Denise D. Bright

Partner

T: 403.298.4468 / E: brightd@bennettjones.com

Calgary

Denise is a senior corporate partner called in both British Columbia and Alberta whose practice is unique as it includes all forms of debt. She is able to utilize her diverse experience to create practical, but bespoke solutions to her client's finance challenges.

Well-known for being creative, practical and business-oriented, Denise acts as lead counsel and lead Canadian counsel on domestic and cross border complex financial transactions for a wide variety of clients operating in a diverse array of industries. Denise has a breadth of experience few have had the opportunity to advise on. She acts on acquisitions, reorganizations, securitizations, off balance sheet financings, notes/debentures/bonds, project finance, structured finance, ABL, DIP, bilateral and syndicated secured and unsecured bank facilities, multiple and silo lien facilities. Denise acts for sponsors, owners, borrowers, guarantors and lenders.

Denise is a member of the construction and infrastructure group where she specializes in security and project financial support.

Her significant project finance experience includes:

Projectco counsel and counsel to ATCO Electric Ltd., as part of the successful proponent team on behalf of the Alberta Powerline consortium, design, build, own, operate and finance of the Fort McMurray West 500 kV Transmission Project.
Borrower's counsel to the SPV and an owner in the project financing for the Brighton Beach Combined Cycle Power Project, the largest merchant power project financing at the time.
Borrower's counsel in the project financing of each of the Athabasca Oil Sands Cogeneration Projects (mine and upgrader cogeneration facilities).
Borrower's counsel in the project financing of seven independent power projects.
Finance counsel to the SPV and the owners in the project financing of the Cory Co-generation project, a 228-MW natural gas-fired cogeneration power plant.
Borrower's and owner's counsel in the financing of the Joffre Cogeneration Project (the first project financing of a partial merchant power plant in Canada).
Borrower's counsel on the financing of the Telus Spark Science Centre Calgary.
Borrower's counsel to a biofuel producer.
Represented offtaker/revenue participant in respect to a solar project financing.
Represented OPTrust and the SPV, in connection with the limited recourse financing of a partnership with six Alberta First Nations which in turn participated in the equity syndication and project financing of the $1.5-billion Cascade Power Project. This equity investment marks the first transaction supported by the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation (AIOC), who provided a loan guarantee supporting the credit and financing arrangements between ATB, OPTrust, Kineticor and the First Nations consortium which ultimately facilitated the equity participation by Indigenous communities in the Cascade project.

Denise is Lexpert ranked as an Alberta leading banking lawyer, consistently recommended in the area of Banking and Financial Institutions and repeatedly recommended in Project Finance. She is recognized for Banking and Finance Law by Best Lawyers and was the 2023 Calgary, Lawyer of the year in Banking and Finance Law. She has also been recognized in various Lexpert Special Editions, including Canada's Leading Energy Lawyers, Canada's Leading Infrastructure Lawyers and Canada's Leading Finance and M&A Lawyers. Denise is a frequent author of articles of interest to lenders and borrowers.

Denise has a CPA, CA and holds a CF designation from the Chartered Professional Accountants and as an associate in corporate finance at a large specialized boutique investment bank both of which augment her legal experience.

Denise is a member of the Law Society of Alberta, the Law Society of British Columbia, the Calgary Bar Association, Chartered Professional Accountants of Alberta and the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario. She is a long time member of the firm's opinions committee and is a member of a small subset of the opinions committee that deals with bespoke opinions. She participates in the Toronto opinions group (TOROG), chairs the Calgary opinions group and participates in the American Bar Association Business Law Section opinion committee and the American Bar Association Cross-Border Opinions Task Force. Denise was a member of the audit committee of the Law Society of Alberta for many years. She is a member of the Alberta Securities Commission financial advisory committee. Denise currently chairs the audit committee, is a member on the investment committee, is a director and the Treasurer of the Calgary Foundation, a billion dollar community foundation.