About Daniel

Dan Shields is a founding member and senior partner of SOM LLP. He earned the Gold Medal from the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law and joined the Ontario bar in 1983, going on to spend more than 30 years advising and litigating for businesses in labour and employment matters. Dan has extensive experience negotiating and administering collective agreements in unionized workplaces, with particular expertise in construction industry labour relations in Ontario, and he has also represented management in professional sports and for First Nations employers. He regularly appears before grievance arbitrators, the Ontario Labour Relations Board, the Human Rights Tribunal, and Ontario's courts, including the Court of Appeal, in disputes covering everything from wrongful dismissal to strike actions and picketing. Prior to launching SOM LLP, Dan worked as a partner at a national firm and then at a well-regarded Toronto litigation boutique. He is from Hamilton, Ontario, and plays guitar at the firm's annual fundraiser for the Stephen Lewis Foundation and World Vision.

Practice areas

Employment & Labour Law

Education & credentials

Law school
University of Ottawa

Listing compiled from public sources in August 2026. Confirm Daniel Shields’s licence and standing in the Law Society of Ontario directory ↗