Russell N. Watterson
Mr. Watterson began his legal career in Calgary, Alberta, Canada at the law firm of Bennett Jones, LLP where he focused on mergers and acquisitions, principally involving pipeline, and oil and gas firms, domestically and internationally. While at Bennett Jones, Russ assisted TransCanada Pipelines, through a secondment arrangement, during the divestiture of its pipeline assets in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil, including the Transportadora del Norte (TGN) Pipeline and the GasAndes Pipeline located in the Southern Cone area.
In 2001, following his tenure at Bennett Jones, Mr. Watterson continued his legal career in a general counsel role and as a principal for an associated group of real estate developers in Denver, Colorado. While in this role, Russ developed an expertise in land acquisitions and divestiture, tax structuring, venture formation, project finance, entitlement, and various other areas associated with real estate investment and development.
In 2008, Mr. Watterson became the General Counsel for EnQuest Energy Services Corp., a publicly listed oilfield services company with assets and operations in the United States and Canada. In this capacity, Russ assisted in facilitating the growth of the company from a private start-up to $150 million in annual revenues, culminating in a 2008 reverse takeover transaction resulting in a public listing.
When the assets of EnQuest were acquired by TFI International Inc. (TSX:TFII) (formerly TransForce, Inc.) in 2010, Russ became the US General Counsel for TFI International Inc., a publicly listed Canadian corporation with over $4 Billion in annual revenues. In this role, Russ assisted the company in its explosive growth in the United States, with specific responsibility over mergers and acquisitions, real estate acquisition, litigation management, employment matters, and all other domestic US legal matters. During his tenure at TFI, Russ assisted the company in over a dozen acquisitions involving transactions valued at over $300 MM to less than $10 MM.
Mr. Watterson opened Watterson Law in 2016 where he advises real estate investors and developers, homebuilders, entrepreneurs, oilfield services companies, and individuals and corporations across the United States and Canada.