Areas of practice

Cyber incidents are legal events as much as technical ones. The practice helps organizations build the policies, contracts and decision-making structures that reduce exposure, and then acts as counsel when an incident occurs: coordinating forensic and communications advisers under privilege, managing notification obligations across jurisdictions, and dealing with regulators, insurers and affected parties.

On the privacy side, the practice advises on compliance with PIPEDA, provincial private-sector and public-sector privacy statutes, and emerging Canadian and international data-protection requirements.

• Incident response planning and tabletop exercises
• Breach coaching and privileged incident response
• Regulatory notification and communications with the Privacy Commissioner
• Privacy compliance programs and impact assessments
• Data governance, retention and cross-border transfer
• Cyber-insurance coverage review
• Vendor and cloud security terms
• Responses to regulatory inquiries and investigations

Organizations are deploying AI systems faster than the rules governing them are being written. The practice helps clients put appropriate governance in place now: identifying the legal risks specific to their use cases, allocating responsibility in vendor and customer agreements, and designing oversight that will stand up to regulators, courts and the public.

Aaron's policy work on AI and national security informs advice that is forward-looking rather than reactive.

• AI governance frameworks and internal policies
• AI risk and impact assessments
• Procurement, licensing and vendor terms for AI systems
• Algorithmic transparency and accountability
• Generative AI use policies and intellectual property questions
• Guidance on Canadian, EU and other emerging AI regulation
• Board and executive briefings on AI risk

Drawing on years as general counsel to a complex, internationally active organization, Aaron provides the kind of counsel that an in-house lawyer would: reading the business context, spotting the issue early and giving a clear answer. Engagements range from single agreements to ongoing retainers as fractional general counsel.

• Fractional and outside general counsel arrangements
• Commercial and technology agreements
• Corporate governance and board advice
• Employment and contractor matters
• Intellectual property and licensing
• Regulatory compliance programs
• Not-for-profit and research-organization governance

The practice approaches contentious matters with a single organizing principle: build the file as if it will be tested. That means preserving and organizing evidence early, understanding the technical record, and framing the dispute in the way that will matter to a court or tribunal. The result is a stronger negotiating position and a clearer path if the matter does proceed.

The practice acts in commercial and technology-related disputes and works alongside co-counsel on larger and class proceedings.

• Commercial and contractual disputes
• Technology, data and privacy-related claims
• Defamation and reputational matters
• Litigation-readiness reviews and evidence preservation
• Co-counsel and strategic advisory roles in complex proceedings
• Pre-litigation strategy and negotiated resolution

Canada's national security and critical-infrastructure legal framework is expanding, and it increasingly reaches private organizations: cybersecurity obligations for designated sectors, foreign-investment and research-security reviews, and heightened expectations around foreign interference and supply-chain integrity. The practice helps clients understand what applies to them and engage constructively with government.

• Critical infrastructure and cybersecurity legislation
• Research security and foreign-interference risk
• Investment Canada Act national security considerations
• Regulatory submissions and consultations
• Government relations strategy on technology policy
• Strategic advisory work for public-interest and civil-society organizations