Sharon E. White, K.C.

Biography

Sharon White, K.C., is a Partner at Richards Buell Sutton LLP and advises a diverse client base in matters of strategic and economic importance to them.

Sharon is the Chair of the firm’s Real Estate Development Group, and past Chair of the firm’s Securities and Corporate Finance Group.

In her law practice, Sharon advises a mix of clients, both public institutions and for profit corporations, including publicly traded companies and those who are thinking of going public. Matters include commercial real estate, business acquisitions, financing, and other business related matters. She also advises commercial clients on a variety of special projects undertaken by them. These projects have involved a number of parties in unique collaborations, each with their own unique challenges. Sharon is readily available and accessible to her clients to help them identify and manage their risks and negotiate and structure their transactions to a successful conclusion.  Given her broad range of experience, she is able to bring a strategic and innovative approach, and provide targeted tactics and solutions, to assist clients in achieving their goals and objectives.

Her practice involves a broad range of real estate and commercial matters. Her work focuses on the creation of sustainable neighbourhoods and communities: from acquisitions, structuring, long term leasing, financing and development of major multi-use development projects. Real estate projects include 99 year ground leases, strata properties, strata leaseholds, hotels, office and institutional uses.

Sharon is the past Chair of the Securities Section of the BC Branch of the Canadian Bar Association and also a former member of the Securities Advisory Council of the BC Securities Commission.  She is a former director of Partnerships BC, a company owned by the Province of BC which is responsible for bringing together ministries, agencies and the private sector to develop projects through public private partnerships.  Sharon was also a former director of Farm Credit Canada, a federal Crown Corporation with assets under management in excess of $28 billion.

Sharon was named a King’s Counsel in 2011. Under the King’s Counsel Act, the appointment is made by the Lieutenant Governor in Council, by letters patent under the Great Seal for those members of the Bar of British Columbia “learned in the law for the Province of British Columbia”.

She is also currently ranked as one of the top real estate lawyers in British Columbia by Chambers and Partners, an international authority on global legal rankings which has been referred to as “one of the legal industry’s most prestigious rankings” by The National Law Review.

Sharon has been recognized by Best Lawyers® in the area of Real Estate Law since 2018.

In 2014, she was named to the Power 50 list of the most influential figures in Vancouver published by Vancouver Magazine.  She was also selected to the Worldwide Who’s Who for Executives, Professionals and Entrepreneurs in 2014 and named a Top Female Executive, Professional and Entrepreneur.  In 2015, Sharon was named as one of The Most Influential Women in BC by BC Business Magazine.

Sharon provides legal services through Sharon E. White Law Corporation.

REPRESENTATIVE CLIENT WORK

• Acting for developer in the creation of a new master-planned beachside community based on agriculture urbanism, with approximately 950 homes including estate cottages, townhomes, cottages framing common courtyards, country flats, and row homes
• Acting for developer in the structuring, planning and development of a major master-planned mixed-use project of rental housing, strata properties, commercial areas with retail space and restaurants, and urban agriculture in the City of Surrey
• Acting for a developer in the creation of a new master-planned waterfront community with a planned 2,850 homes including single-family houses, townhomes, and apartments, along with commercial buildings with retail and restaurant spaces
• Acting for a party in obtaining a lease of the waterfront for a proposed new ferry service
• Acting for an institution in the restructuring of its interest in a particle accelerator facility located on its lands
• Institutional real estate – Long term ground leases for rental housing and leasehold strata property projects
• Institutional real estate – subdivision of land to transform a neighbourhood within the City of Vancouver
• Acting for developer of major real estate mixed-use project: hotel, retail, office, strata property
• Acting for borrowers in financings for income properties and strata property developments
• Acting for vendor in sale of an interest in a significant portfolio of seniors homes
• Merger of two real estate marketing companies
• Acting for proponent pursuant to an RFP for accommodation facilities of an oil sands project
• Advising party on decision making process with respect to a Metro Vancouver by-law
• Sale of a junior exploration mining company through a plan of arrangement to a major mining company with concurrent spin-out of a new publicly listed company
• Formation of capital pool companies through to qualifying transaction
• Going private transaction to an international technology company
• Reserve takeout to acquire international mineral interests with concurrent financings
• Creation of limited partnerships and concurrent offerings to acquire real estate, oil and gas, and investment interests

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

• Former President, BC Liberal Party
• Former First Vice-Chair and Director, Children’s & Women’s Health Centre of British Columbia
• Former Chair, Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children, Vancouver
• Former Director, BC Association of Child Development and Rehabilitation
• Former Member, Red Door Housing Society
• Former Past Member, BC Breast Cancer Foundation Awareness Day Committee

DIRECTORSHIPS

• Former Director, Partnerships BC, which provides project management to the Province of BC and is responsible for developing projects for public private partnerships
• Former Director, and Chair, Corporate Governance Committee, Farm Credit Canada, Canada’s largest provider of business and financial services to primary producers and agribusiness operators, with a portfolio in excess of $28 billion and over 100 offices located across Canada
• Former Director, FreshXtend Technologies Corp., a former TSX Venture Exchange listed company involved in development and commercialization of life extension technologies for the fresh produce and flower industries
• Former Chair, Securities Section, Canadian Bar Association, BC Branch
• Former Director and Secretary, Vancouver Enterprise Forum, which promotes emerging and developing technologies through monthly forums
• Former Officer, Mount Dakota Energy Corp., a TSX Venture Exchange listed company, involved in the development of oil and natural gas properties
• Former Director, Silent Witness Enterprises Ltd., a Toronto Stock Exchange listed company, involved in the research, design and manufacture of video – surveillance equipment

PUBLIC SERVICE

• Former Member, Public Service Commission, Province of British Columbia
• Former Member, Court of Revision, Court #1, School District #39, City of Vancouver

HONOURS AND AWARDS

Sharon was appointed a King’s Counsel in 2011.

Sharon is ranked as one of the top real estate lawyers in British Columbia by Chambers and Partners.

Sharon has been recognized by Best Lawyers® in the area of Real Estate Law for the 2018 to 2023 editions. Inclusion in this publication is based entirely on peer-review.