Sharagim Habibi

About Sharagim Habibi

Companies heading to the public markets, or already trading on them, are at the heart of Sharagim Habibi's work. A corporate and securities partner at Gowling WLG, Habibi splits time between the Calgary and Toronto offices and handles going-public deals, M&A, financings, governance and securities compliance for public and private businesses alike. Most clients are based in Calgary, Toronto or Vancouver, with others in key U.S. markets, so a lot of the work crosses the border.

Issuers on the TSX, the TSX Venture Exchange, the CSE and Cboe Canada (once NEO) are regular clients, and Habibi often advises on cross-listings and deals that touch U.S. exchanges like Nasdaq and the NYSE. IPOs, MJDS listings, reverse mergers, SPAC combinations and U.S.-led takeovers of Canadian issuers have all been part of it. Habibi was on the Gowling team for Payfare's IPO, which began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2021, led the team for Atlas Biotechnologies in the reverse take-over that created Atlas Global Brands, and worked for SOL Global when its SPAC, Andretti Acquisition Corp., combined with Zapata AI, whose shares started trading on Nasdaq in April 2024.

Not every file is a friendly deal. Habibi also runs a special situations and shareholder advocacy practice, including crisis communications, and handles cannabis work under the Cannabis Act alongside securities registration and anti-money laundering compliance.

Habibi earned a JD at Osgoode Hall Law School and was called to the bars of Alberta and Ontario in 2015, then joined Gowling WLG's partnership in Calgary in 2022. Away from deal work, Habibi used to teach securities law at the University of Calgary's Faculty of Law, speaks often at legal and industry conferences, and has served on administrative and regulatory tribunals. Habibi has also done pro bono work with the Innocence Project, the John Howard Society and Calgary Legal Guidance.