Carfra Lawton LLP

About Carfra Lawton LLP

Carfra Lawton LLP is an insurance and litigation law firm based in Victoria, serving clients throughout British Columbia and the Yukon. James S. Carfra, Q.C. and Dean P.J. Lawton established the firm in 1985, and it has grown into a team of more than 20 lawyers, paralegals, and articling students. The firm's work centers on insurance defence, coverage, and subrogation, acting for domestic and international insurers, institutions, and government agencies on claims that range from routine to catastrophic and highly complex.

Carfra Lawton describes its approach as business oriented, aiming to resolve files efficiently without sacrificing quality. It runs a formal mentorship program alongside internal training seminars and file audits meant to keep work consistent across lawyers at every experience level, and it has adopted technology to support that process. The firm's practice spans personal injury and property damage defence, motor vehicle defence, municipal and public authority law, health law, administrative law, construction, professional liability, corporate and commercial litigation, and estate litigation, among other areas.

Associate Counsel Dean P.J. Lawton, K.C., who was called to the bar in British Columbia in 1981, served as president of the Law Society of British Columbia in 2021 and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2016. Lawton has also taught insurance law and civil procedure as a sessional lecturer at the University of Victoria Faculty of Law.