Chris Macaulay

About Chris Macaulay

Chris Macaulay handles commercial litigation and arbitration as an associate in the Disputes Department at Gowling WLG in Ottawa. The files tend to be complex, with a lot riding on them, and they come from many industries: construction and infrastructure projects, franchise and dealer relationships, commercial leases, and professional or product liability claims, along with fights over which court has jurisdiction. On the defence side, Chris has acted for clients ranging from contractors and regulated health professionals to Crown corporations and corporate directors.

Ottawa is Chris's hometown. After a 2017 call to the Ontario bar, Chris started out at a civil litigation firm in Toronto and, that first year, was co-counsel in an accident benefits appeal at the Court of Appeal for Ontario. In 2018 came the move back home to McCague Borlack's Ottawa office, where the work was mainly defending insurers, plus commercial and regulatory cases taken on directly for small and medium-sized businesses. Time at civil litigation firms has put Chris in front of every level of Ontario court and a long list of administrative tribunals.

Chris then went in-house as counsel to a major Canadian construction company, working alongside its executives and managers on infrastructure, healthcare, commercial and residential projects throughout North America. That view from inside a business now shapes the litigation work at Gowling WLG: Chris commits to practical, business-minded dispute resolution and to advocacy that's clear and efficient without losing sight of what a client is really trying to achieve.

Chris studied philosophy at Queen's University before earning law degrees from both the University of Windsor and the University of Detroit Mercy in 2016, and was part of the Windsor team that won the Niagara International moot in 2015. In 2026 Chris was also called to the bar in New York. Away from work, Chris is a keen reader and a basketball fan.