Andrew McFarlane is a partner in the Financial Services group and Lead – Aircraft Finance, with a broad-based financial services and corporate commercial practice. He has a special focus on aircraft and equipment financing and leasing, secured lending as well as infrastructure and project financing. He also has significant experience in workouts, debtor-in-possession loans, bankruptcies, CCAA restructurings and CBCA arrangements. Andrew delivers superior results to clients through high-quality legal work, a high standard of service, excellent organizational skills and a collaborative approach with both clients and opposing counsel. He strives to understand the business objectives of his clients and focuses on getting the deal done for them in the timeliest, most effective and cost-efficient manner with a view to helping his clients build and strengthen their own relationships with their customers.

Andrew is recognized nationally and internationally as a leading lawyer in the area of aviation finance. ‎He ‎has acted for a wide range of aviation clients, including aircraft lessors, operators, financial institutions, ‎‎corporate aircraft owners and investors. Andrew’s experience extends to structuring a broad spectrum of ‎‎domestic and cross-border aircraft leases, conditional sales, secured loans, purchases and sales and ‎‎ownership structures.‎

Andrew also has extensive experience advising both lenders and borrowers on secured and unsecured credit facilities, including syndicated loans, asset-based loans and other types of lending products. Complementing his finance practice, Andrew has significant experience in work-outs, debtor-in-possession ‎‎loans, bankruptcies, CCAA restructurings and CBCA arrangements and has acted for bankruptcy trustees, ‎‎debtors-in-possession, bondholders and lenders in connection with a number of major Canadian ‎insolvencies ‎and restructurings over the past twenty-five years.‎

Andrew also has in-depth experience in the area of project finance and public-private partnership (P3) ‎transactions, ‎having acted for lenders, equity sponsors and design-build contractors in a range of sectors ‎including ‎transportation, social infrastructure, defence and electrical transmission. Andrew’s P3 experience ‎also extends ‎to advising equity participants on sales of their interests in project companies and refinancing ‎of existing ‎project debt, advising lenders in connection with corporate reorganizations of upstream holding ‎structures and ‎assisting project companies in obtaining lender consents with respect to project variations.‎

Andrew is an active member of the American Bar Association’s Aircraft Financing Subcommittee and the Canadian Bar Association’s National Air and Space Law Section. He is also a member of the Ontario Bar Association’s Personal Property Security Law Committee and the Toronto Opinion Group.



News


Rankings & Recognitions

  • Recognized by Chambers Canada (2025) as a leading lawyer in the area of Transportation: Aviation (Finance)
  • Recognized by Best Lawyers in Canada (2025) as a leading lawyer in the areas of Aviation Law, Project Finance Law, and Transportation Law
  • Recognized in the 2024 Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory as a Consistently Recommended Lawyer in the area of Aviation (Regulation & Liability) and a Repeatedly Recommended Lawyer in the area of Asset Equipment Finance/Leasing
  • Recognized by Chambers Canada (2024) as a leading lawyer in the area of Transportation: Aviation: Finance
  • Recognized by Best Lawyers in Canada (2024) as a leading lawyer in the area of Aviation Law, Project Finance Law and Transportation Law
  • Listed in Who’s Who Legal: Canada 2023 as a leader in Transportation: Aviation
  • Chambers Canada (Transportation: Aviation Finance), 2018-2023
  • The Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory (Asset Equipment Finance/Leasing) 2014–2023, (Aviation: Regulation & Liability) 2017–2023, (Banking & Financial Institutions) 2017–2022, (Project Finance, 2022)
  • The Legal 500 Canada (Transport: Aviation), 2017-2023 (Leading Lawyer)
  • Best Lawyers in Canada (Aviation Law), 2018-2023
  • Who’s Who Legal: Transport (Aviation Finance), 2017-2023
  • Who’s Who Legal: Canada (Aviation), 2014–2022
  • Expert Guides: Guide to the World’s Leading Aviation Lawyers, 2017-2022
  • Listed as Acritas Star™ Lawyer, 2018-2020
  • Lexology Client Choice Award, Aviation (Ontario), 2018
  • Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Rating of “AV Preeminent”

Community Involvement

Past Chair of the Board of Trustees of Trinity College, University of Toronto


Directorships & Affiliations

  • Canadian Bar Association
  • American Bar Association
  • Ontario Bar Association
  • Ontario Bar Association’s ‎‎Personal Property Security Law Committee
  • Toronto Opinion Group (TOROG)

Education & Admissions

1999
Called to the Ontario bar
1997
JDUniversity of Toronto
1995
M.A.University of Toronto
1993
B.A. (High Distinction)University of Toronto (Trinity College)