Lexpert reveals Vancouver’s leading oil and gas lawyers based on the results of our extensive yearly peer survey. The complete list of British Columbia’s most recommended energy lawyers and law firms can be accessed on our practice area rankings.
Oil and gas law is the branch of the legal profession that governs oil and gas production. In the survey, the practice encompasses all areas of upstream and downstream work, including exploration, construction, financing, taxation, environmental approvals, joint ventures and syndication and federal and provincial regulatory applications.
Consistently recommended oil and gas lawyers
Law firm: Lawson Lundell LLP
Year called to the bar: 1997 (BC); 2000 (NU); 2000 (NT); 2010 (YT)
Keith B. Bergner is a partner at Lawson Lundell LLP. He advises private and public sector and government clients throughout Canada on Indigenous law and energy and regulatory matters. Bergner appears as counsel before regulatory tribunals and all levels of Superior and Appellate Courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada. He acts for clients in the natural resource industries, including mining, oil and gas, LNG, pipelines, hydroelectric generation and transmission, aquaculture and power projects. Bergner advises clients on the extent of the duty to consult and accommodate with regards to the potential adverse effects to Indigenous rights or title by major industrial projects. He also acts as counsel for proponents seeking regulatory permits and approvals and assists with the development of consultation programs and the negotiation of impact-benefit agreements. Bergner represents project proponents and governments in appeals and judicial reviews challenging project approvals.
Law firm: Bennett Jones LLP
Year called to the bar: 1984 (ON); 1991 (BC)
David W. Bursey is a partner at Bennett Jones LLP’s energy, environmental and Aboriginal law practice groups. He specializes in energy regulatory law, environmental law, Indigenous community relations and water resource management. Formerly a counsel to the National Energy Board, Bursey boasts extensive experience in the federal and provincial regulatory approval process with an emphasis on energy projects, environmental reviews and Aboriginal rights issues. Bursey represents clients before administrative tribunals and the courts. He also advises resource industry clients, infrastructure developers, municipalities, First Nations and several industry associations in the energy, natural resource, transportation and manufacturing sectors. Bursey has participated in many major environmental reviews, federal and provincial, on behalf of participants and the project review panel. He is a past president of the National and British Columbia Administrative Law Sections of the CBA.
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Law firm: McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Year called to the bar: 1984
Paul R. Cassidy is a partner practising environmental law at McCarthy Tétrault LLP. He advises on environmental and natural resources issues, including major project permitting and approvals, environmental assessments, financing, mergers and acquisitions, lender liability, directors’ & officers’ liability, contaminated sites, environmental litigation, due diligence reviews, training and crisis management. Cassidy also advises on energy issues, including LNG projects, power agreements, project siting, climate change and renewable energy development. He frequently provides expert evidence in American proceedings on environmental laws in Canada. Cassidy is also a trained mediator and co-founder of the Canadian Centre for Environmental Arbitration & Mediation. He is a former federal prosecutor with Department of Justice (Canada).
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Law firm: Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
Year called to the bar: 1995
Ron Ezekiel is a partner at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP. He is a leading Canadian energy and natural resources lawyer and co-leader of the firm’s global energy group. Renewable energy companies, utilities, oil and gas companies and other resource industry clients seek out Ezekiel for his depth of expertise and his creative and practical problem-solving skills. His industry knowledge, ability to navigate complex negotiations and broad business transaction background make him an ideal choice for counsel on projects and M&A transactions in the energy and natural resources sectors. Ezekiel’s broad experience with carbon markets and environmental commodities is often sought out. He can also contribute to successful outcomes on broader energy and resource projects and transactions. Ezekiel acts on acquisitions and divestitures of energy and resource assets, including early-stage and operating renewables projects, mining projects, pipelines and gas processing and storage facilities. His expertise covers a variety of complex project development issues, including, environmental assessments and permitting, impact benefit agreements and other agreements with First Nations, community benefit agreements, complex joint ventures and co-ownership arrangements, regulatory compliance and structuring considerations for project finance.
