Welcome

 

After thirty-three years practising law in two of Canada’s largest law firms, Borden & Elliot in Toronto, now Borden, Ladner, Gervais LLP and McCarthy Tetrault LLP, I opted to leave the big firm environment in order to operate with a low overhead and offer the services of an experienced lawyer at a fair price. To that end, I built an office in my garden, fitted it out with modern equipment, furnished it with my well-worn partners’ desk and got down to business at the start of 2010.

 

I continue to work on commercial transactions although this often requires that I call upon the assistance of trusted legal and accounting colleagues in other firms, reliable freelance paralegals and a network of other professionals gathered over the years for services that I cannot (or choose not to) provide. For example, in the area of business law, I do not give tax, securities or employment advice. For some clients, I provide services to clients that are essentially similar to that of an in-house counsel, analyzing issues, marshalling appropriate outside counsel and reviewing their product.

 

I also continue to work in the area of First Nations governance and economic development. Having worked for governments, industry and First Nations and written and spoken extensively on aboriginal law topics, I have a uniquely balanced view of issues relating to obtaining certainty for developers and for the neighbours of resource developments and am well-equipped to play a role for government, industry or First Nations or an intermediary role between them.

 

As an articled student I was told by a Glaswegian solicitor who was then a forty-eight -year veteran of legal practice that, “There are only two kinds of lawyers, good ones and brave ones, and they are never the same person”. I have passed on that advice to many students and still try to live by it.

Published Papers

 

 

A Closer Look At “Legal” Reconciliation

Delivered at the Insight 8th Annual Western Canada Aboriginal Law Forum, May 2011

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Social Licence and Canadian Aboriginal Law

Delivered at the Insight 6th Annual Western Canada Aboriginal Law Forum, May 2010

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Peeling The Reconciliation Onion

The Advocate, Vol.62 Part 2, May 2010

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Judicial Deference and the Significance of the Supreme Court of Canada’s Decisions in Haida and Taku River

The Advocate, Vol. 64, June 2005

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Canadian Aboriginal Law: Creating Certainty in Resource Development

Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law, Vol 23 No 4, 2005

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