Ecclestone, Hamer, Poisson, Neuwald & Freeman

About Ecclestone, Hamer, Poisson, Neuwald & Freeman

Ecclestone, Hamer, Poisson, Neuwald & Freeman, known as EHPNF, is a small law firm headquartered in the Sterling Tower on Bay Street in downtown Toronto, with a second office in Whitby that extends its reach into Durham Region. The firm practices family law, wills and estates, real estate, business law, civil litigation, and employment law. Its current partnership includes Tom Hamer, Michael Freeman, and Simon Valleau, working alongside associates Andrew Chudnovsky and Chelsea Hollidge.

EHPNF traces its roots to 1939, when Alfred Ecclestone was called to the Bar of the Law Society of Upper Canada and joined the Toronto office of Andrew Shuyler, a practice with origins before the First World War. The modern firm took shape in 1981 as Ecclestone, Chykaliuk, Allan & Hamer, and it adopted its current five-name style in 1999. Simon Valleau spent a decade as a sole practitioner in family, criminal, employment, construction, and corporate-commercial law before joining EHPNF in 2001 and becoming a partner in 2007.

One of the firm's litigation partners taught for five years at Canada's National Ballet School before entering Osgoode Hall Law School in 1985, and later served as litigation counsel for the Toronto Police Association from 1998 to 2012. That range of backgrounds runs through the firm, which describes its own approach as favouring frank, realistic advice over a single, one-dimensional fix.