North America

Gaming Law Firm of the Year

Canada Firm Profile

With their offices situated in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the law firm of Lazarus Charbonneau has been a fixture of the Canadian legal community for over forty years, more recently providing its services to the gaming industry, which include opinions on the legalities of gaming ventures, managing all aspects of commercial transactions, the drafting and negotiation of contracts, litigating disputes before the courts and ensuring compliance within various regulated jurisdictions where its online (“i-gaming”) and conventional (“land- based”) gaming clients are licensed.

The law firm of Lazarus Charbonneau thrives to be “internationally recognized as the pre-eminent gaming law firm in Canada,” as described by GamblingCompliance.com, due largely in part to Cookie and his team of gaming Attorneys, Edwin D. Monzon and Cory R. Levi, both of whom are widely known and highly regarded for their exceptional skills and experience in serving their clients to achieve their ultimate goals.

As its Senior Attorney with Lazarus Charbonneau, Morden “Cookie” Lazarus is the only Canadian gaming lawyer to have been appointed a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Association of Gaming Attorneys (IAGA), based in Las Vegas since September of 1993. In November of 2001, Cookie was appointed as General Counsel of IAGA and their

Notable Legal Work

The passion at Lazarus Charbonneau for gaming law is exemplified in the firm’s commitment to continually contribute to industry-related literature and discourse. For instance, in 2005, Cookie and his team drafted an article entitled “A compelling case for the Mohawk of Kahnawake to conduct, facilitate and regulate all forms of gambling on its lands and for the creation of a framework for Aboriginal gaming in Canada” for the Kahnwake Gaming Commission (“KGC”). In this piece, Cookie’s team articulated arguments favoring the constitutionally protected Aboriginal Right to regulate and facilitate gaming maintained by the Mohawks of Kahnawake, to such an extent that the KGC continues to rely on it as their legal source and entitlement permitting them to legally continue operating the largest hosting facility in the world for online gaming.

In January of 2010, the Quebec government announced that they would be entering the already established industry of online gaming.

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In an article entitled “Online Provincial Gambling Operators – Philosophically Sound, Mechanically Flawed”, Cookie and his team voiced their opinions on the government’s venture, expressing concern that instead of entering to compete against private companies with endless spending budgets, bottomless customer buckets and nearly a decade of experience, Canadian government, let alone Quebec, would be well advised to continue acting as a government, leave business to private enterprise and rather grant gaming licenses to online operators, thus regulating the online gaming activity that can in turn create greater revenue for its gaming jurisdiction.

Cookie and his team believe that clients of Lazarus Charbonneau are best served by lawyers who are passionate and informed about all aspects of the industry and remain committed to continual learning and development.

Morden Cookie Lazarus “

President from 2004 to 2005. He has also served as a member of the International Masters of Gaming Law (IMGL) and in September of 2004, he was appointed as Chair of the Gaming Law Committee of the American Bar Association. More recently, Cookie was asked to sit on the Advisory Board for the inaugural launch of iGaming North America held in Las Vegas in May of 2011.

Throughout his practice, Cookie has written extensively on the subject of gaming law. He is a frequent speaker at industry trade shows and conferences, and represents the interests of many of the leading gaming operators in both i-gaming and land-based gaming sectors. More recently, Cookie has been called upon by some of the industry’s leading CEO’s to mediate disputes at the highest level, while at all times material, maintaining the complete and utmost confidence and confidentiality of all parties involved in the process.

Areas of Expertise

Lazarus Charbonneau has served the interests of gaming entities and professionals from Canada, Antigua, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, New Jersey, Panama, Costa Rica, Europe and the Isle of Man. Despite the firm’s international status, Lazarus Charbonneau manages to preserve tight relationships with all of its clients, primarily because of Cookie’s resilient dedication to all of the firm’s clients, whether big or small. It is this guiding philosophy that has formed the fabric and culture of Lazarus Charbonneau.

Contact:

759 Square Victoria, Suite 200 Montreal, Quebec (Canada) H2Y 2J7

Tel: (514) 289-8600 Fax: (514) 289-8609

Email: cookie@lazaruscharbonneau.com www.lazaruscharbonneau.com

Lawyer Monthly Legal Awards 2012

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