The most unique, and some would say controversial, top ten deal list of any year: The Year of Rocks (January 2012, Lexpert).

Featuring every m&a lawyer in Canada–or so it begins to feel towards the end of the [process]. More than 70 of the invited 129 lawyers participated in the selection process, nominating and arguing for and against 84 candidate deals. This is the handful whose on-the-record quotes made it into the filed story:

Jeff Barnes, partner with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Sharon Geraghty, partner with Torys LLP, Kristian Knibutat, Canadian Deals Leader with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Terence Dobin, partner with Norton Rose Canada LLP, Clay Horner, partner with Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, fellow Oslerite Emmanuel Pressman, Cheryl Slusarchuk, partner with McCarthy Tetrault LLP in Vancouver, Craig Thorburn, a partner with Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP in Toronto as well as Blakes’ Vancouver partner Anne Stewart, Burnet Duckworth & Palmer LLP’s Grant Zawalsky, David LeFebvre, partner with the Calgary office of Gowling LaFleur Henderon LLP, Sander Grieve, partner with Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP, John Smith, partner with Lawson Lundell LLP, Stikeman Elliott’s Erik Richer La Fleche and Brian Pukier, Heenan Blaikie LLP’s Philippe Tremblay, Stephen Halperin, partner with Goodmans LLP, as well as a nod to Kevin Thomson and Lisa Damiani, partners with Davies Ward Phillips & Viberg LLP.

Favourite off-the-record quote:

“I’ve had lots of interesting deals that haven’t gotten notoriety because they haven’t closed, so why should this one be any different?” You know what deal he’s talking about.

Favourite really off-the-record quote:

I can see the attraction [of the TMX deal] to our friends on Bay Street.  TSX is crucial for them…  What I expect is as big a driver for the lobby is that so many of their key clients – pension funds, investment dealers (principally bank-owned) and others – came together in an unprecedented way, and no doubt involved just about every firm as a result.  …I suspect that in the end you will have to bow to the fact that Toronto still dominates our financial world, and if everyone there says TSX is #1, then it is!

Me? Bow to pressure from Bay Street? Ha.