Phil Lord is a Partner at Vezno Capital. He advises a select number of clients, mainly investors in the Vezno Capital funds, on a variety of personal, commercial, and financial issues. 

 

Mr. Lord has extensive experience in negotiating and structuring major business and real estate transactions. He also has significant experience with the dental industry and the representation of high-net-worth individuals. Mr. Lord is one of a handful of professionals to have created or significantly altered legal structures and instruments to benefit his clients, notably investment fund structures and estate and holding company strategies for high-net-worth individuals. He has innovatively used real estate assets to reduce or eliminate the present tax burden of his clients.

 

Mr. Lord’s experience as a business leader offers him a  unique perspective as a strategic advisor. He is routinely asked to fully lead negotiations. Mr. Lord is known to be pragmatic, effective, and responsive. Although Mr. Lord is also dedicated to his managerial duties, he always finds time to advise key clients on key issues. More importantly, he has built a team on these same principles, which he directly supervises. 

 

Mr. Lord holds two law degrees from McGill University. He graduated from McGill on the dean’s honour list (top 10%) and with the highest standing in constitutional law. He also held a J.W. McConnell fellowship and sat on the board of a prominent law review. 

 

Mr. Lord is also highly committed to volunteering his time at various organisations, notably by helping survivors of domestic violence and by raising awareness about autism and mental health. In early 2018, he organised the Montreal March for Our Lives, which mobilized over 1,000 people.

 

Mr. Lord has been interviewed by Radio-Canada, CBC, TVA, Global, CTV, among other prominent news outlets.

 

Outside of the office, Mr. Lord is an experienced marathoner and traveler; having completed three marathons and travelled to 45 countries.

 

Representative Mandates

• Represented a dental clinic in its lease renewal, resulting in direct cost savings of 30%

• Represented Vezno Capital in its due diligence on a $200,000,000 commercial real estate asset

• Represented Vezno Capital in its due diligence on a $500,000,000 commercial real estate asset

• Represented a dental clinic in its valuation and bid processes

• Represented Vezno Capital in the creation of a unique structure to invest in commercial assets, as well as in various amendments to its limited partnership agreements

• Devised a unique structure for high-net-worth individuals to transfer wealth in a tax-neutral manner through the financed purchase and sale of real estate assets

• Assisted high-net-worth individuals in the alteration of their family trusts and holding companies, following changes in federal tax laws

• Assisted high-net-worth individuals in the creation and purchase of active, tax-efficient investment vehicles, following changes in the taxation of passive business income in holding companies

 

Conferences

• BLG Research Conference, 2018

• Paul-André Crépeau Centre for Private and Comparative Law Summer Research Seminar, 2018

 

Education

• LL.B. (McGill)

• B.C.L. (McGill)

 

Kindly note that Mr. Lord is not called to the Quebec Bar. Mr. Lord acts a strategic advisor and advises his clients on a variety of business, financial, and personal issues. He does not engage in regulated activities, such as financial planning. Pursuant to his training, he may provide legal information but not legal advice. Where necessary, Mr. Lord seamlessly works with financial planners and attorneys on his team to implement various strategies, at no additional cost to his clients.

 

We do not use hourly rates. We generally work on pre-negotiated yearly retainers. Our billing practices focus on the favourability of the results obtained for our clients and the efficiency with which matters are handled. We do not reward time spent on a matter or inefficiency. Clients come to us for our expertise and for our ability to create and implement unique solutions. We only accept mandates where we know we can provide unmatched value to our clients. In the few cases where we did not, we have chosen not to bill our clients.