Shannon K. Hayes, KC

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Shannon Hayes practices commercial litigation and arbitration and is the Leader of the Litigation & Dispute Resolution Group in the firm’s Calgary office. She has been practicing for more than 20 years in dispute resolution and has a broad range of experience on commercial and business dispute matters, working with companies in a wide range of industries, including energy, power, real estate, and technology.

Shannon has appeared as counsel before all levels of court in Alberta and acted in many private arbitrations. She is keen to take on neutral arbitration work.

Clients regularly request Shannon to act on complex contractual and business tort disputes. Shannon is known for creative and think outside-the-box solutions to achieve her client’s goals in the most practical way.

Shannon is a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, a member of the Western Canada Commercial Arbitration Society, the ICC Canada Arbitration Committee and the International Bar Association, and is recognised by Chambers, Best Lawyers in Canada, Benchmark Litigation, Legal 500, Lexology, and as a Thomson Reuters “Stand-out Lawyer”.

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Experience

Nature of Disputes

Broad litigation experience in commercial tort and contract claims.
Involvement in a wide variety of energy matters, including disputes on the duties of operators, accounting principles and industry contract interpretation.
Regular advisor on power and utility disputes and regulatory matters.
Counsel in arbitrations under Alberta's legislated Power Purchase Arrangements and in related court proceedings
Acted for clients in numerous domestic arbitrations of various commercial issues under the Alberta Arbitration Act.
Experience in international commercial arbitrations.

Representative Work

Counsel to a large energy company in a private arbitration dispute with its landlord over several millions of dollars in disputed operating costs.
Counsel to a pulp and paper mill in a private arbitration involving a claim for force majeure.
Counsel to a power plant owner on several force majeure disputes involving equipment failure and significant contract penalty amounts.
Counsel to a midstream facility owner involved in a significant private arbitration dispute with the co-owner over facility access and capacity, facility maintenance, and obligations to process third-party gas.
Counsel on a successful complex force majeure claim for a power plant owner facing almost $200 million in outage penalties and successfully defended an attempt to appeal, and then to set aside, the arbitration award.
Counsel to a real estate development company in a successful breach of contract claim in relation to a large downtown parcel resulting in more than $150 million in damages.
Counsel to a hydro dam owner in a claim dealing with hydraulic fracturing activity.
Counsel to an energy company on several break fee claims arising from a hostile corporate takeover.
Lead counsel on numerous matters involving the interpretation of energy industry agreements.
Lead counsel on numerous matters dealing with energy sector activity, accounting, marketing and development, royalty disputes and apportionment of liability and risk for events.
Lead counsel on numerous matters dealing with business tort claims of economic loss and inducing breach of contract.

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