With extensive experience in not-for-profit and charitable organizations, corporate and commercial law and commercial real estate, Cliff provides his clients with the benefit of his broad range of legal knowledge.

Cliff is practice leader for our Non-Profit and Charities Law group. He acts for non-profit and charitable organizations. He counsels boards of directors on procedural matters, contracts, employment matters, business activities, grant applications, taxation and regulatory compliance. Cliff also works with charitable donors and their advisors. Cliff is the winner of the 2012 AMS/John Hodgson Award of the Ontario Bar Association Charity & Not-for-Profit Section.

As a business advisor, he acts for public and private companies, partnerships, joint ventures, entrepreneurs and professionals, assisting them in all aspects of their establishment, financing, relationships, business activities and succession.

Cliff is a recognized expert in commercial leasing, advising clients on a broad range of lease negotiations. He also acts on the acquisition and financing of commercial properties.

In addition to his three primary areas of practice, Cliff assists clients with wills, trusts and estate planning and administration, and is a registered trademark agent.

Areas of Practice

• Non-Profit/Charitable – Establishment and Charitable Registration, Governance, Regulatory Compliance, Business and Transactional Advice, Energy Efficiency, Environmental and Health Law issues
• Business Practices – Corporate, Commercial Transactions, Shareholder and Partnership Agreements, Joint Ventures, Secured Lending, Purchase and Sale of Business, Family Business Planning, Intellectual Property
• Real Estate – Commercial Leasing, Commercial and Residential Purchase, Sale and Financing
• Tax and Estate Planning – Wills and Trusts, Estate Administration

Education

• London School of Economics, LL.M. 1973
• University of Toronto, J.D. 1969
• University of Toronto, B.A. 1966

Memberships

• Law Society of Upper Canada
• Ontario Bar Association, Charities and Not-for-Profit Section (Chair 2009-2011)
• Canadian Bar Association, Charities and Not-for-Profit Section (Executive)
• Canadian Tax Foundation
• Association of Fundraising Professionals
• Canadian Association of Gift Planners
• Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Reference Library (Chairman)
• International Churchill Society Canada (Director)
• Canadian Institute for Mediterranean Studies (Director and Secretary)
• The Bootmakers of Toronto (Honorary Solicitor)
• Toronto Lawn Tennis Club (Director/Secretary)
• Imagine Canada’s National Task Force; Ontario Non-Profit Network Expert Working Group and Ministry of Government and Consumer Services Web Advisory Group on Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act; Canadian Bar Association, Imagine Canada and Ontario Non-Profit Expert Working Group Taskforces on Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act

Representative Lectures and Publications

• “The New Canada Not-For-Profit Corporations Act: Issues for Charities” Canadian Council of Christian Charities Leadership and Stewardship Conference, September 27, 2011 -- Presentation
• “Charity and Not-for-Profit Law: What Happened Over the Summer? An update on interesting cases and developments for the Charities and Not-for-Profit Law Practitioner”, panel presentation for Ontario Bar Association, Charities and Not-for-Profit Section, September 12, 2011
• Dual Loyalties on Non-Profit Boards (Canadian Bar Association, 2011) www.gardiner-roberts.com
• “Parties Capacity to Hold and Contract Property”, jointly with Zev Zlotnick, in Harvey Haber, ed., Shopping Centre Leases, second ed., 2008
• “The Rights and Obligations of the Original Tenant and Subsequent Tenants after an Assignment of Lease” in Haber on Assignment, Subletting and Change of Control (2002)
• “Commercial Tenancies” in CCH Ontario Real Estate Law Guide (wrote commentary 1973-1997)