Sylvain Vauclair heads the insolvency and restructuring group of Woods LLP. Sylvain is an insolvency specialist with over 35 years of experience representing the full spectrum of stakeholders, including debtors, creditor committees, individual and ad hoc committees of bondholders, boards, CCAA monitors and bankruptcy trustees. In recent years, his practice has focused on restructuring matters. As a lead insolvency, restructuring and bankruptcy lawyer in Canada, Sylvain has been at the forefront of some of the most prominent cases. A hallmark of his work is his capability to grasp the nuances of the real-time litigation process in the most complex cases.
Sylvain has been listed in the Lexpert®/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 in Canada, the Lexpert® Guide to the Leading US/ Canada Cross-Border Litigation Lawyers in Canada and Chambers Global and is currently listed in the Canadian Lexpert® Directory, the insolvency section of the International Who’s Who Legal, Best Lawyers in Canada, Chambers Canada and Legal 500. He is one of the few selected members of the Insolvency Institute of Canada and lectures regularly on insolvency and restructuring issues.
Representative cases include:
- Acted as Quebec counsel to the ad hoc committee of Nemaska Lithium Inc. bond-holders owed US$350 million in the context of Nemaska’s CBCA and CCAA proceedings.
- Acted as counsel to the court-appointed monitor in the cross-border CCAA and Chapter 11 restructuring proceedings initiated by the MM&A railway company following the catastrophic train derailment in Lac-Mégantic. Claims by thousands of creditors totaled in excess of $1 billion. Claims were settled through a settlement fund of nearly $500 million created through a Plan of arrangement and third-party releases.
- Acted for Chrysler Canada Inc. (now FCA Canada Inc.) in connection with its $447 million audit negligence claim against Coopers & Lybrand in in the context of the bankruptcy proceedings of Castor Holdings Ltd. And the subsequent CCAA proceedings of Coopers & Lybrand.
Updated April 2024
