03 · LEGAL ADVISORY

Legal execution for tax-driven structures.

Corporate law, shareholders agreements, commercial contracts, and legal implementation for tax-driven structures.

WHAT WE DO

Legal services.

Cedar Group's legal practice does not operate in isolation — it works alongside our tax and valuation teams to implement the structures they design. When your reorganization needs a shareholders agreement, your estate freeze needs a trust deed, or your transaction needs a closing — we handle it at the same table.

Corporate Law

Mergers and acquisition transactions, including share or asset purchase transactions, non-compete agreements, partnership agreements, general security agreements, and share pledge agreements.

Tax Implementation

Legal execution of tax-planned structures — trust deeds, rollover agreements, butterfly transfer documents, and closing packages for reorganizations.

Corporate Filings

Articles of incorporation, articles of amendment, articles of amalgamation, articles of dissolution, multi-jurisdictional continuance, annual returns, extra-provincial registrations, and name changes across Canadian jurisdictions.

Corporate Record Maintenance

Preparing corporate resolutions of directors and shareholders, corporate by-laws, shareholder registers, and related annual resolutions.

Shareholders Agreements

Structuring the rights, restrictions, and exit provisions for business partners — including shotgun clauses, drag-along rights, and valuation mechanisms.

Legal Due Diligence

Reviewing corporate records, contracts, and regulatory compliance ahead of transactions — identifying risks before they become deal-breakers.

Wills & Estate Documents

Drafting wills, powers of attorney, and estate planning documents that work in concert with your tax plan.

Startup Seed Funding

Legal structuring for early-stage companies raising capital — share classes, subscription agreements, and founder vesting.

LED BY

HNHasan

Hasan Naqvi

Legal Principal

Barrister & Solicitor

Hasan leads Cedar Group's legal practice, bringing deep experience in corporate and commercial law to every engagement. He works hand-in-hand with the tax team to ensure that every legal document reflects the tax strategy behind it.

Read full bio →

CASE STUDIES

What recent Legal Advisory engagements look like.

See all case studies →

Professional Services

The Shareholders Agreement That Prevented a $3M Dispute

Three partners in a professional services firm had operated for twelve years without a shareholders agreement. When one partner decided to leave, the remaining two could not agree on the value of his shares. Without a valuation mechanism in the agreement — because there was no agreement — the departing partner hired his own valuator, the company hired theirs, and the two numbers were $2 million apart.

RESULT

Dispute settled without litigation. New shareholders agreement protects the remaining partners from a repeat scenario.

Franchise & Retail

The Estate Freeze That Needed 14 Legal Documents in 30 Days

A multi-location business owner approved a complex reorganization designed by our tax team — four butterfly transactions, ten estate freezes, a family trust, and three new incorporations. The legal implementation required articles of amendment for six corporations, a trust deed, bare trust agreements, director and shareholder resolutions, and share subscription agreements — fourteen legal documents in total, all needing to be executed within 30 days to meet the client's year-end deadline.

RESULT

All fourteen legal documents executed within the 30-day window. Tax plan implemented on schedule.

Manufacturing

The Business Sale That Almost Fell Apart Over the Purchase Agreement

A business owner was selling his manufacturing company to two buyers — his daughter and a long-time employee. The buyer's lawyer had drafted the share purchase agreement, but the tax structure required a complex pre-close reorganization. The purchase agreement did not reflect any of this. It was a standard template that assumed a simple share sale.

RESULT

Purchase agreement aligned with the tax reorganization. Deal closed cleanly. No post-closing surprises.

WHAT CLIENTS SAY

★★★★★GOOGLE

“The team is highly professional and very well coordinated. Sankalp is exceptionally strong in Canadian tax matters, and Hasan, the Legal Partner, has been a great source of support on legal and structuring — the coordination between tax and legal teams is seamless. Everything is handled under one roof.”

Vipul Vaidya

K Paul Architect Group

Have a situation like this?

Every engagement starts with a no-obligation 15-minute introductory call.

HOW IT WORKS

How a legal engagement works.

Whether you need standalone legal work — a commercial contract, a corporate filing, a will — or legal execution as part of a tax engagement, we provide a defined scope and fee estimate before any drafting begins.

DEFINED SCOPE

For standalone matters, we scope the work upfront: what documents you need, what they cost, and when they will be ready. For legal work tied to a tax engagement — a shareholders agreement for an estate freeze, a trust deed for a family trust, a closing package for a reorganization — the legal scope is defined by the tax strategy. You do not pay for legal work until the tax plan is approved.

DELIVERY

Because our legal and tax teams work from the same office, there is no referral, no separate retainer, and no lost context. The legal documents reflect the tax strategy from day one — which means nothing falls between firms.

Talk to a legal advisor.

Prefer to learn first? Tune into The Advisors Table podcast →