Robert Yalden is the inaugural holder of the Stephen Sigurdson Professorship in Corporate Law and Finance. Prior to joining Queen’s Law in 2018, Robert was a senior partner with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and an Adjunct Professor with McGill Law.

Robert’s publications and teaching span 30 years. He has focused particularly on the forces that shape competing perspectives (both domestically and internationally) on the roles and responsibilities of corporations, boards of directors and different stakeholders, and that in turn influence the institutional structures that countries put in place to oversee and foster the evolution of business law.

After clerking for Justice Bertha Wilson at the Supreme Court of Canada (1989-90), Robert was called to the Bar in Ontario (1991) and Quebec (1992). He joined Osler’s Toronto office in 1993, became a partner in 1998, and was part of the team that opened Osler’s Montreal office in 2001. Fluently bilingual, he served as a member of Osler's Executive Committee, as Co-Chair of Osler’s National Mergers and Acquisitions Group for over a decade and as the head of the Corporate Department in Osler’s Montreal office. Repeatedly recognized as one of Canada’s leading business lawyers during his 25 years in practice, Robert worked closely with senior management teams and boards of directors in shaping some of Canada’s most innovative and ground-breaking transactions.

Recent Professional Accomplishments:

  • Elected a Visiting Fellow of Wadham College, University of Oxford (2024-25) and a Senior Academic Visitor to the Commercial Law Centre, Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford (Michaelmas 2024)
  • Appointed (July, 2024) to the Working Group of Experts on the Project on Collaborative Legal Structures for Agricultural Enterprises, jointly developed by the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
  • 7th International Takeover Bid Regulators Conference (May 6-8, 2024): Lead Speaker - Panel on Dual Class Share Structures, and Panellist on Supreme Court of Canada’s BCE Decision on Directors’ Duties
  • Recipient of the Queen’s Law 2024 Stanley M. Corbett Award for Excellence in Teaching 
  • Panelist, Canadian Coalition for Good Governance Panel on “Stakeholder Capitalism in the Canadian Context”  May 4, 2023 (Replay of discussion click here)
  • Speaker, 6th Annual Commercial Law Symposium, October 21, 2022, and U.B.C. Allard Law Faculty Colloquium, March 23, 2023,  presenting article on "New Perspectives on Good Faith in Contractual Negotiation"  (subsequently featured on the Oxford Faculty of Law’s Business Law Blog (January 10, 2024))
  • Appointed Co-Editor in Chief of the Canadian Business Law Journal as of January 1, 2022
  • Awarded SSHRC Grant to explore Democratic legitimacy of rulemaking in Canadian securities law, (August 4, 2021)
  • Chair and Speaker, Roundtable on “Dual Class Share Structures: Recent Developments and Emerging Trends”, Queen’s Law, December 11, 2021  
  • Speaker, “Les sociétés unipersonnelles et l’instauration d’un régime simplifié au Québec”, presented at the Colloquium on the 10th Anniversary of the Quebec Business Corporations Act, May 20, 2021,  convened by the "Centre de droit des affaires et du commerce international", the "Centre d'études en droit économiques de l'Université Laval" and the "Chaire en gouvernance et droit des affaires de l'Université de Montréal"
     

Selected Publications:

For a full list of Professor Yalden's publications, please see his CV.

Articles:

Reports:

Books:

  • R. Yalden et al., Business Organizations: Practice, Theory and Emerging Challenges, 2nd Ed., Emond (2018) (with J. Sarra, P. Paton, M. Condon, M. Gillen, C. Liao, M. Deturbide, M. Khimji, B. Bryan and G. Campo).
  • R. Yalden et al., Business Organizations: Principles, Policies and Practice, Emond Montgomery (2008) (with J. Sarra, P. Paton, M. Gillen, R. Davis and M. Condon).
  • F. Buckley, M. Gillen & R. Yalden, Corporations: Principles and Policies, 3rd Ed., (1998) Emond Montgomery.

Book Reviews:

Recent Opinion, Editorial & Interviews: