486 lawyers · City of Toronto, City of Ottawa, Waterloo Region and 1 more location
One of 2,276 law firms listed in Toronto, and one of 462 handling Business & Corporate Law.
Virtual appointmentsGowling WLG is a full-service law firm that advises across a wide range of practice areas, with 1,500 legal professionals in seven countries. More than 700 of them work in Canada, spread over seven cities. Around the world, its member firms serve clients as separate legal entities that share the Gowling WLG brand.
In Toronto, the team works with clients in industries like energy, mining, financial services and life sciences. Ottawa's office has served clients for more than 100 years in intellectual property, litigation and arbitration, and business law. Several of its people are former senior bureaucrats, and they guide clients through regulation and legislation around the world.
The Waterloo Region office has over 50 legal professionals, and its sector work takes in technology, manufacturing, automotive and financial services. Hamilton's team is also more than 50 strong and handles corporate and commercial law, intellectual property, real estate, and lending and insolvency, among other areas. Across Canada, services run from expropriation and municipal law to family law and legal translation, and the firm's professionals hold 141 individual rankings in Chambers & Partners and 109 in The Legal 500.
You'll find the Ontario offices at First Canadian Place on King Street West in Toronto, 160 Elgin Street in Ottawa, 345 King Street West in Kitchener for the Waterloo Region, and One Main Street West in Hamilton. Each one has its own managing partner: Daniel Cole in Toronto, Cynthia L. Elderkin in Ottawa, Sean Sullivan in the Waterloo Region and Scott Beattie in Hamilton.
The Canadian firm's roots go back to Henderson & McVeity, set up in Ottawa in 1887. Over the years the name changed many times, and at different points it carried the names of Gordon Gowling and of George and Gordon Henderson. In the 1980s the firm moved past its Ottawa base, opening offices in Toronto, Kitchener and Moscow.
The Hamilton office opened in 1995, and from the mid-1990s a string of mergers with firms in Vancouver, Hamilton, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto gave Gowlings a national footprint. The firm dates its first fully automated in-house practice to the 1990s as well.
On July 8, 2015, Gowlings announced a combination with the UK firm Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co, and the merged firm, Gowling WLG, launched in February 2016. In 2019 it merged with Evans Sweeny Bordin (ESB) LLP.
Business & Corporate Law
Civil Litigation & Dispute Resolution
Intellectual Property
Tax Law
Bankruptcy & Insolvency
Administrative & Regulatory Law
Patent clients range from startups, universities and research institutes to multinational corporations, and many of the firm's patent professionals hold advanced degrees in science, medicine or engineering. Christopher D. Bown, PhD, a partner and patent agent in Ottawa, leads the national patents practice group.
When clients are weighing an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, Gowling WLG helps them decide whether and how to seek leave, from the strategic assessment through drafting the memoranda and handling the procedural steps. Intervenor work is a regular part of the practice too, for public bodies, Indigenous governments, industry associations and non-governmental organizations.
Our guide: Litigation and Dispute Resolution in Toronto
Gowling WLG had a role in the Nunavut Devolution Agreement. In the territories, it advises clients on matters such as negotiating an Impact and Benefit Agreement or building infrastructure in remote locations.
Gowling WLG has tax specialists in Canada, the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, so cross-border tax advice is coordinated in one place while staying grounded in local knowledge. If a tax matter turns into a dispute, the team helps clients size up their position and respond, whether it's at the audit or enquiry stage, in negotiations or in litigation.
Wheelchair accessible
Woman-owned
LGBTQ+ friendly
Virtual appointmentsGowling WLG is a sector-focused international firm built on the belief that legal matters are people matters. In its view, good results reached the right way depend on people and teams working in closer relationship. Its values include working together across services, sectors and offices for the good of the client and the firm, and making room for the different backgrounds, strengths and perspectives each person brings.
The firm has its own in-house software development capability, and its team created Saturn, an online brand protection service. In the Waterloo Region, its commitment is national expertise at local rates.
A designation granted by the Law Society of Ontario, not a self-declared area of focus.
Civil Litigation & Dispute Resolution
Business & Corporate Law
Intellectual Property
Administrative & Regulatory Law
Bankruptcy & Insolvency
Health Law
Tax Law
Employment & Labour Law
Real Estate Law
Wills, Estates & Trusts
Insurance Law
Class Actions
Construction Law
Indigenous Law
Family Law
Technology & Startups
Immigration Law
Personal Injury
1 First Canadian Place, 100 King Street West, Suite 1600, Toronto, Ontario M5X 1G5
In Toronto, the firm is in First Canadian Place, a commercial skyscraper at the northwest corner of King and Bay in the Financial District. The tower's named for the Bank of Montreal, Canada's first bank, and it's connected to the underground PATH system.
Ottawa's office is in One60 Elgin, a 27-storey office building on Elgin Street downtown that was once called Place Bell. The capital is home to most federal government departments and agencies, and to the Supreme Court of Canada.
The Kitchener office sits at 345 King Street West, a six-storey building with retail at street level, designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects and planned to reach LEED Gold. It's close to Ion rapid transit and to the transit hub planned for King and Victoria.
Hamilton's office is in the two-storey Bank of Montreal building at Main and James, in the financial heart of the downtown core. Montreal architect Kenneth G. Rea designed it, and it was built in 1928. It's also known as the Gowlings Building. Slated for demolition in the early 1980s, it's now covered by an Ontario Heritage Trust conservation easement, which protects the exterior (except the west façade) along with the main banking hall's interior features.
Law clerks, paralegals and articling students at this firm. They are not licensed lawyers.
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Real Estate LawThis listing was generated by AI from public sources in October 2026. It may contain errors, and we can’t guarantee it’s accurate or complete. Before you rely on anything here, verify it on the firm’s own website. Verify licence status in the Law Society of Ontario directory ↗
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