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 advisers.  Cliff has been recognized by LEXPERT as a repeatedly recommended charities and non-profit law practitioner.

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, the resolution of disputes and rental arbitrations. 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 practises as a registered trademark agent in Canada and the United States.

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, Dispute Resolution, Rental Arbitration, 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 (Vice-Chair)
• Canadian Bar Association, Charities and Not-for-Profit Section (Executive)
• Canadian Tax Foundation
• Association of Fundraising Professionals
• Canadian Association of Gift Planners
• International Council of Shopping Centres
• 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
• Imagine Canada’s National Task Force; Ontario Non-Profit Network Expert Working Group and Ministry of Government and Consumer Services Web Advisory Panel on Modernization of the Ontario Corporations Act; Canadian Bar Association, Imagine Canada and Ontario Non-Profit Expert Working Group Taskforces on Canada Corporations Act replacement

Representative Lectures and Publications

• “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)
• “The Use of Nominee Corporations in Business Transactions” in Corporate Structure, Finance and Operations (1980)
• The Great Shadow: Arthur Conan Doyle, Brigadier Gerard and Napoleon (Ashcroft, B.C., Calabash Press, 1997)
  www.ash-tree.bc.ca/calabashsale2006.htm
• Ontario Real Estate Law Guide (wrote commentary 1973-1997)