Overview
Caroline Descours is a partner in the Restructuring Group at Goodmans, which is consistently and widely recognized as Canada’s best and leading corporate restructuring practice.
Caroline’s practice focuses on corporate restructuring and commercial insolvency matters, including Canadian, transnational and cross-border matters. She has significant experience in corporate and insolvency restructurings, recapitalization transactions, acquisitions, financing transactions, and private equity and corporate matters. Her roles include acting as counsel for companies, secured and unsecured debtholders, purchasers, and court-appointed monitors and receivers, as well as advising boards of directors in respect of corporate and restructuring transactions and strategic alternatives. She also acts for private equity funds and investors in a broad range of transactions.
In 2020, Caroline was honoured as one of Lexpert’s Rising Stars: Leading Lawyers Under 40. She has also been recognized as “repeatedly recommended” by The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, as “highly regarded” by IFLR1000, and as a leading practitioner by Best Lawyers in Canada, Chambers Canada, and Chambers Global for restructuring and insolvency. She is also featured in the Lexpert Special Edition: Insolvency and Restructuring. Caroline is a member of the Insolvency Institute of Canada. She is also included in Euromoney’s Guide to the World’s Leading Women in Business Law.
Featured Work
Caroline’s representative work includes:
Corporate Recapitalization Transactions
- Company counsel in numerous corporate recapitalization transactions, including Concordia International Corp., Bellatrix Exploration Ltd., Sherritt International Corporation, Postmedia Network Canada Corp. and Millar Western Forest Products Ltd.
Commercial Insolvency Matters
- Debtor counsel in numerous commercial insolvency restructurings, including Cinram International Inc., Graceway Canada Company, SkyLink Aviation Inc., Plasco Energy Group, Nelson Education, Rubicon Minerals, Bellatrix Exploration Ltd., Yatsen Group of Companies, McEwan Enterprises and Yellow Corporation
- Debtholder counsel in numerous commercial insolvency restructurings, including Sino-Forest, Jaguar Mining, Mobilicity, Cash Store, Cineworld, and Tacora Resources
- Monitor, receiver and/or information officer counsel in numerous commercial insolvency restructurings, including Extreme Fitness, Tamerlane Ventures, Target Canada, Horsehead, FirstOnSite, Trade X and MAV Beauty
Awards & Recognition
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Chambers Canada Recognized, Restructuring/Insolvency 2025
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Best Lawyers in Canada Recognized, Insolvency and Financial Restructuring Law 2025
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Chambers Global Recognized, Restructuring/Insolvency 2024
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Chambers Canada Recognized, Restructuring/Insolvency 2024
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Lexpert Special Edition: Insolvency and Restructuring Canada's Leading Insolvency and Restructuring Lawyers 2024
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The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory Recognized, Insolvency & Financial Restructuring: Financial Restructuring 2024
Credentials
Credentials
- Western University, J.D., graduated with distinction
- Western University / Ivey Business School, H.B.A.
Professional Affiliations
- Law Society of Ontario
- Turnaround Management Association
Call to Bar
- Ontario
Insights
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Acquisition Finance
In-Depth: Acquisition and Leveraged Finance - Edition 10 - Canada
David Nadler, David Wiseman, Dan Dedic, Caroline Descours, Michael Royal, Cathy Costa-Faria and Zhiyao Chen have co-authored the Canada Chapter in Lexology's In-Depth: Acquisition and Leveraged… -
Banking and Financial Services
The Acquisition and Leveraged Finance Review 9th Edition - Canada Chapter
Jean Anderson, David Nadler, Carrie Smit, David Wiseman, Caroline Descours and Cathy Costa-Faria co-authored the Canada Chapter of The Law Reviews' Acquisition and Leveraged Finance Review 9th Edition… -
Banking and Financial Services
The Lending and Secured Finance Review 8th Edition - Canada Chapter
Jean Anderson, David Wiseman, David Nadler, Caroline Descours, Michael Royal, Kyle Gerow and Cathy Costa-Faria co-authored the Canada Chapter of The Law Reviews' Lending and Secured Finance Review 8th… -
Banking and Financial Services
The Acquisition and Leveraged Finance Review 8th Edition - Canada Chapter
Jean Anderson, David Nadler, Carrie Smit, David Wiseman, and Caroline Descours co-authored the Canada Chapter of The Law Reviews' Acquisition and Leveraged Finance Review 8th Edition. The publication… -
Banking and Financial Services
The Lending and Secured Finance Review 7th Edition - Canada Chapter
Jean Anderson, David Wiseman, David Nadler, Carrie Smit, Caroline Descours, Kyle Gerow and Cathy Costa-Faria co-authored the Canada Chapter of The Law Reviews' Lending and Secured Finance Review 7th… -
Banking and Financial Services
The Acquisition and Leveraged Finance Review 7th Edition - Canada Chapter
Jean Anderson, David Nadler, Carrie Smit, David Wiseman, and Caroline Descours co-authored the Canada Chapter of The Law Reviews' Acquisition and Leveraged Finance Review 7th Edition. The publication…
News & Events
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Restructuring
Goodmans Featured in the Inaugural Lexpert Special Edition: Insolvency and Restructuring 2024
We are delighted to announce 13 Goodmans LLP lawyers are recognized among Canada's experts in the areas of Insolvency and Restructuring in the inaugural Lexpert Special Edition: Insolvency and… -
Mergers and Acquisitions
Chambers and Partners Once Again Honours Goodmans with Top-Tier Recognition
We are delighted to announce Goodmans LLP continues to receive top-tier recognition from Chambers and Partners in the Chambers Canada 2025 Guide.Recognition from Chambers and Partners is based on… -
100+ Goodmans lawyers recognized in The Best Lawyers in Canada: 2025 Edition
We are delighted to share Goodmans has once again been recognized in the 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada with 105 lawyers featured across 43 practice areas.Congratulations to Andrew Brodkin…