Like many entrepreneurs, the path that brought me to sole practice was anything but direct. I learned very early in my legal career that Bay St. wasn’t the life for me. After parting ways with one of the country’s largest firms, I set out to figure out what I wanted to be when I grow up. In the meantime, my friends kept coming to me for legal advice for their businesses. While helping these entrepreneurs start and run their companies, I realized that I was actually enjoying the work.

A light went on.

My practice grew organically from there. I’m focused on helping socially, environmentally, and ethically responsible small businesses to grow and thrive. I believe in doing business the right way, with old-fashioned business values. Personal service, being on-time and under budget, making the law understandable, and taking a genuine interest in my clients’ growth are my hallmarks. After all, your success is my success. I genuinely enjoy bringing good people together, and I’ve helped several clients to grow their networks, and build off of each other’s strengths.

I’m not your typical lawyer. I’m an entrepreneur myself – in my law practice, as an owner of the Last Straw Distillery – an award winning micro-distillery in Vaughan, and as a beginner permaculture farmer at Arcadia Permaculture – so I understand and empathize with the challenges that small businesses face. My job is to help you to manage your business and personal risks so that you can focus on what you do best – creating, building, and selling.

I studied law at the University of Ottawa, and am a member of the Law Society of Ontario. Before that, I graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Sociology from Laurentian University. I spent seventeen years as an infantry soldier and officer in the Canadian Army reserves, including a peacekeeping tour in Bosnia-Hercegovina in 2003. I served with the Grey & Simcoe Foresters, the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa, and was the third generation of my family to serve with the 48th Highlanders of Canada.

I’m deeply into food – both as a home cook, and more importantly as a grower of food. I’m a student of regenerative agriculture, and am putting permaculture into practice on our farm together with my partner Kayla. We grow as much of our own food as we can, and source the remainder from regenerative farmers in our community. Our bigger picture goal is to help build a resilient and abundant local economy around regenerative agriculture.

We and our two young boys split our time between our farm in the scenic Murray Hills north of Trenton, Ontario, and downtown Toronto.

I have volunteered with Global Medic and GlobalFire, providing front-line relief in Japan after the 2012 tsunami, in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan, and helping to train and equip firefighters in rural Nicaragua. I teach a course on starting and running a small law practice to upper year law students at the University of Ottawa. I read intensely, geek out over wine & whisky, play hockey and baseball, dive in warm tropical waters, and sometimes sleep.