in 2014, relocated to Waterloo, Ontario where he continues to look for opportunities to support its entrepreneurs and other technology innovators.

Representative Transactions

• Provided all corporate and tax services for the structuring, financing and establishment of a Canadian investment fund with a mandate to acquire and manage technology companies in various foreign jurisdictions;
• Provided all corporate, tax, entertainment and contractual services for the structuring, financing and operation of virtual reality content production and distribution operations in Canada, the United States and Australia as well as for an associated Hong Kong-based investment fund;
• Co-founded and managed all legal and business affairs for a feature animation pre-production studio operating in Canada and Taiwan;
• Advised a U.S. VFX studio based in China in connection with its due diligence to establish a Canadian operation to work on a well known blockbuster feature film franchise;
• Advised on all Canadian tax issues arising in respect of the sale of a group of private Canadian corporations to a public non-resident multi-national; including, structuring and implementing the tax-effective exchange and cancellation of employee stock options;
• Structured the purchase, development and sale of numerous German-owned wind and solar projects in Canada; and
• Provided all corporate and tax services in connection with the sale to a UK public company of Canadian private company shares held by both Canadian residents and a foreign trust.