By the time Bianca Kratt, KC, enrolled in Osgoode’s Professional LLM in Financial Law, she had already spent nearly 20 years practicing commercial real estate and financing law. She loved the work and still does today. She enrolled to deepen her understanding of the broader financial and economic forces behind the transactions she was advising on.
“Commercial real estate is about much more than land,” she says. “Every transaction involves financing, risk allocation, investment decisions and market dynamics. I wanted to better understand those broader issues so that I could provide more strategic advice to my clients, not simply answer the legal questions they brought to me.”
She was also drawn to the program’s significant bankruptcy and insolvency component. Bianca wasn’t practicing in that area, but recognized that insolvency law has important implications for lenders, borrowers, and secured transactions. Understanding what happens when a business experiences financial distress, she says, has made her more thoughtful when structuring transactions and assessing risk from the outset. “The LLM challenged me to think differently and reinforced the importance of looking beyond the immediate transaction to understand the larger commercial context.”
The biggest impact, she says, has been on how she approaches problems. Before the LLM, she focused on identifying the legal issues and helping clients complete transactions efficiently. The program encouraged her to think more broadly about commercial objectives and the risks that could arise over the life of a project. “Today, I’m not just thinking about whether the documents accurately reflect the deal. I’m also asking whether the structure makes commercial sense, how the risks are being allocated and whether there are issues that could affect the parties months or even years down the road.” Complex transactions, she notes, often involve tax, insolvency, regulatory, and corporate issues too, and a stronger foundation across those areas helps her collaborate more effectively with colleagues at BLG. “Clients rarely come to us because they want a beautifully drafted agreement. They come to us because they want to achieve a business objective.”
That broader view has only become more relevant as commercial transactions have grown more complex. Clients today navigate a much wider regulatory environment than they did even a decade ago – anti-money laundering requirements, sanctions, privacy, environmental considerations, and Indigenous consultation on development projects, alongside insolvency issues that become especially pressing during periods of economic uncertainty. “You don’t necessarily become the expert in every one of those fields, but you need to understand how they intersect with your client’s objectives and know when to involve colleagues with specialized expertise.” That, she says, is one of the biggest lessons she took from the LLM: commercial lawyers cannot work in silos. “Clients expect business advisors, not just legal technicians.”
Bianca is a partner at BLG in Calgary and, since September 2025, National President of the Canadian Bar Association – the first BLG partner to hold the role in nearly 50 years. Balancing that leadership with a sophisticated transactional practice, she says, requires careful planning and a supportive team. She has never viewed leadership and practice as competing priorities: her practice keeps her connected to the day-to-day realities facing businesses, lenders, and developers, while her CBA role has connected her with lawyers, judges, and governments across the country on issues ranging from access to justice to artificial intelligence and lawyer well-being. She continued practising as an equity partner throughout her presidency, by design. “If you’re passionate about what you do, leadership isn’t something separate from your practice – it’s an extension of it.”
A member of the Huron-Wendat Nation, Bianca says her heritage has shaped how she approaches leadership, reinforcing the importance of listening first and building relationships. “Representation matters. When people see themselves reflected in the legal profession and in positions of leadership, it strengthens confidence in our institutions and encourages future generations to believe there is a place for them as well.”
Looking ahead, Bianca points to several forces reshaping commercial lending and development: higher borrowing costs pushing developers to structure transactions more creatively; growing regulatory complexity spanning environmental review, Indigenous engagement, and municipal planning; and artificial intelligence beginning to streamline due diligence, freeing lawyers to focus on strategy and negotiation. Above all, she sees a growing emphasis on collaboration. “Lawyers are no longer simply documenting transactions,” she says. “We are helping clients anticipate challenges, manage risk and build solutions that support successful projects over the long term.”
Wondering if the Professional LLM is right for you? Get information on course requirements, application dates, tuition and more!
Bianca Kratt, KC – Partner, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
Graduate of OsgoodePD’s Professional LLM in Financial Law (2022)