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Law firm: Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP
Year called to the bar: 2006 (AB); 2011 (BC)
Matthew Keen serves as partner at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP. He is an energy regulatory lawyer practising in the inter-related areas of energy law, environmental assessment and permitting, tolls and tariffs and issues concerning Indigenous people. Keen appears before the courts and tribunals such as the British Columbia Utilities Commission, British Columbia Environmental Appeal Board, Alberta Utilities Commission and National Energy Board of Canada. He has extensive experience with major industrial facility applications and the associated environmental assessment and permitting processes, including regulatory investigations and defences. Keen has participated in environmental assessment, joint review panels and Royal Commission processes on behalf of major pipeline, energy and large industrial proponents. He has also represented clients in a broad spectrum of toll and tariff proceedings concerning electricity, natural gas and crude oil pipelines in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. Keen holds an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering.
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Law firm: Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
Year called to the bar: 1995 (AB); 2001 (ON); 2015 (BC)
Maureen E. Killoran is a partner at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. She has a national litigation practice focused on complex commercial disputes and energy and resource industry matters. Working out of the firm’s Vancouver and Calgary offices, Killoran is a seasoned trial and appeal lawyer with extensive arbitration experience. She currently acts on several high-profile disputes for Canadian Natural Resources Limited, The Williams Companies, ConocoPhillips, Suncor, TC Energy, and Enbridge. Killoran is also lead litigation counsel on the $10-billion Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project and has represented the TM Project at the Federal Court of Canada, Federal Court of Appeal, British Columbia Supreme Court, BC Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Canada in judicial reviews, appeals, Aboriginal and constitutional issues, injunctions and a Constitutional Reference case (on appeal to SCC) . Killoran joined the firm as a partner in 2005 and as managing partner of at the Calgary office. She is the first woman in Alberta to hold such a leadership position at a national firm. Killoran is a frequent speaker on disputes, energy, Aboriginal, constitutional and environmental topics.
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Law firm: Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG)
Year called to the bar: 1989
Kent D. Kufeldt is a partner at the Vancouver and Calgary offices of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. He is also the national business leader of the firm’s securities and capital markets group. Kufeldt represents public issuers and underwriters in public and private debt and equity financings, initial public offerings and cross-border financing transactions. He has experience with merger, acquisition and reorganization transactions, acting for both acquiring companies and target companies in hostile takeovers and negotiated acquisitions. Kufeldt has been involved in innovative transactions in both the corporate finance and M&A areas.
Law firm: McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Year called to the bar: 1984
Robin M. Sirett is a partner at McCarthy Tétrault’s business law group in Vancouver. His practice involves a broad range of regulatory and commercial work for clients in the energy sector, including pipeline companies, distribution utilities, mid-stream service providers, power generators, investors, lenders and industrial and other end-use customers. Sirett has represented applicants and intervenors in numerous revenue requirements, cost of capital, toll design and tariff proceedings and major project applications before the National Energy Board and British Columbia Utilities Commission. Sirett boasts extensive experience in all aspects of the development and operation of energy projects, including advising on project ownership and financing structures, federal and provincial project approval and permitting processes.
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Law firm: Dentons Canada LLP
Year called to the bar: 1987
Michael A. Thackray is a partner at the Dentons Canada LLP’s energy law group in Vancouver. He boasts extensive knowledge in all aspects of energy law and energy litigation. With more than 30 years’ experience, Thackray has been qualified as an expert before the courts in the US and Alberta and has provided expert opinion reports and evidence at trial. He has advised clients on regulatory applications and approvals, litigation, arbitration, expert evidence and testimony, government relations and public policy and mergers and acquisitions. He also gives upstream, midstream and downstream operational advice and assists clients in infrastructure construction, ownership and operation and corporate guidance and navigation. Thackray’s clients include large and small exploration and production companies and multinational infrastructure firms. He also deals with cross-border work with private and public companies across Canada, the US and the UK. Thackray currently sits on the boards of several private and public oil and gas companies in North America and internationally.
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Law firm: Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG)
Year called to the bar: 2000
Rick L. Williams is a partner at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP’s Vancouver office. He is also the national leader of the firm’s environmental group and regional leader of the regulatory and oil and gas groups. Williams regularly represents and advises clients on the commercial, regulatory and litigation aspects of project development, permitting and operations in the energy and natural resource sectors, including land, environmental and Aboriginal issues. He specializes in all forms of dispute resolution, including regulatory proceedings and appeals, corporate and commercial litigation and arbitration. Williams has appeared at all levels of court in British Columbia, the Federal Court, Supreme Court of Canada and various federal and provincial administrative tribunals, including the National Energy Board, Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board and British Columbia Utilities Commission, Oil and Gas Appeal Tribunal, Environmental Appeal Board, Safety Authority and Surface Rights Board.
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