Adam Garetson
Automatically compiled listing. Details may contain errors.Partner at Gowling WLG
- Called to the bar
- 2011
- Languages
- English
About Adam Garetson
Adam Garetson leads Gowling WLG's Blockchain & Digital Assets Group and is a partner in the firm's Toronto office. Public and private businesses working with blockchain technology and digital assets turn to Adam for help with the legal and commercial issues that surround them.
Adam's career began at Blake, Cassels & Graydon in Toronto, practising securities law with a focus on M&A and corporate governance, and it includes more than five years of corporate and securities work at a large national firm in the city. Adam also spent over five years as director and senior counsel at the Royal Bank of Canada, covering RBC Capital Markets' investment banking and trading work in global markets and heading up initiatives on blockchain and smart contracts there.
In April 2022 Adam became general counsel and chief legal officer of WonderFi Technologies. Before coming to Gowling WLG, Adam was general counsel, chief legal officer and corporate secretary of a Canadian digital asset business that provided market infrastructure and ran a cryptocurrency marketplace, and was the president and a director of a crypto-asset trading platform registered with the Canadian Securities Administrators, as well as its ultimate designate person. That in-house work took in a TSX listing, capital raising, mergers and acquisitions, governance and compliance.
Adam is in frequent, direct contact with regulators and elected representatives about blockchain and digital assets, and in 2022 appeared as an expert witness before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry and Technology for its blockchain study, telling the committee that regulation drives investor confidence. Adam also teaches Digital Assets and Blockchain: Law and Policy as an adjunct professor at the University of Western Ontario's Faculty of Law. Adam has appeared on BNN Bloomberg to look at Canada's money laundering laws (October 2025) and to preview crypto in Canada heading into 2026, and in August 2026 told The Globe and Mail that the country's insider-trading laws weren't built with prediction markets in mind.
Practice areas
Blockchain and digital asset transactions
Adam's clients in the blockchain and digital asset sector rely on Adam for strategic corporate and financing deals, both within Canada and across borders, and for advice on staying fully compliant with the rules that govern them.
Securities and capital markets
Years of private practice in Toronto gave Adam a grounding in corporate and securities advice for underwriters, broker-dealers, banks and companies. That work covered public offerings, private placements, bought deal financings and share and asset purchases.
Education & credentials
- JD, University of Manitoba
- BA (Hons.) in Philosophy, University of Waterloo
- Called to the bar of Ontario (2011)
Publications & speaking
- Exploring Canada's Crypto Regulations: A Day in the Life of Canadian Crypto Asset Trading Platforms (CTPs) and Related Enforcement Decisions, The Canadian Institute's 28th Annual Flagship Conference on Regulatory Compliance for Financial Institutions, Toronto (2022)
- Blockchain technology, House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry and Technology (INDU), Ottawa (2022)
- Regulation: The Problems, Solutions, and Ensuring a Balance, Benzinga FinTech Deal Day Conference, New York (2022)
- Forecast for Crypto Regulation in Canada: The Path to Regulatory Clarity for Cryptocurrencies and Other Digital Assets, The Canadian Institute's Annual Flagship Canadian Forum on Anti-Money Laundering & Financial Crime, Toronto (2023)
Memberships & affiliations
- University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Law: Adam is an adjunct professor at the faculty, teaching the course Digital Assets and Blockchain: Law and Policy.
Is this you?
Fix or remove this listing, or add a free listing badge
Something wrong with this listing? Tell us and we’ll hide it right away while we review your request, then correct it or take it down.
Add your free listing badge
Add the free LawOnline listing badge to your website. It tells visitors you’re listed in an independent Canadian lawyer directory and links back to this profile. Being listed isn’t a certification or an endorsement, and the badge doesn’t mean we’ve checked your credentials.
This listing was generated by AI from public sources in October 2026. It may contain errors, and we can’t guarantee it’s accurate or complete. Before you rely on anything here, verify it on their firm’s website. Confirm Adam Garetson’s licence and standing in the Law Society of Ontario directory ↗
How this data is compiled and checked · Correct or remove this listing