William Wu 

overview

Bill is an associate practicing in the Competition and Antitrust Group. His practice covers all areas of competition law, including merger reviews, supplementary information requests, competition litigation, internal investigations, and cartel defence. In addition, Bill advises clients on compliance issues related to federal and provincial marketing, advertising and consumer protection matters.

Bill joined McMillan as a summer student in 2013, and returned to complete his articles in 2015. Bill subsequently practiced competition law in another prominent Canadian national law firm before returning to McMillan in 2018. He received his J.D./M.A. Economics at the University of Toronto. He is an active member of the leadership of the Canadian Bar Association’s National Competition Law Section and has volunteered to assist with a variety of competition law and policy related matters in the American Bar Association’s Section of Antitrust Law. Bill is fluent in English and Mandarin Chinese.  

Representative Matters

• Acted for West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. in its agreement to acquire Norbord Inc. in an all-stock transaction valued at around $4 billion.
• Acting as Canadian counsel for Raytheon Company in its all-stock merger of equals with United Technologies Corporation
• Acted for Thoma Bravo in its acquisition of Aucerna and the negotiated divestiture of the oil and gas reserve software product, which is the first merger challenge since the appointment of the new Commissioner of Competition earlier in 2019
• Acted as Canadian counsel for ABB Ltd. in its US$2.6 billion acquisition of General Electric Industrial Solutions
• Acted for Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan in its US$36 billion merger of equals with Agrium Inc.
• Acted for Canexus Corporation in its C$900 million acquisition by Chemtrade Logistics Income Fund
• Acted for Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. in its C$3.9 billion acquisition by BCE Inc.
• Acted for Lowe’s Companies in its C$3.2 billion acquisition of Rona Inc.
• Acted for Hertz and Dollar Thrifty in the Competition Bureau investigation of alleged advertising practices
• Acted for Hudson’s Bay Company in the Competition Bureau investigation of alleged misleading advertising practices relating to mattresses

Presentations

Publications

News

Education

• University of British Columbia, B.A. Honours Economics - 2010
• University of Toronto Faculty of Law, Joint J.D./M.A. Economics - 2014

Year Of Call

• Called to the Ontario bar - 2015

Directorships and Professional Associations

• Canadian Bar Association – Competition Law Section – 2^nd Vice-Chair of the Criminal Matters Committee for 2021
• Law Society of Upper Canada
• Canadian Bar Association  (Chair Economics and Law Committee, Competition Law Section, 2017-present
• American Bar Association, Section of Antitrust Law
• Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers 
   

Media Mentions

• 'Canada's Ag ministers to launch probe into grocery stores fees on suppliers'. Financial Post, November 28, 2020.
• Opinion: New Competition Bureau guidelines deliver chilling message to businesses already feeling the heat. Article by Joshua Krane, James Musgrove and Bill Wu, The Globe and Mail, November 1, 2020.
• 'Gap in legislation': Stronger law needed to launch wage-fixing probe into grocers' behaviour, Financial Post, September 17, 2020