Deloitte Legal Canada LLP > Toronto, Canada > Firm Profile

Deloitte Legal Canada LLP Offices

Deloitte Legal Canada LLP
Bay Adelaide East
8 Adelaide Street West, Suite 200
Toronto, ON M5H 0A9
Canada
Visit website 416 775 8830

Deloitte Legal Canada LLP > The Legal 500 Rankings

Canada > Tax Tier 4

The tax group at Deloitte Legal Canada LLP takes care of tax planning and tax litigation, its offering taking in aspects such as income tax, GST, HST and provincial sales tax and customs. Five partners share leadership: firm national lead Olivier Fournier and Aicha Nafii are based in Montreal; Joel Scheuerman works from the Calgary office; Joyce Lee KC, from Vancouver; and Michael Collinge, from Toronto.

Practice head(s):

Olivier Fournier; Aicha Nafii; Joel Scheuerman; Joyce Lee KC; Michael Collinge

Testimonials

‘The Deloitte Legal tax team advised us on a very complicated tax matter and provided us with excellent and pragmatic advice.’

‘Joel Sheuerman guided us through a tax matter that was critically important to our business and was able to boil down a very complicated area of the law into very practical and efficient advice. He was also just a real pleasure to work with.’

Key clients

Pier 1 Imports (U.S.)

Profitable Giving Canada

Work highlights

  • Represented Pier 1 Imports in a dispute with the Canada Border Services Agency regarding the proper value for duty of goods imported to Canada.
  • Acted for five individuals, taxpayers who donated pharmaceuticals to Canadian charitable organisations, before the Tax Court of Canada.

Deloitte Legal Canada LLP > Firm Profile

Deloitte Legal Canada LLP* was founded over 15 years ago as a boutique firm practicing exclusively in the area of Tax Law, which continues to be the firm’s flagship and largest practice. Deloitte Legal* is now evolving to meet the needs of Canada’s business community, with growing specialty practices in the fields of Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Law and Employment and Labour Law.

Skilled and experienced Deloitte Legal* practitioners work together with other Deloitte professionals to guide their clients through projects in a coordinated way around the world. Deloitte Legal*, present in over 80 countries, is able to provide holistic guidance around strategic business decisions as well as offer support services that can increase efficiency and reduce the cost of some routine legal activities. As part of the global Deloitte professional services network, Deloitte Legal* helps clients in delivering multinational legal solutions that are consistent, technology-enabled, tailored, and sensitized.

Deloitte Legal* understands legal advice not as an isolated component, but as a contribution to a comprehensive solution of the issues that clients face. Working with other Deloitte colleagues, Deloitte Legal* can help clients to make informed decisions in the context of legal as well as other business considerations.

* “Deloitte Legal” means the legal practices of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited member firm affiliates that provide legal services. For legal and regulatory reasons, not all member firms provide legal services.

About Our Services

Deloitte Legal is a multi-specialization law firm affiliated with Deloitte LLP with ready access to the vast resources of the Deloitte network and its subject matter experts.

Tax Litigation and Controversy

Deloitte Legal is a national law firm. Our team of tax lawyers has extensive experience in the areas of tax controversy and tax litigation, and in advising on the legal aspects of all tax issues and transactions.

Our tax litigation and controversy services include advice and representation with respect to the following:

  • Management of large and complex tax audits and dealing with audit queries and formal requirements to provide information and documents.
  • Administrative appeals to tax authorities and litigation before the courts, including:
    • Preparation of Notices of Objection to dispute tax assessments or reassessments.
    • Appeals to the Tax Court of Canada, Federal Court of Appeal, provincial courts and the Supreme Court of Canada.
    • Applications for judicial review of administrative decisions or omissions of the tax authorities.
    • Obtaining rectification orders from the provincial courts.
  • Making voluntary disclosures to correct deficiencies in non-compliance
  • Defending criminal tax prosecutions.
  • Advising on tax risks related to transactions, including risks relating to the General Anti Avoidance Rules (GAAR).

Tax Advice​

Deloitte Legal is a national law firm. Our team of tax lawyers has extensive experience in the areas of tax controversy and tax litigation, and in advising on the legal aspects of all tax issues and transactions.

Our tax advisory services include providing tax advice and opinions with respect to the following:

  • Cross-border and multinational transactions, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures.
  • Corporate reorganizations and restructurings.
  • Taxation of private corporations and their shareholders, including succession planning.
  • Wealth, estate and business planning for high-net-worth individuals.
  • Inbound and outbound investments, including structuring and financing of Canadian and foreign investments and businesses, and interpreting tax treaties.
  • Immigration and emigration tax planning, including advice on immigration trusts.
  • Charities and non-profit organizations.
  • Personal taxation, including trusts and estates.
  • Tax planning for First Nations.

Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Law

Our data privacy and cybersecurity lawyers are uniquely positioned as part of a “one-stop specialized shop” and advise Canadian institutions on (i) incident preparation, (ii) incident response, and (iii) privacy and data protection. Our team also proposes practical solutions to help clients anticipate regulatory change and navigate the evolving cybersecurity and privacy landscape.

