Practice Areas: Wills and Estates
Julie Hopkins
John Michael Orr
Mr. 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
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Professional and Other Activities
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| Academic Qualifications
B.A. (cum laude in philosophy): Cornell University, 1975 |
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.
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Professional and Other Activities
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 |
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
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Academic Qualifications
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Mr. Robert M. Smith
| Professional Experience
Robert M. Smith, Esq., has more than 20 years of commercial litigation and trial experience. He was responsible for overseas litigation worldwide at Bank of America. Subsequently, he had his own commercial litigation firm representing three dozen financial institutions. Prior to law school, Mr. Smith was a correspondent in the Washington Bureau of the New York Times. Mr. Smith is a Barrister (Inner Temple, Lincoln’s Inn) in the UK. He is admitted to the Bars of California, New York, and the District of Columbia. He is fluent in French and German, and speaks intermediate Spanish. Mr. Smith has commercial law experience that includes such matters as: high-tech lending, sexual harassment, computer license disputes, project finance, international letters of credit, construction disputes, insurance coverage, and personal injury. |
| Dispute Resolution Experience and Training
Robert M. Smith has been an arbitrator and mediator for more than 20 years. He has mediated hundreds of complex matters in a wide range of subject areas and in many jurisdictions. He was Director of Mediation at CEDR (Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution) in London, as well as a Registered Mediator and Chartered Arbitrator in the UK. He has lectured on ADR widely—at the Law Faculty of Oxford University, the United Nations in Turin, Nairobi, Warsaw, Dublin, Singapore, and Amsterdam. He is the author of ADR for Financial Institutions (West Group, 2d ed. 1998, 1200 pp.). Mr. Smith has completed more than 400 hours of mediation/arbitration training and teaching, including:
Mr. Smith’s mediation style depends on the wishes of the parties and counsel, and his sense of what is appropriate and likely to be effective. Mr. Smith has more than 250 references from law firms and corporate and government law departments on five continents. For more representative matters, expanded biography, references and testimonials, please see www.robertmsmith.com |
| Professional and Other Activities
Mr. Smith serves, or has served, as a mediator or arbitrator on the following panels:
Mr. Smith has been elected a Fellow of:
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| Academic Qualifications
JD, Yale Law School (Board of Editors, Yale Law Journal) |
Kent G. Woodruff
Professional Experience
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| Dispute Resolution Experience and Training
Mediation experience:
Arbitration experience:
Alternate Dispute Resolution Training:
Chartered Mediator, 2001 |
Professional and Other Activities
Member:
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| Academic Qualifications
University of Ottawa, B. Comm., 1963 |
Mr. 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;
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 |
Herbert S. Silber
| Professional Experience
Herb Silber was the senior litigation partner with Kornfeld Mackoff Silber and is now Associate Counsel at Kornfeld LLP. Herb’s career in litigation has primarily focused on real estate and contract litigation, lease arbitration and employment law. He co-counselled one of the largest commercial fraud cases in Canadian history, which included precedent-setting decisions on directors’ liability. Herb’s securities and corporate litigation experience includes shareholder oppression actions, proxy fights, and fraud claims. His successes in this area have resulted in decisions that have influenced corporate law and damage recovery principles. Herb’s employment law practice includes appearances as counsel in many wrongful dismissal trials and appeals, negotiations for severance packages and advising on group terminations. Herb has regularly appeared in both the Supreme Court of British Columbia and the British Columbia Court of Appeal. Herb has increasingly taken on the role of arbitrator and mediator in commercial disputes. He is a graduate of an intense five-day mediation workshop organized by the Harvard University, School of Negotiation. Herb brings to an arbitration or mediation a strong combination of experience, knowledge and understanding of the goals to be achieved. Herb was a member of the Board of Governors of the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) from 2013 to July 31, 2018. He has been a long time member of the Audit and Finance Committee and a representative of the Board on the BCIT Foundation, which both manages assets for BCIT and raises private donations. In 2014, on the recommendation of the Justice Minister for the Government of British Columbia, Herb was appointed Queen’s Counsel in recognition of his distinguished legal career. From 2012 to 2018, Herb was a member of the BC Health Professions Review Board, appointed by the Province of B.C. The Review Board is an Administrative Tribunal established to provide independent reviews of certain decisions of self-governing health professional colleges. Herb has also served for many years on the boards and as an executive of a variety of non-profit organizations. |
Dispute Resolution Experience and Training
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Professional and Other Activities
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| Academic Qualifications
Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, FCIArb. Graduate of the Harvard Negotiation Institute on Mediation Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, LLB University of British Columbia, BA |