Christopher A. Brown
Pensions, Employment Benefits and Executive Compensation
Pensions, Employment Benefits and Executive Compensation are my areas of focus. I counsel clients on the impact of legal and regulatory requirements for pensions, employment benefits and executive and other deferred compensation plans. I help clients by providing practical, strategic guidance on governance, funding and structuring of these plans. I also advise my clients on the impacts of mergers and acquisitions or other transactions on their plans, and I work with my colleagues on litigation matters relating to such plans. I advise sponsors of both single and multi-employer plans, be they provincially or federally regulated. I also have extensive experience regarding legal issues impacting a wide variety of business trust structures. As the firm's Managing Partner, my priority is to ensure a positive experience for all of our clients.
Between October 2007 and November 2008, I was honoured to serve as Co-Chair of the Alberta-British Columbia Joint Expert Panel on Pension Standards, along with my current partner at Spectrum HR Law, Scott Sweatman. As part of this government-appointed industry panel, I worked with five of Alberta and B.C.'s leading experts in pensions and benefits to review pension legislation in the two provinces and make recommendations to both governments for fundamental reforms to the pension system. The impact of the recommendations and those of other pension law reform initiatives across the country will be profoundly felt by plan sponsors and members alike in the coming months and years. My colleagues at Spectrum HR Law and I will be able to bring the benefit of our involvement in the pension reform process to the advice we provide to our clients, guiding them through the changing requirements of the new regulatory regime.
I believe it is important to be involved in both professional and community organizations and to give back to the community in which we live. I am the President and a member of the National Board of Directors of the Association of Canadian Pension Management, and a past member of its Alberta Council. I also sat on the Stakeholder Task Force on Common Pension Standards for the Canadian Association of Pension Supervisory Authorities. I am a frequent speaker on topics related to pensions, benefits and executive compensation matters and for several years was a volunteer lecturer at the Alberta Bar Admission Course. In addition, I am involved as a youth basketball coach in Calgary.
Before we created Spectrum HR Law, I was a partner at a leading national law firm, heading the Pensions and Benefits practice in Calgary and Western Canada. I have been practicing law for 16 years. In 2012, I was honoured to be recognized again by The Best Lawyers in Canada in the specialty of Employee Benefit Plans.
