Practice Areas: Wills and Estates

David E. Gruber

Alisha Esmail Bhanji, Q.Arb., Q.Med

Dr. Srikant Parthasarathy

Julie Hopkins

John Michael Orr

Michael F. Welsh

Professional Experience

I am a lawyer with 40 years of litigation experience, having been lead counsel on over a thousand hearings, trials and appeals in all levels of court in this province and in the Supreme Court of Canada, including some 50 formally reported decisions and well over 100 posted on CanLii. Through my professional experience and as a member of professional, wine industry and community organizations I am well-versed in in problem and dispute resolution and in understanding and working with people in difficult situations toward a positive outcome. An effective communicator, I have the ability to assess problems expeditiously and to relate to people from all walks of life. As one who sees life as an opportunity to learn, I never let my mind get stale, but rather seek to educate myself in a wide range of areas. I have taken that learning and passed it on writing, including articles in the Advocate, Bartalk and Canadian Arbitration and Mediation Journal magazines, as author of the Advocate Wine Column and serving as a faculty member in many continuing legal educational conferences and seminars. I have also authored a number of decisions for the BCCRT and Law Society.
Dispute Resolution Experience and Training

  • Family Law Arbitration LAW SOCIETY OF BC (July, 2013)
  • Family Law Mediation LAW SOCIETY OF BC (August, 2013)
  • Arbitration Part II – Conduct of Arbitration Proceedings, ADR Institute
    of BC (October 2012) – 95% grade
  • Arbitration Part III – Arbitration Workshop, ADR Institute of BC
    (November 2011) – 98% grade
  • Advanced Civil Mediation, CLEBC (February 1997)
  • Family Law Mediation, CLEBC (July 1997)
  • Numerous other workshops, seminars, conferences, symposiums as presenter
    and participant.
Professional and Other Activities

  • 2017 – Appointed Queen’s Counsel, province of British Columbia
  • 2016-2017 – President, Canadian Bar Association, BC Branch
  • 2015-2016 – President, ADR Institute of British Columbia
  • 2018-present – Bencher, Law Society of British Columbia
  • 2015 – Chartered Mediator (C.Med.) ADR Institute of Canada
  • 2013 – Certified family Mediator (C.Fam Arb.) ADR Institute of British Columbia
  • 2020 – Chartered Arbitrator (C.Arb.) ADR Institute of Canada
  • 2011 – Fellow (FCIArb.) International Institute of Arbitrators – London, UK
    Certified family mediator and family law arbitrator: Law Society of BC
Academic Qualifications

B.A. (cum laude in philosophy): Cornell University, 1975
LL.B. University of British Columbia, 1980

Marvin R.V. Storrow

Professional Experience

Mr. Storrow is a senior litigation partner involved in arbitration, mediation, civil and criminal law. His expertise includes general commercial litigation, personal injury, native claims, general commercial litigation, criminal law, environmental law, “White Collar Crime”, anti-dumping and international trade cases

His practice has involved numerous appearances at all levels of the provincial and federal court systems, including numerous appearances before the Supreme Court of Canada. Mr. Storrow was counsel on the leading First Nations cases of Guerin v. Her Majesty the Queen, R. v. Sparrow, Roberts v. The Queen, and R. v. Gladstone at all court levels along with a number of aboriginal rights and other leading Canadian cases including Apsassin, DelgamuukwandErmineskin v. Her Majesty the Queen. Three of his cases have been ranked by Canadian legal scholars as among the top 15 most important cases in Canadian legal history.

Mr. Storrow has conducted several trials at all Court levels in the Northwest Territories and in every province of Canada except Prince Edward Island.

Mr. Storrow’s cases appear approximately 500 times in various Canadian legal reports.

Mr. Storrow is recognized annually in The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory as one of the leading lawyers in Canada.
Dispute Resolution Experience and Training

Mr. Storrow has been involved with a wide variety of litigious matters and alternative dispute resolution matters over the past 47 years.

  • Arbitrator since approximately 1985
  • Chartered Arbitrator – ADR Institute of Canada
  • Member of the arbitrator panels of the British Columbia International Commercial Arbitration Centre, the British Columbia Arbitration and Mediation Institute and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute of Canada
Professional and Other Activities

  • Recipient of the Chief Justice James Valentine Milvain, Visiting Chair in Advocacy (University of Calgary) in 1987. This Award is awarded to a leading Canadian barrister.
  • The Georges A. Goyer, Q.C. Award for exceptional contributions to the legal profession.
  • Mr. Storrow was awarded the University of British Columbia Alumni Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award. This Award is given to recognize an extraordinary individual who through a lifetime of outstanding service and contribution to the community has demonstrated the true spirit of the Association’s mission.
  • Mr. Storrow has received an LL.D. (honoris causa) Doctorate Degree from the Justice Institute of British Columbia.

Mr. Storrow has written and lectured on a number of “White Collar Crime”, “Aboriginal Rights”, “Medicare in Canada” “Child Pornography” and several other matters and acted as defence counsel in one of Canada’s first money laundering cases.

Mr. Storrow has been a frequent lecturer and conference co-ordinator for both the Continuing Legal Education Society of B.C. and the University of British Columbia Law School. He has delivered lectures and chaired panels both inside and outside of Canada as well as at the University of Victoria, School of Public Administration; Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice; The International Centre for Criminal Law Reform & Criminal Justice Policy, Canada; Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia and Pacific Business & Law Institute, the University of Calgary Law School and Pacific Business & Law.
Academic Qualifications

University of British Columbia, LL.B., 1962
Admitted to the British Columbia, Alberta and Northwest Territories Bars

Mark Lee Tweedy

 

Professional Experience

Mark was called to the BC Bar in 1982. He practiced as a trial lawyer for many years. He has worked exclusively as mediator, arbitrator, and adjudicator since 2014.

