Matthew Dewar

About Matthew Dewar

Matt Dewar is a Toronto employment lawyer and a founding partner of Duntrune LLP, and the practice takes in both sides of the workplace. One client might be a single person who feels an employer treated them unfairly; the next might be a large company with its broader goals in view. What ties the two together is Matt's conviction that a lawyer's real job is solving problems.

Music came first. After earning a music degree at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Matt was on the road in Europe in 1999, playing bass with a Celtic band. Long drives, greasy food and no financial security made touring less appealing, and law had been in the back of Matt's mind for years, since Matt's father was a lawyer. Two years after that tour Matt started law school at Queen's, and the call to the bar followed in 2005. By 2007 Matt was an employment and labour associate in Lang Michener LLP's Toronto office.

Mediations and arbitrations are a regular part of the work, and Matt actively mentors many young legal professionals in the city's employment bar. Broadcasters such as Global News, CBC, CTV, CP24, Newstalk 1010 and Sirius XM have turned to Matt for comment on employment news. In a 2022 London Inc Magazine feature, Matt walked through the three stages the pandemic brought to employment law, and argued that trust between employers and their staff now matters more than ever and will have to be rebuilt over time.

The stage never really let go. Matt founded The B.A. Baracus Band, an '80s acoustic act, as its lead singer and guitarist, and by 2008 it had three CDs and a seven-inch vinyl record out and had played the Viper Room in Los Angeles. Matt still performs around the local music scene, an 80s cover band included, and was on the bill to perform for fellow lawyers at the Employment Lawyers Association of Ontario's September 2022 event at Brunswick Bierworks in Toronto.