An expert in law and finance, Professor Jonathan Chan joined Â鶹AV Law on 1 August, 2024. He served as a lecturer (assistant professor) at University College London (UCL) from 2021 to 2024, and was previously a departmental lecturer at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on corporate law and securities regulation. He holds a Juris Doctor (JD) from the University of Toronto and an MSc in Law & Finance and DPhil in Law from the University of Oxford. Prior to embarking in academia, he practiced in M&A and securities with a large law firm in Toronto.
How did you become interested in your field of research?
I distinctly remember thinking to myself, while working on a capital markets file at my former law firm in Toronto: why is this particular corporate governance rule, which has tremendous ripple effects in society, contained in the TSX (Toronto Stock Exchange) Company Manual, as opposed to legislation or some form of public regulation? My curiosity tends towards bigger picture “why?” questions involving corporations and financial markets because of their profound impact on society and the economy. After learning that more structural, system-wide legal questions are usually non-billable in the law firm context, I decided to pursue further graduate studies in law and finance in the UK.
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What’s a legal question that currently fascinates you?
A legal question that I am currently working on is: how do delisting rules influence the number of companies that join stock exchanges via initial public offerings (IPOs) and leave or delist from them? This is a pressing question because of the decline in the number of publicly traded companies in North America and Europe, and the importance of reversing this trend for the economy and society (e.g., pensions). Securities regulators globally tend to focus more on listing rules (to attract IPOs) than the effects of their delisting rules, but I think that the latter may hold more promise as an under-explored policy lever to stimulate more companies going public.
To begin to answer our question, a co-author and I have created an index to measure the difficulty of delisting in more than a dozen jurisdictions around the world. This allows for comparison between regulatory regimes in some countries that readily facilitate delisting (e.g., Canada or the UK) versus others that effectively prohibit delisting (e.g., France or the Netherlands). In a follow-up paper, we are empirically investigating how the restrictiveness of a jurisdiction’s delisting regulation affects the number of companies that go public (IPO) and go private (delist) in the jurisdiction.
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Qu’est-ce qui vous a incité à entreprendre une carrière universitaire?
C’est une histoire assez similaire à la façon dont je me suis intéressé à mon domaine de recherche, sauf pour le fait que j’ai eu des mentors qui ont suivi le même chemin et m’ont rassuré qu’une carrière universitaire ne manquerait pas de stimulation intellectuelle. Après quelques années dans le milieu universitaire, je me sens très reconnaissant d’avoir joint une profession qui me stimule constamment avec de nouvelles idées, qui me laisse partager la connaissance, et qui me permet de continuer d’apprendre des autres. À mon avis, le travail d’avocat consiste à créer de l’ordre et de la clarté dans le droit afin de faciliter une activité productive et des échanges qui enrichissent la société qui nous entoure. Être professeur est une carrière incroyable parce qu’on a la liberté de choisir à quel domaine du droit on aimerait ajouter de la structure et de la clarté (nous sommes nos propres clients) et aussi à inspirer et à être inspiré par les étudiants qui deviendront la prochaine génération de juristes.
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What’s your favourite book? What do you love about it?
It is too hard to narrow down to one! I am inspired by the depth of self-reflection when reading autobiographies like Augustine’s Confessions, Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton, or Katherine Rundell’s biography of John Donne. I find that books which allow me to glimpse into the thoughts of those who lived with resolve and purpose in the past often hold encouragement for the present, particularly as they help me live more intentionally and thoughtfully. I also enjoy novels that transport you to another place so absorbingly that you don’t want to leave, even when the stories told are full of heartbreak, like Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. I find it healthy to focus our gaze less on ourselves and to be immersed in others’ stories.
Qu’est-ce qui vous enthousiasme le plus Ă l’idĂ©e de vous joindre Ă Â鶹AV?
Je me réjouis de faire connaissance avec toute la communauté mcgilloise : étudiants, personnel, alumni, et professeurs. Je suis enthousiaste également à l’idée d’enseigner dans un contexte bijuridique et bilingue, et de voir comment ce cadre unique contribue aux discussions et aux idées en études juridiques. Montréal est une ville facile à adorer, pleine de beauté naturelle et culturelle. En particulier, notre famille a hâte de découvrir toutes les meilleures boulangeries de Montréal, et on est déjà impressionnés !
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