Matthijs van Gaalen

About Matthijs van Gaalen

Lenders closing mid-market financing deals turn to Matthijs van Gaalen, a partner at Gowling WLG, to get transactions done efficiently and without wasted cost. The work doesn't stop once a loan is in place. When a file runs into enforcement, insolvency or a restructuring, van Gaalen handles that too, and has acted for financial institutions, debtors and prospective purchasers caught up in enforcement proceedings.

Van Gaalen helped build LendR, a proprietary system for automating and managing commercial lending portfolios, and writes the logic and code that automate legal documents. In 2018 the Financial Times gave this portfolio lending approach and its software its "Innovation in the Business of Law" award, and in 2021 Canadian Lawyer named van Gaalen to its Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers for bringing innovation and technology to commercial financing.

Called to the Ontario bar in 2014, the partner came to Gowling WLG from another corporate firm, working out of Toronto and Dubai on financial services, restructurings, international trade and regulatory files under Canadian, British, American, UAE and free zone law. Business came before law, though. Van Gaalen ran an export company shipping aftermarket parts from China and the US to Ecuador, managed a commercial office furniture business, and in 2010 went to China looking for suppliers, then worked through the rules for bringing trucks, farm machinery, motors and parts into Ecuador.

Outside the office, politics is a big part of life. Van Gaalen is a past vice-president of the Conservative Party of Canada, sat on its National Council from May 2016 to March 2021, and now serves on the party's Arbitration Committee.