Mark has mediated hundreds civil claims in a wide variety of subject areas. He has particular expertise in, and enjoys, mediating disputes where there is high emotional content. He received his Chartered Mediator designation in 2017.

Mark’s arbitration experience includes under insured motorist claims, and commercial, and insurance disputes. He also has substantial experience sitting as a court appointed adjudicator in class action matters.

Mark also has also frequently served as a locum, which has more often engaged his skills as a mediator than his skills as counsel. His involvement in this work came about as a result of his volunteer work with the Lawyers Assistance Program, which he commenced in 2002. In that capacity he has also assisted in interventions, acted as counsel to lawyers in discipline, credentials, and practice standards matters before the Law Society of British Columbia, and acted as a peer counselor to other lawyers.

Mark is a frequent lecturer to professional and industry groups on ADR topics, and has co taught CLEBC’s “Fundamentals of Mediation” to lawyers wishing to become mediators.
Professional and Other Activities

  • Law Society of British Columbia, 1982 to date, currently non-practicing
  • Mediate BC, Civil Roster Member, 2004 to date
  • British Columbia International Commercial Arbitration Center, Mediation, Domestic Arbitration, and UMP Panel Member, 2013 to date
  • ADRBC, Mediation Panel Member, 2016 to date
  • Volunteer, St. James Music Academy, 2017-2018
  • Board Member, Lawyers Assistance Program of BC, 2015 to date
  • Volunteer, Lawyers Assistance Program of BC, 2004 to date
  • Volunteer, First United Church, Hastings and Gore, Vancouver, BC, various dates
  • Board Member, Canadian Memorial United Church, Vancouver, BC, 2007 to 2010
  • Board Member, the grunt gallery, Vancouver, BC, 2010 to 2012
Academic Qualifications

  • Justice Institute of British Columbia, various courses in Conflict Resolution and Mediation, 2004 and 2007
  • University of British Columbia, B.A. (Hons.), 1978
  • University of British Columbia, LL. B., 1981
  • United World College of the Atlantic, South Wales, UK, International Baccalaureate, 1975

 

Kent G. Woodruff

 

Professional Experience

  • 1972-1991- General practice in Kamloops
  • 1991-1997-Litigation Counsel, insurance, land compensation, commercial leases, contractual, construction (court & arbitration) and appeared before Federal and Provincial administrative tribunals
  • For the last 21 years restricted his practice to alternate dispute resolution.
Dispute Resolution Experience and Training

Mediation experience:

  • Mediated over 300 commercial disputes – personal injury, estates, insurance, partnership, construction, strata, environmental damage, property, farm & ranch, forestry, intergovernmental, ALR Community Issues, workplace , Work safe Discrimination

Arbitration experience:

  • 1996 – 2008 adjudicated Residential Tenancy Disputes
  • Conducted domestic commercial arbitrations involving strata, employment, sale of businesses, commercial leases (renewals and other disputes), farms, forestry disputes, insurance (including Referee and UMP coverage), joint ventures, partnerships, professional negligence, construction and corporate disputes.
  • The appointed Appeal Arbitrator under the Canada – British Columbia Crop Insurance Program

Alternate Dispute Resolution Training:

  • Provided alternate resolution training to companies, organizations and the government of BC.
  • Developed and taught the Thompson Rivers University course entitled Conflict Resolution in the Environment

Chartered Mediator, 2001
Chartered Arbitrator, 1994
McGowan Award of Excellence –ADR Institute of Canada, 2000
Professional and Other Activities

  • A Past President of the ADR Institute of Canada and of the British Columbia Arbitration and Mediation Institute
  • A British Columbia International Commercial Centre Trustee

Member:

  • British Columbia Arbitration & Mediation Institute
  • Kamloops Fly Fishers Association
  • British Columbia Wildlife Association
  • Kamloops and District Fish & Game Association
  • Wild Sheep Society of BC
  • Kamloops Bar Association
Academic Qualifications

University of Ottawa, B. Comm., 1963
University of Western Ontario, B.L., 1972
Called to the British Columbia Bar in 1973

John W. Norton

Professional Experience

Mr. Norton has practiced business law for over 30 years and during the last 10 years has also acted as counsel and chair in various arbitrations relating to major business issues and real estate matters.

He is known for his practical and strategic approach to legal and business problems. Mr. Norton practices law in the area of mergers & acquisitions and divestitures, corporate governance and commercial law.

Mr. Norton has extensive experience in real estate development law and venture capital law.

He also acted Counsel on behalf of the Vancouver International Airport Authority, Department of Justice, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, and United Van Lines. He was finance Chairman for Doug Mowatt, and he is Chairman of Universal Packaging Inc.
Professional and Other Activities

Mr. Norton is a member of a number of Canadian and International Associations, and is an International Associate of the American Bar Association;

  • The Law Society of British Columbia
  • The Canadian Bar Association
  • ADR Institute of Canada
  • British Columbia International Commercial Arbitration Centre

Mr. Norton has been a director of numerous companies and advisory boards, including B.C. Housing Management Commission, Downtown Vancouver Association, Yaletown Housing Society, Vancouver Neurological Centre, Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club, St. George’s School Foundation, Shawnigan Lake School Board of Governors, Thunderbird Golf Society, Pacific Parkinson Research Institute, Air Canada Championship, Order of St. John Palliative Care Foundation, as well as many closely held corporations.
Academic Qualifications

B. Comm., University of British Columbia, 1968
LL.B., University of British Columbia, 1969
Chartered Arbitrator, 1990