Crystal McConkey

About Crystal McConkey

Crystal McConkey acts for developers, landowners and other organizations with a stake in land, charities and not-for-profits included, on municipal law and land matters. As an associate in Gowling WLG's Ottawa office, Crystal's work runs from land use planning and development to expropriation and heritage questions, and clients can work with Crystal in English or French.

The path into municipal law started with volunteer work close to home. Crystal sat on a committee that saw a not-for-profit day care centre built in the community, a project that put Crystal at the table with developers, architects, planners, city staff and ward councillors and ran from the first idea to a finished building. Before law school, Crystal studied early childhood education at Fleming College and child studies at Carleton University, and served as president and vice president of Riverside Park Nursery School, a registered charity.

Crystal earned a JD cum laude from the University of Ottawa in 2019 and took part in the Pro Bono Students Canada Ticket Defence Program while there. Next came Soloway Wright in Ottawa, where Crystal summered and articled before staying on in 2020 as an associate in its municipal, land development and expropriation group, the same year as the call to the Ontario bar. In 2021 Crystal was assisting with The Advocacy Club, the Ottawa program for junior advocates that Crystal had joined as an articling student.

Crystal has appeared before the Provincial Offences Court, city councils, Ottawa's Property Standards Committee and the Ontario Land Tribunal (which replaced the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal and, before it, the Ontario Municipal Board). Crystal regularly works alongside experts, from planners and appraisers to heritage specialists and engineers. At Gowling WLG, Crystal also writes on new housing, heritage and land use law with partners Michael S. Polowin and Jacob Polowin.