Business and corporate law
Whether you're incorporating, negotiating contracts, closing a deal, protecting IP, or navigating a cross-border matter, Mayo Law's business lawyer Toronto team helps founders, SMEs, and growing companies handle the legal side without slowing down the business.
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An international business lawyer advises companies operating across borders on the legal layer of their cross-jurisdictional work — including contracts that span multiple legal systems, mergers and acquisitions involving foreign parties, intellectual property protection in multiple countries, corporate structuring to optimize tax and regulatory treatment, import and export compliance, foreign market entry, and disputes that span more than one jurisdiction. The role is part legal advisor, part strategic counsel, and part coordinator across local counsel in each relevant country.
Yes, and this is the core of our international business practice. Because Mayo Law is licensed in both Ontario and New York, US-Canada cross-border work happens inside one firm — corporate structuring, contracts, M&A, immigration coordination for relocated executives, real estate for US-based property holdings, tax planning coordination, and compliance programs across the two jurisdictions. Most clients come to us specifically because they want to avoid the duplicate-firm, two-time-zone coordination cost.
Establishing a US presence involves several layers: choosing the right entity type (typically a Delaware C-corp or LLC, sometimes a state-specific entity), state-of-registration analysis, EIN registration with the IRS, opening US bank accounts and payment infrastructure, structuring the parent-subsidiary relationship to optimize tax treatment (transfer pricing, treaty benefits, withholding), employment law compliance for US-based hires, immigration strategy for relocated executives, and ongoing corporate maintenance. Each layer has Canadian-side implications that should be planned together rather than sequentially.
IP protection is fundamentally jurisdiction-specific — a Canadian trademark does not protect you in the U.S. or in the EU. International IP strategy typically involves national or regional filings (CIPO in Canada, USPTO in the United States), use of international treaties like the Madrid Protocol for trademarks and the Patent Cooperation Treaty for patents, contractual protections in distribution and licensing agreements, and enforcement strategy when infringement is discovered. We help clients identify which countries warrant filings based on actual or planned commercial activity, and coordinate with foreign IP counsel where needed.
Cross-border M&A involves a buyer and target located in different countries — for example, a Canadian acquirer buying a US-based business, or vice versa. The added complexity comes from multi-jurisdictional regulatory approval (Investment Canada Act review on the Canadian side, CFIUS review for sensitive US sectors), foreign tax structuring of the deal, currency and FX considerations, employment law differences in transitioning employees, IP transfer mechanics, and post-closing integration across two corporate systems. We coordinate the legal side of these transactions for buyers and sellers.
Trade compliance covers a broad range of cross-border concerns — including USMCA rules of origin, harmonized tariff schedule classification, country-of-origin marking requirements, export controls (ITAR and EAR in the US, the Export and Import Permits Act in Canada), and sanctions compliance (OFAC, Canadian autonomous sanctions). The risk of getting this wrong includes import seizure, retroactive duties, and criminal liability for sanctions violations. We work with clients to build trade compliance programs and respond to specific shipments and audits.
Yes. International contracts involve specific drafting considerations that domestic agreements often don’t — choice of governing law, choice of forum or arbitration, language of the contract, currency of payment, force majeure provisions that account for cross-border events, IP licensing terms that work in multiple jurisdictions, and compliance with both parties’ local regulatory requirements. We draft and review distribution agreements, supply contracts, licensing agreements, joint venture agreements, and other cross-border commercial documents.
Cross-border work typically requires coordination across two firms — one in each country — with handoffs, duplicate intake, and gaps in strategy. Mayo Law operates on both sides of the border under the same firm: Mayo Law PC in Ontario and Joseph Mayo PLLC in New York. The Canadian and US legal pieces of a transaction or matter happen inside one team rather than across three firms, which reduces friction, cost, and the risk of strategic mismatches between counsel.
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