John J. Wilson

About John J. Wilson

When a dispute with a regulator or public authority lands on a client's desk, John J. Wilson is the kind of lawyer who can help work through it, settle it or, if it comes to that, take it to court. Wilson is a partner at Gowling WLG in Toronto, and administrative law is the core of the practice. Clients come from a wide spread of regulated fields, from farming and supply management to energy, ports, insurance, colleges and universities, and the regulated professions.

It isn't only one side of the table, either. Regulators and other public bodies retain Wilson on questions of statutory authority and interpretation, policy and procedure. Appellate work and judicial review are where much of the courtroom time goes, with appearances at every level of the Ontario and federal courts and at the Supreme Court of Canada, including acting for the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Speaker of the Senate on appeal.

There's a substantial Aboriginal law side to the practice too, acting for First Nations and Inuit governments on the duty to consult, contested elections and how modern treaties should be read. Wilson was on the team that settled the McLean Indian Day Schools Class Action. Constitutional files round things out, covering division of powers, parliamentary privilege and the Charter.

Wilson's a scholar of the field as well. The partner co-authored the fourth edition of Canadian Administrative Law and volumes of Halsbury's Laws of Canada, and has taught administrative law at Osgoode Hall Law School as an adjunct professor. Wilson was called to the Ontario bar in 2017.