By virtue of our affiliation with Deloitte LLP, our data privacy and cybersecurity lawyers are also able to leverage the knowledge and experience of some of Canada’s leading cybersecurity experts to deliver comprehensive technological risk assessment and mitigation services.

Employment and Labour Law

With expertise spanning across all areas of employment and labour law, our employment and labour lawyers provide employers with business-oriented advice on all facets of the employment relationship. We provide advice with respect to unionized and non-unionized settings at both the provincial and federal level.

Our employment and labour lawyers will provide businesses with the advice they need to make informed decisions, support them to ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, and assist them in all aspects of risk management and conflict resolution. They advise clients involved in all forms of employment law disputes, including litigation, arbitration and other forms of alternative dispute resolution.

Corporate and Commercial Law

Our Corporate and Commercial lawyers serve local, national and international clients in a wide variety of business law matters.

By working together with our tax colleagues across Canada, as well as through our affiliation with the Deloitte Legal global network, our Corporate and Commercial practice is in a position to service a wide range of business client needs such as:

  • Establishment of corporations, general partnerships, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships, ULCs.
  • Corporate documentation for reorganizations and restructurings.
  • Registered and records office; annual corporate filings (BC, Alberta, Ontario).
  • Extra-provincial registrations.
  • Corporate legal opinions.
  • Restorations, continuations, amalgamations, windings-up and dissolutions.
  • Commercial agreements.
  • Transfer pricing documentation.
  • Contract review and interpretations.
  • Real estate transfers (BC).
  • Due diligence (limited).

Main Contacts

Department Name Email Telephone
Tax Litigation, Tax Advice Olivier Fournier [email protected] 514-393-8362
Corporate and Commercial Law, Tax Litigation, Tax Advice Joyce Lee, Q.C. [email protected] 604-640-3092
Tax Litigation, Tax Advice Joel Scheuerman [email protected] 403-267-1888

Lawyer Profiles

Photo Name Position Profile
Mike Collinge photo Mike Collinge Partner View Profile
Jessica Kearsey photo Jessica Kearsey Partner View Profile

Staff Figures

Number of jurisdictions : 80+
Number of lawyers : 2500
in this country : 44

Interviews

Olivier Fournier, Canadian Legal Leader

Deloitte Legal’s National Legal Leader, Olivier Fournier, explains how the firm is adapting to clients’ changing needs.

What do you see as the main points that differentiate Deloitte Legal Canada LLP from your competitors?

Deloitte Legal Canada LLP is focused on highly specialized practices that rely on assistance from our affiliated professional services: Deloitte LLP. Our competitors, which are mainly traditional law firms, cannot seamlessly provide such services as:

  • Cybersecurity and Privacy Law, working hand-in-hand with Deloitte LLP’s technical cybersecurity and
    forensic investigations teams;
  • Tax Litigation, working hand-in-hand with Deloitte LLP’s transfer pricing economists, R&D scientists and engineers, as well as other highly specialized tax professionals;
  • Labour and Employment Law, working hand-in-hand with Deloitte LLP’s Human Capital, Global Employer Services and Workplace Investigations teams.

Which practices do you see growing in the next 12 months? What are the drivers behind that?

  • Labour and Employment Law
  • Privacy and Cybersecurity, Digital Law
  • Specialty Regulatory Law practices

What’s the main change you’ve made in the firm that will benefit clients?

  • Along with Deloitte LLP, we offer a one-stop, turnkey service that seamlessly integrates a response to all of our client’s needs. This minimizes the headaches of dealing with multiple firms and offers uniform quality and a coordinated approach to our clients.

Is technology changing the way you interact with your clients, and the services you can provide them?

  • Technology will never supplant the power of human interaction. Our clients appreciate speaking to a human who listens and is accountable.
  • However, technology has become the market standard in service delivery: from AI-assisted research tools to automation of non-creative tasks such as due diligence.

Can you give us a practical example of how you have helped a client to add value to their business?

  • Cybersecurity: we not only bring value by assisting with incident response and crisis management, but we also help our clients minimize the risk of further breaches and provide breach-coaching advice in order to be prepared for future incidents.
  • Tax Controversy and Litigation: we take a client-first approach to favourable and early resolution of tax disputes.
  • Employment and Labour Law: We regularly advise clients with respect to their right and obligations in relation to the future of work, both during and post-pandemic. This is not limited to legal advice: along with Deloitte LLP’s Human Capital group, we provide a global approach to the future of HR management and help clients be prepared for their next normal.

Are clients looking for stability and strategic direction from their law firms – where do you see the firm in three years’ time?

  • In our experience, clients are looking to simplify their relationships with professional firms generally and prefer a coordinated approach to the services they seek. Deloitte Legal Canada LLP’s unique position as an affiliated law firm within Deloitte sets it apart from traditional law firms: Deloitte’s broad base of services coordinates with the entire C-suite; not only GCs or CLOs. Accordingly, our legal services are delivered as part of a holistic set of solutions sought by our clients.


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