Best Lawyers in Canada for Trusts and Estates
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Brittany Sud’s practice focuses on estates and trusts, including both planning and administrative matters, as well as taxation as it relates to those areas. Brittany has developed and implemented cohesive estate plans for clients, reflecting their financial objectives and both short and long-term goals. She advises high net worth individuals, entrepreneurs and professionals on probate planning, income tax deferral and minimization strategies, family business succession planning, disabil...
Chris, a Partner in the Business Law Group at Watson Goepel, has been recognized since 2025 Best Lawyers awards for his exceptional work in Trusts and Estates. His extensive practice includes all aspects of estate planning, such as probate and administration applications, wills, powers of attorney, representation agreements, and committee ship applications. Chris is also adept at establishing and managing various types of trusts, including alter ego trusts, joint spousal trusts, and disabilit...
Éric Forget primarily represents and advises business owners and taxation professionals. His experience includes negotiating commercial agreements, tax litigation and the reorganization and buying and selling of businesses. He has a master’s degree in taxation, which informs his exploration of the taxation and legal aspects of a business’s activities and adds an entrepreneurial flair to his practice as a business advisor. He also offers a variety of services in estate and w...
Executive Summary Jim is a member of the Non-Profit and Charities and the Tax and Estate Planning Groups. He has extensive experience advising clients in areas of personal tax, corporate tax, estate planning, wills and trusts, estate administration, charities and not-for-profit organizations, including planning for charitable donations. He assists clients in resolving complex disputes with tax authorities at both federal and provincial levels. On behalf of the CBA, Jim has prepared numerous s...
David Morgan Smith joined Rodney Hull, Q.C. and Ian Hull in their estate litigation counsel practice in September 1997. In August 1998, Rodney and Ian, together with David as associate, founded Hull & Hull. In January 2006, David became a partner of Hull & Hull LLP. David also maintains a mediation practice through Hull Estate Mediation Inc. David was an instructor at the Ontario Bar Admission Course (Estates and Trusts) from 1998 to 2005. He is a frequent guest lecturer for both Law ...
Eleanor is a partner at Carbert Waite and chair of the Trusts and Estates group. She is a recognized wills and estates lawyer who takes a forward-thinking approach to the practice of estate law. From personal estate planning to navigating high-conflict estate disputes, Eleanor is committed to empowering her clients during the legal process. Eleanor has obtained the Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) designation by STEP Canada, which demonstrates her advanced understanding of the trust and es...
With more than 30 years of knowledge and experience, Don provides guidance to family-owned businesses and high net worth individuals in Ottawa and the surrounding region. His areas of practice include corporate law, wills, trusts, and succession planning, with a primary focus on the creation of tax-effective structures for the accumulation and transfer of wealth. Clients appreciate his accessibility, judgment, quality of work, and proactive approach in addressing their needs. Don studied math...
Brian Cohen is a partner and lawyer in Gowling WLG’s global Private Client Services Group. Based in Toronto, he assists clients in the areas of estate planning, trusts and personal taxation, with a focus on advising high net worth individuals on succession planning alternatives. Brian also advises donors, charitable organizations, public and private foundations, and not-for-profit organizations regarding the tax implications of formation, registration, governance and planned giving stra...
Risa is a partner at Torkin Manes. She focuses her practice on estate planning, including the preparation of wills, powers of attorney and trusts, and estate administration. Risa advises clients on strategies to minimize income tax and Estate Administration Tax and attends to the structuring and implementation of the plan.Risa works closely with the firm’s corporate and tax lawyers and the clients’ advisors in advising business owners with respect to business succession planning. ...
David Stevens is partner in the business law department in the Gowling WLG Toronto office. David is a tax lawyer, focussing on corporate and international tax planning, personal and private company tax planning, trust taxation, charities and not-for-profits, and mining. David's clients include high net worth individuals and their families, regsitered charities, not-for-profit organizations, and trust companies. David advises clients on business succession planning, estate planning and estate ...
Jim is both a lawyer and a Chartered Professional Accountant, CA. Prior to attending law school, Jim qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Touche Ross (now, Deloitte), an international firm of Chartered Accountants in Montréal, Quebec. He began his legal career in Calgary in 1981 with Ballem McDill & MacInnes (now, Gowling WLG). Prior to joining Carbert Waite LLP in 2007 as Associated Counsel, Jim practiced tax and corporate law with the Calgary office of the national law firm, ...
Lynne O'Brien is a litigation lawyer based in Toronto. She has a broad commercial litigation and advisory practice in the areas of financial services, corporate governance, insolvency, securities regulation and fraud.Lynne also practises estate litigation, providing advice on a range of issues, including will challenges, dependent support and guardian applications, contested passing of accounts, estate administration and disputes involving trusts.She frequently conducts investigations for cli...
John Campbell practises taxation law, advising clients on domestic and international income tax issues, with a focus on advising Canadian clients with international interests and non-Canadian clients with Canadian interests. John has extensive experience with respect to the tax implications and structuring of corporate reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions, international tax planning and tax planning using trusts. He provides his clients with effective, practical tax advice based on his e...
Curtis is a partner at Carbert Waite LLP, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and Co-Chair of the firm’s Commercial Litigation Practice. Curtis has extensive experience in a wide variety of commercial litigation and arbitration matters, including international arbitration and litigation, defamation, and estate litigation. His clients include multinational corporations, energy companies, construction companies, family-run businesses, and individuals. He also acts for US and...
Andrea Luft is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Corporate and Commercial Litigation and Trusts and Estates. Andrea, who practices law in Edmonton, Alberta, has been recognized since 2026. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Andrea is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.