Philip Milley

About Philip Milley

Charities, philanthropies, non-profits and other tax-exempt organizations, including mission-driven groups whose work crosses borders, are the clients Philip Milley serves as a partner in the Tax Group at Gowling WLG. The advice covers the regulatory rules these organizations live under, their compliance duties in more than one country, and the governance questions that come up along the way.

Milley was called to the bar in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2014, then in Ontario in 2016. Early on, the work was a broad civil litigation practice in St. John's, focused mostly on employment and insurance cases. In June 2016 the move in-house began, as Associate Director, Legal Affairs at the Canadian Centre of Christian Charities. That role meant working closely with a number of large Canadian charities, and it included an appearance before the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Mastercard Foundation came next. As its director of legal and compliance, Milley led nine legal professionals spread over Canada, Ghana and Kenya, and the last post there was global Director, Legal Enterprise Matters, steering legal strategy and compliance in a number of jurisdictions, Africa above all, behind the Foundation's education and financial inclusion programs. The Association of Corporate Counsel named Milley to its Top 10 30-Somethings for 2023, and a seat on the judging panel for the 2024 award followed.

Ethics runs through the background too: a Philosophy and Religious Studies double major plus applied ethics studies at Memorial, finishing on the Faculty of Arts Dean's List. Away from client files, you'll find Milley chairing and speaking at CPD programs, serving on the Grand River Conservation Foundation board, and sitting on the CRA Charities Directorate's Technical Issues Working Group.