Lewis Retik

About Lewis Retik

When a regulated product has to clear the rules before it can be sold in Canada, Lewis Retik is a Gowling WLG partner whose practice centres on bringing regulated products to market. Retik works out of the Ottawa office, where the job includes leading the Food and Beverage Group and co-leading the Cannabis Group. The practice blends regulatory and commercial law, and it's built around getting those products onto the market.

Clients run from businesses that have only just launched to large international companies selling food, natural health products, cosmetics and more. A typical file might involve licensing or classifying a product, setting up distribution, or getting the advertising, packaging and labelling right, and Retik's aim is a plan that customers will like and regulators will accept. That work brings regular dealings with senior people at Health Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Competition Bureau and ISED. Chambers Canada ranks Retik in Advertising & Marketing nationwide, noting the range of consumer products companies on the client list, many of them in food and beverage.

Retik was called to the Ontario bar in 2002. The partner co-chairs the Food Law & Regulation Canada conference running November 30 to December 1, 2026, spoke on a 2019 Ontario Bar Association panel about the slow road to changing CBD's classification, and co-wrote a 2019 Canadian Lawyer piece on the updated Safe Food for Canadians Regulations.

Outside client work, Retik co-founded Operation Abraham with fellow Gowling partner Jacques Shore to help Afghans escape persecution by the Taliban after the fall of Kabul. Hearing one family's story brought to mind Retik's own grandparents, who'd once had to flee the Nazis. The initiative was named Pro Bono Initiative of the Year at the 2025 Canadian Law Awards.