Municipal Law Chambers

About Municipal Law Chambers

Municipal Law Chambers is a small group of independent lawyers based in downtown Oakville, with additional meeting rooms in BCE Place in Toronto's financial district for clients who work in the city. Gordon E. Petch founded the firm in 1996 after three decades practising municipal and environmental law, including time heading the municipal and environmental law departments at Borden & Elliot and Holden Day Wilson in Toronto. The firm's five lawyers now concentrate on municipal law and the fields it touches most: real estate development, environmental law, expropriation, and property assessment and taxation, along with tax law, wills and estates, and collaborative family law.

The lawyers bring varied paths into that work. Russell D. Cheeseman, called to the bar in 1986, pairs an Osgoode Hall law degree with a master's in environmental studies from York University and has appeared before bodies from the former Ontario Municipal Board to the Niagara Escarpment Commission. Stephanie Fleming studied law at the University of Sheffield in England, taught English in Japan for five years beforehand, and now writes on Ontario planning legislation. Milovan Prelevic holds a tax LLM from the University of Cambridge and previously worked at Ontario's Ministry of Finance. Lynne Daubaras, whose career began at a Bay Street firm, practises estates law and collaborative family law through a separate professional corporation.