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 sectors.
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 & Central Agencies 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 - Taxation; 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 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 for Canada before international and domestic arbitral tribunals, and on many constitutional References and other cases before the Supreme Court of Canada and provincial courts of appeal, from the Anti-Inflation Reference to the recent Securities References, most involving questions of federal-provincial jurisdiction. At the Department of Finance he was closely involved in implementing federal financial institutions legislation, the General Anti-Avoidance Rule, the Goods & Services Tax, the Harmonized Sales Tax, and many Budget Bills. In 2009, he acted as Secretary to the G-20 Working Group on Enhancing Sound Regulation and Strengthening Transparency in the Financial Sector. He has been a Special Advisor to the Justice and Finance Departments on Banking and Financial Institutions Law and is Counsel to a large Canadian financial services group. He is a member of the International Monetary Law Committee of the International Law Association, and also currently a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).
He has lectured at many universities, institutions and organizations, including Cambridge, Cornell, Harvard, the Brookings Institution, the OECD, the World Bank and the Bank for International Settlements, and has authored publications on international law (State Immunity, offshore mineral rights), taxation, insolvency (financial institutions), central banking (governance) and sovereign debt restructuring.
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