Jana Steele, Partner, Olser, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP

Jana Steele is a partner in Osler’s Pensions & Benefits Group. Jana has provided advice on the conversion and implementation of the innovative “Shared Risk Plan” pension model for several plans in the province of New Brunswick.  She has significant expertise and experience regarding shared risk and target benefit plans – and has written extensively on such plans. Jana also has extensive experience dealing with pensions and benefits in the context of corporate transactions. She is involved in providing advice with respect to both the establishment and the ongoing administration of pension plans. Jana advises on issues such as plan structure, governance, administration, compliance, trustee obligations, surplus matters, plan conversions, plan mergers, transfers and plan wind-ups.  Jana also has experience dealing with pensions and benefits issues arising in insolvencies and corporate restructurings.

Jana’s clients have included universities, non-profit entities, governments, multinational corporations and multi-employer pension plans. In addition, she has significant transaction experience involving numerous publicly traded entities. Such transactions routinely involve pension plans with employees in numerous Canadian jurisdictions.

Jana is a past chair of the pensions and benefits executive of the Ontario Bar Association. She has been a guest lecturer at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and Osgoode Hall Law school. Jana chaired the Advocacy and Government Relations Committee of the OBA pensions and benefits executive for two consecutive years and in that capacity co-chaired submissions to the Ontario Expert Commission on Pensions and the Ontario government. In 2009, Jana was appointed by the Financial Services Commission of Ontario as a member of the FSCO Legal Advisory Committee.