Jim Sinclair, Law’81, has a long track record in developing creative solutions to complex problems as a senior legal executive. Building on that trend, on Feb. 17 he started a new job – General Counsel of the Ontario Securities Commission.

In this role, he gives the OSC legal and strategic advice on a wide variety of issues, including policy and legislative reforms, the management of organizational risk, operational and transactional initiatives, government relations and Commission governance. Working closely with the Commission’s chair, he plays a key role in ensuring the OSC adheres to its statutory mandate. The team he leads is a main contributor to the development of the Co-operative Capital Markets Regulatory regime (CCMR).

“I very much look forward to my role at the OSC as it clearly complements and leverages much of what I have already accomplished,” says Sinclair. After beginning his career at Gowlings and its predecessor firms as a transactional lawyer, he became a pioneer in derivatives at the OSC. Following his first stint there, he went on to be a hedge fund and private equity lawyer at an investment management firm, where in addition to being Chief Legal Officer, he structured various investment vehicles, marketed alternative investments to institutional investors and acted as Chief Compliance Officer. Most recently, as Director of Legal Services for the Ontario Ministry of Finance, his all-encompassing practice included involvement in the 2010 Supreme Court Reference on the draft Canadian Securities Act and subsequent discussions on establishing a CCMR.

“I plan to use my experience to help the organization effectively transition to the CCMR, and to provide the Commission with the benefit of my understanding of derivatives, hedge funds and private equity to help them better understand an ever-evolving market,” he says. “I also look forward to continuing to build the Commission's good relationship with the Ministry of Finance.”

Sinclair credits Professors Michael Pickard and Mark Weisberg for providing him with an “inspirational” legal foundation. “They challenged me intellectually and their unique ways of presenting a problem, analyzing and explaining the legal issues very much resonated with me,” he says. “Their imaginative approaches helped me throughout my career, particularly in looking at things from a wide variety of perspectives, managing complexity, looking more clearly at difficult situations, simplifying them and, on a good day, to see around corners – and that is what practising law is really all about.”