Douglas D. Buchmayer

About Douglas D. Buchmayer

Estates are the heart of Douglas Buchmayer's work, from the plan a client puts in place, through the administration that follows a death, to the litigation that sometimes comes after. Douglas is a partner at Gowling WLG in Ottawa, and the matters run from wills, powers of attorney and family trusts to Henson Trusts, cottage and business succession, will challenges and passing accounts.

Douglas's practice also takes in Indigenous Trusts. That work means drafting and advising on trusts tied to impact benefit agreements, collaboration agreements and land settlement claims, and Douglas serves as general counsel for the Nunavut Trust. Gowling WLG has long been one of the Trust's legal advisors.

Called to the Ontario bar in 1990, Douglas has also taught others in the field. Douglas once taught the Estate Practice section of the Law Society of Ontario's Bar Admission Course, has lectured on trust law at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law and on estate administration to law clerks there, and has chaired and presented at a range of continuing legal education programs. Douglas has discussed estate planning on radio and television, too.

Douglas is a past president of the Ottawa Estate Planning Council, sits on the planning committee for the County of Carleton Law Association's East Region Solicitors Conference, and has been recognized by Best Lawyers in Trusts and Estates since 2018. Readers of the All About Estates blog will find Douglas writing on practical problems, such as an Ontario client who owns a Quebec cottage, mutual wills and whether executors can reasonably expect compensation.