Susan D. Rosen

About Susan D. Rosen

Susan D. Rosen is a Toronto partner at Gowling WLG whose work covers commercial leasing, syndicated lending and banking, restructuring and enforcement, real estate, and environmental law. Rosen's clients run from individuals and small businesses to multinational corporations, REITs, credit unions and insurers. Foreign investors, major Canadian developers and national retail chains are on the list too, as are property and asset managers.

Rosen was called to the Ontario bar in 1989. Before coming to the firm, Rosen spent two years in-house at Shell Canada, handling real estate and corporate commercial transactions and picking up a grounding in environmental law along the way. At Gowling WLG today, the partner belongs to the Financial Institutions & Services and Real Estate & Urban Development groups, sits on the executive committee of the National Real Estate Practice, and leads several client teams, among them the Starbucks team and the Credit Union National Practice group.

Rosen co-chaired the ICSC Canadian Law Conference in 2013 and 2014 and still leads sessions there, most recently on restaurant leases and on sites with environmental risk such as gas stations and dry cleaners. Rosen also teaches at Law Society of Ontario and Ontario Bar Association programs, and recently gave lenders a lecture series on commercial lending and loan enforcement. In a Canadian Lawyer piece on pop-up shops, Rosen pointed out that a short-term licence can stay short and sweet, and that the brand, the image and the hype that draw people in are among the most important things.

Away from the deal table, Rosen plays a strong part in the firm's diversity initiatives. Rosen chairs the firm's Women's Professional Network in Toronto, serves on its national executive committee, and heads the Toronto GROW initiative, which supports business development and networking for the firm's women and its female clients. Rosen also received the Starbucks International Excellence in Diversity Award in 2012.