Cynthia L. Elderkin

About Cynthia L. Elderkin

Cynthia Elderkin, who goes by Cyndy, is a deal lawyer whose specialty is commercial and consumer contracts. Cyndy's transactional practice takes in secured financings, acquisitions for buyers or sellers, joint ventures and outsourcing arrangements, with tech, aviation, aerospace and defence, and private equity among the areas of focus. Cyndy is the managing partner of Gowling WLG's Ottawa office and practises in the firm's Business Law Group.

Called to the Ontario bar in 1988, Cyndy earned an LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School two years earlier, after a BA at Carleton University. Cyndy also spent four years as department head of the Ottawa office's Business Law Group. Inside Gowling WLG, Cyndy has served on a number of committees and special projects, works to make the firm a "great place to work", and has picked up awards for mentoring excellence.

Drafting is a subject Cyndy has written on at book length. Together with Julia S. Shin Doi, Cyndy wrote Behind and Beyond Boilerplate: Drafting Commercial Agreements, a Carswell text first released in 1998 and now out in a fifth edition, which reworks its treatment of the English language clause to reflect Quebec's recent French language law developments. Cyndy has also delivered papers and lectures for audiences that include Osgoode Hall Continuing Legal Education, the County of Carleton Law Association and the University of Ottawa. In a March 2020 Gowling WLG webinar on force majeure and other COVID-19 contract issues, Cyndy observed that a common approach among contracting parties was early, open and empathetic communication.

Away from deals, Cyndy has given years of volunteer time: five on the board of the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre, including two as President, and five more as a director and the Registrar of the Goulbourn Skating Club.