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Kevin McGuinness, a lawyer for nearly 30 years, epitomizes modern Canadian corporatecommercial law. He first came to public notice as the co-author of the Ontario Construction Lien Act - one of the few such works ever to become a best seller - which has influenced Canadian legislation ever since. Kevin wrote an analysis of that Act as his doctoral dissertation in law. He has also written leading texts on guarantees; Canadian corporate law; the world's largest published collection of banking and finance precedents; a similarly large collection of precedents on the sale and supply of goods; and, most recently, a legal textbook on the sale and supply of goods. Many of you will know him as the co-author of Municipal Procurement as well as the co-author of "Municipal Matters," a regular column in Summit.
Municipal Procurement and "Municipal Matters" were written in collaboration with Stephen Bauld, the publisher of Summit and Kevin's partner in a new business - Purchasing Consultants International Inc., specializing in public procurement issues. The following is an interview conducted by Summit staff.
Summit. How many books have you written?
KM. I don't really know. I lost count at 30. I have never been quite sure what to count. Does a four volume work count as one book or four?
Summit. Why did you write so many and how did Municipal Procurement come together?
KM. Most of the books are just polished versions of the practice notes that I put together while working on files I found that they were helpful to me, so I published them in the hope that they might be of some assistance to other lawyers and the judiciary. As for Municipal Procurement, Steve and I wrote that when we were getting our feet wet in the public procurement field. Both he and I had worked in purchasing in the private sector. He had the commercial background; I had the legal. What we lacked was a firm footing in the public side of things. We could see it was different, but we were not too...