Aweis Osman

About Aweis Osman

Business disputes are Aweis Osman's day-to-day work as a partner in Gowling WLG's Ottawa office. In the firm's Advocacy Group, Aweis has acted on commercial and corporate disputes over shareholder agreements, real estate, infrastructure and environmental liability, and on professional liability claims too. With calls in both Ontario and British Columbia, Aweis appears in court, in arbitrations and before administrative tribunals.

Aweis was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, and the family later settled in Ottawa after the Somali civil war. Law runs in the family: in 2014 Aweis made a first trip back to Somalia since infancy and spent time as a legal assistant at the Mogadishu Law Office, the practice of a lawyer parent. An honours Bachelor of Health Sciences from the University of Ottawa came in 2011, followed in 2015 by both a JD and a Master of Health Administration from Dalhousie University. Before joining Gowling WLG, Aweis did a corporate residency at Medtronic, working alongside its legal affairs and business development teams.

Aweis was called to the Ontario bar in 2016, at the same ceremony as Canada's then Minister of Justice, and was set to begin that year as an associate in Gowling WLG's Ottawa office. The British Columbia call followed in 2021, and the firm admitted Aweis to its partnership in commercial litigation as of January 1, 2024.

Aweis has been published in Global Arbitration Review, Transnational Dispute Management, Advocates' Quarterly and the Energy Law Journal, and also wrote a chapter on China's Maritime Silk Road and what it could mean for arbitration in Africa. Inside the firm, Aweis belongs to its Africa Group, which works on growing trade and investment between Canada and Sub-Saharan Africa. Outside it, Aweis has sat on the Canadian Club of Ottawa's board since 2017, served a term as the club's president and remains a director today.