Bennett Jones
Mark Jewett has extensive legal experience in financial services and public law, and practises principally in these areas, providing strategic advice on financial regulation and public policy. Prior to joining Bennett Jones, Mark held senior positions in both the private and public sector.
Over the course of his public service career, he was General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of the Bank of Canada; Senior Assistant Deputy Minister and Counsel to the Department of Finance; and Senior Assistant Deputy Minister Public Law with the Department of Justice. He was also General Counsel, Constitutional and International Law at the Department of Justice; General Counsel, Department of National Revenue; Tax Counsel and General Director, Tax Policy & Legislation Branch, at the Department of Finance. He has held other senior positions with the Government of Canada, with the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, in New York, and with the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs of the European Commission in Brussels.
Mark has been Counsel to Canada on many Constitutional References and other cases before the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as before international and domestic arbitral tribunals. While at the Department of Finance was responsible for the implementation of federal financial institutions legislation, the General Anti-Avoidance Rule, the GST and the HST. In 2009 he acted as Secretary to the G-20 Working Group on Enhancing Sound Regulation and Strengthening Transparency in the Financial Sector, and has been a Special Advisor to the Justice and Finance Departments on Banking and Financial Institutions Law; Counsel to a large Canadian financial services group; a Member of the International Monetary Law Committee of the International Law Association (ILA); and of the ILA Sovereign Bankruptcy Working Group.
He has lectured at many universities, institutions and organizations, including Cambridge, Cornell, Harvard, Brookings, the OECD, the World Bank and the Bank for International Settlements, and has authored publications on international law, taxation, insolvency (financial institutions), central banking (governance) and sovereign debt restructuring. He is also currently a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).