Wolfe, Smith & Forster LLP
Automatically compiled listing. Details may contain errors.3 lawyers · Wellington County (Guelph)
One of 7 law firms listed in Fergus, and one of 5 handling Family Law.
About Wolfe, Smith & Forster LLP
For more than 65 years, Wolfe, Smith & Forster LLP has served people across Wellington and Dufferin Counties. Its partner and associate lawyers advise and act for individuals, businesses and non-profit organizations, with work that runs from home purchases, sales and refinancing to wills, powers of attorney and estate administration, separation and divorce, business and corporate law, civil disputes and employment problems.
Farmers are among the firm's business clients, alongside entrepreneurs, charities and other non-profits, small business owners and companies from mid size up to large corporations.
The lawyers today are Lee Villar, Colin Thurston and Alayna Longstaffe. Lee Villar, a partner of Nelson, Watson LLP, has joined forces with the firm. Called to the Bar in 1983, Lee Villar spent six years in downtown Toronto before coming home to practise in Guelph, and joined Nelson, Watson in 1992. That career includes over 25 years of litigation, and Lee Villar still consults on the office's more complex litigation files, though the day-to-day work is now mostly transactional: corporate and commercial help for local business people, and legal work for individual families. Colin Thurston joined as an associate in 2014 to build a family law and civil litigation practice, and Alayna Longstaffe joined as an associate in 2013, practising in real estate, corporate and commercial matters, and wills and estates.
Clients meet the firm at its storefront on the main street of downtown Fergus. Since the start of 2015 it has also practised in association with Nelson, Watson LLP in Guelph.
History
J. Cecil Wolfe, raised in Grand Valley, moved to Fergus in 1960 to article with W.A. Maedel. In 1962, when Maedel was appointed a County Court Judge, Cecil Wolfe took over the practice. Deryk Smith came aboard after being admitted to the Ontario Bar in 1971, practising general law with Cecil Wolfe, and became a partner in 1974.
Charlie Forster retired from law as of December 31, 2014, and Charlie Forster's litigation practice went to Colin Thurston. The next day, January 1, 2015, the firm became officially associated with Nelson, Watson LLP. Each kept its original name and its own downtown office, one in Fergus and one in Guelph, and between them the two firms had 10 lawyers at the time. Deryk Smith has since retired, and Cecil Wolfe has stepped back from regular practice, with the firm carrying on its work for families and businesses across Fergus, Elora and the rest of Wellington County.
Practice areas
Family Law
Civil Litigation & Dispute Resolution
Wills, Estates & Trusts
Real Estate Law
Business & Corporate Law
Family law
Colin Thurston handles the family work, which covers contested and uncontested separations and divorces, separation agreements, cohabitation agreements and marriage contracts, and changes to existing court orders. Advice is available whether a client is married, in a common law or same sex relationship, or about to marry.
Our guide: How to Get a Divorce in Ontario
Civil litigation
Colin Thurston's litigation practice takes in mortgage and debt enforcement, disputes over estates and powers of attorney, real property and commercial conflicts. The firm also acts on construction liens, collection of outstanding accounts, breach of contract and personal injury, and its lawyers have appeared at many court levels and before administrative tribunals. A matter starts with a meeting, and clients can ask about the fee for that initial consultation.
Wills and estate administration
Alayna Longstaffe and Lee Villar handle wills and estates. Each will is prepared for the client's specific circumstances. It can provide for a beneficiary with a disability, address who'll be guardian of minor children and the age at which they'll inherit, or look after both a spouse and children in a second marriage. For people named as estate trustees, the firm explains what the will means, prepares the application for a Certificate of Appointment and files it with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, keeps the estate accounts and books, and advises on Income Tax Act requirements and distributes assets to beneficiaries.
Residential and commercial real estate
Alayna Longstaffe and Lee Villar bring years of conveyancing experience to residential freehold and condo deals and to commercial purchases and sales, including negotiating, drafting and reviewing the agreement of purchase and sale. Title insurance advice, mortgages and refinancing, and commercial leases are part of the work too.
