BLG or Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Canada’s leading law firm, recently got candid about the acquisition of AUM Law Professional Corporation.

The actual amount of the deal is undisclosed.

The company states that the recent acquisition of the Canadian law firm involved in offering regulatory compliance services to the asset management sector will aid BLG in developing services to manage risk in a highly regulated environment.

Idea behind the acquisition

The brand new purchase deal gets AUM’s alternative legal services model to BLG’s extensive list of registrant clients as it responds to their requirement for a simplified approach that delivers faster, innovative, and enhanced compliance services.

Given the increasing complexity of securities regulations and compliance, BLG CEO and National Managing Partner John Murphy mentioned that the acquisition offers value to asset managers by providing them with an insightful support plan for regulating compliance services at inexpensive and fixed fee structures.

More about the acquisition

CEO Murphy on the acquisition states that AUM Law will help the company expand and automate its regulatory compliance offering to customers across Canada as a part of the BLG Beyond portfolio of alternative legal services.

Back in January 2019, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP got candid about the launch of BLG Beyond, a brand-new portfolio of services birthed out of a strategy for making available leasing services Nicole St-Louis built in-house at Loblaws Inc.’s real estate group.

What does the Beyond portfolio consist of?

The Beyond portfolio comes with five service centers divided into two categories.

Beyond’s Managed Services include Beyond eDiscovery, Beyond Lending, and Beyond Leasing. Its advisory services are developed on Beyond Consulting and Beyond IP Strategy. Additionally, the firm looks forward to adding more service areas after building and testing.

The experts’ take

BLG CEO and National Managing Partner John Murphy said, “The idea is to consolidate the deep expertise that we’re well known for in the investment management industry with Acumen’s approach to regulatory compliance.”

He added, “It really is a very strong and creative match to how we are approaching clients and how they are approaching clients.”

Murphy also expresses that AUM’s modules can meet various client needs, ranging from regulatory compliance to anti-money laundering compliance. “It’s a very robust sort of assistance that AUM is able to provide, depending on the client’s specific needs.”

He adds, “AUM has a systematic approach to dealing with standard regulatory reporting requirements that all clients can use, from smaller portfolio managers to the largest multinational firms.”

Kevin Cohen, President, AUM Law, said, “Since inception, we have developed strong client relationships while developing our model to proactively support our clients with managing risk and compliance in a rapidly changing environment.”

Additional information

With more than 60 years of experience and expertise, BLG operates with over 725 lawyers, intellectual property agents, and other professionals, working for the legal needs of businesses and institutions across Canada and beyond. The firm has worked from M&A and capital markets to financing, patent registration, disputes, and trademark.

Finally, Cohen states that AUM had realized to get to its next stage of growth, it would have to partner with a larger firm to get the distribution and exposure it wanted. “We talked to a number of firms, and when we met with BLG, we realized it was the perfect fit.”

“This is an opportunity to expand our platform across Canada and bring our alternative legal services model to new clients as part of BLG, attract the finest talent to our team, and leverage BLG’s investment in technology to further enhance the client experience. It’s an exciting moment for our firm, our people, and our clients.”