Business, corporate and farm law
Alayna Longstaffe and Lee Villar act for businesses from the start, with incorporations, partnerships and joint ventures, through corporate reorganizations for tax purposes, shareholder and partnership agreements, and the purchase or sale of a business by shares or assets. Farm clients get help with land deals, leases, quota and the way an agricultural business is structured.
Employment law
The employment practice advises employers as well as employees, on matters from wrongful and constructive dismissal and human rights complaints to the Ontario Labour Relations Board, occupational health and safety and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. Colin Thurston is the lawyer for this work.
Good to know
Accessible parking
LGBTQ+ friendlyHow Wolfe, Smith & Forster LLP works
Service and communication are at the centre of how Wolfe, Smith & Forster works, with the goal of relationships between clients and the firm's lawyers and staff that last a lifetime. In civil litigation, clients get a full rundown of where their position is strong and where it's weak, and a strategy shaped around their own circumstances. At the first meeting, the lawyer asks what the client hopes to achieve and goes over the options and their likely cost.
Milestones & recognition
- Colin Thurston earned a law degree at Queen's University in 2010 and received the Sabbath Prize in Wills and Estate Planning there.
- Alayna Longstaffe's 2008 law degree from Dalhousie University came with the Arthur Allister MacBain Memorial Scholarship and the D. Kerr Memorial Prize in Maritime Law.
- Alayna Longstaffe completed a Business Law Specialization Certificate during law school.
In the community
- Lee Villar has been an active Kiwanis Club of Guelph member since 1989, and has served in the past as the club's secretary, president and lieutenant-governor.
- Lee Villar is also a past president of the Victorian Order of Nurses.
- J. Cecil Wolfe is a charter member of the Fergus-Elora Rotary Club.
- Colin Thurston belongs to the Centre Wellington Chamber of Commerce.
- Over the years Deryk Smith gave pro bono help to cultural and environmental groups and volunteered directly with many of them.
Affiliations & connections
- Speed River Collaborative: Colin Thurston is a member of Speed River Collaborative, a group that lawyers formed in 2015 to raise the standard of family law services in Guelph and Wellington County.
- Wellington Law Association: Colin Thurston and Alayna Longstaffe are members of the Wellington Law Association, the non-profit association open to lawyers practising in Wellington County.
The neighbourhood
Wolfe, Smith & Forster's storefront is at 140 St. Andrew Street West, on the main street of downtown Fergus. Fergus itself was founded on the Grand River by lawyers. Adam Fergusson and fellow Scot James Webster bought the uncleared land in 1833 and, drawn by its abundant water power, laid out the town site. The first house went up that same year, the start of a predominantly Scottish community.
On St. Andrew Street itself, Templin Gardens began in the late 1920s on a vacant lot on the south side of the street, commissioned by J.C. Templin, editor of the Fergus News Record, and took nearly 10 years to finish in stone from the nearby Gow limestone quarry, worked in the manner of Scottish masons. Elsewhere on the street, number 212 dates to 1872, when it housed John Thomson and Son's furniture and funeral business, and it's still a gathering spot in the heart of downtown.
Frequently asked questions
- Does Wolfe, Smith & Forster offer collaborative family law in Fergus?
- Wolfe, Smith & Forster offers collaborative family law, and Colin Thurston, who handles the firm's family files, is a member of Speed River Collaborative.
- My business lost money while a public works project was being built. Can Wolfe, Smith & Forster look at an injurious affection claim?
- Wolfe, Smith & Forster, in association with Nelson, Watson LLP, meets with clients about potential injurious affection claims through its litigation team. Under Ontario's Expropriations Act, businesses can seek compensation for losses caused by a government's public works project, even when no land was expropriated.
Where to find them
140 St. Andrew Street West, P.O. Box 99, Fergus, Ontario N1M 2W7 · 519-843-3650
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