PSH Lawyers
Automatically compiled listing. Details may contain errors.3 lawyers · Established 1970 · Waterloo Region
One of 41 law firms listed in Cambridge, and one of 30 handling Real Estate Law.
About PSH Lawyers
PSH Lawyers handles real estate, business, litigation and wills work.
The firm's Cambridge story began in 1969. Bob Pettitt and Bill Schwarz had weighed which communities within an hour of Toronto would suit them, and they settled on Galt, Preston and Hespeler. What drew them was a sense of community that reminded them of home, Regina for Bill Schwarz and Hamilton for Bob Pettitt.
The two founders took different routes into law. Bob Pettitt did undergraduate work at McMaster and Bill Schwarz at Western Ontario, and they met at the University of Toronto's law faculty, where both earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence in 1967. Each then articled on Bay Street, Bill Schwarz at Gardiner Roberts and Bob Pettitt at White, Bristol, and both were asked back and stayed on at those firms for roughly two years.
Two of the lawyers who joined later came by way of Simcoe. Carly Hills went to York University and then to law school at the University of New Brunswick, and practised in Simcoe before making Cambridge home. Michael Pass, a McMaster graduate who studied law at Queen's, joined as an associate in 2014 after articling and spending three years at a Simcoe firm. Michael Pass adds depth in civil litigation and became a partner on March 15, 2015. The office, in downtown Cambridge, is wheelchair accessible.
History
In 2010 the firm was practising under the name Pettitt Schwarz, with a law practice that went back to 1970.
Carly Hills came aboard as an associate in 2009 and was made a partner on January 1, 2010. That same month, on January 7, 2010, the firm marked 40 years since its founding. Bob Pettitt retired from the practice on December 31, 2012, and the firm's 50th anniversary followed on January 7, 2020.
Practice areas
Real Estate Law
Business & Corporate Law
Civil Litigation & Dispute Resolution
Wills, Estates & Trusts
Title insurance on every deal
PSH Lawyers recommends a title insurance policy on every real estate transaction because, in its view, a policy gives better protection than a title opinion. The firm also takes the view that the premium is modest for the cover it buys, and that it's offset by savings on the costs a title opinion would bring.
Planning, charities and security
The firm's business list takes in rollovers and estate freezes, along with not-for-profit corporations and charities. On the lending side it prepares and reviews Personal Property Security Act searches and registrations, general security agreements and promissory notes. Business questions go to Bill Schwarz or Carly Hills.
Estate, property and lien disputes
Matters the firm has handled for clients include estate and commercial litigation, real property matters and construction lien claims. It also takes on debt collection and contract enforcement, and when a dispute hasn't reached the courts yet it can try negotiation or mediation to spare a client the cost of going to court.
Probate and estate accounts
When it drafts a will, the firm goes over the probate fees that'll apply and whether they can be reduced. For executors, it helps with reading a will, handing out property to beneficiaries and preparing the estate trustee's statement of accounts for them after the estate wraps up.
Good to know
Wheelchair accessible
By appointmentHow PSH Lawyers works
PSH Lawyers has always tried to work as a relationship firm. Rather than acting for a client on one deal and stopping there, it wants to look after that client's business and estate planning, act on the purchase or sale of a home, and help through hard times. When a matter falls outside what its own lawyers do, which happens now and then, the firm's commitment is to refer the client only to someone as competent in that field as its lawyers are in theirs.
In the community
- The firm has published articles on settling fence disputes with a neighbour under the Line Fences Act, on Ontario's limitation periods for lawsuits, and on closing costs for first-time home buyers.
The neighbourhood
The office is Unit 403 at 73 Water Street North. Cambridge itself only dates to 1973, when Galt, Preston, Hespeler and Blair, a settlement in North Dumfries, were amalgamated into one city.
Water Street North has its own piece of local history. At number 60 stands the Morris C. Lutz House, a two-storey house of rubble limestone built between 1849 and 1851. Its east side faces Water Street and its west side overlooks the Grand River, in what used to be the City of Galt, and the City of Cambridge designated it in 1981 under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act.
Frequently asked questions
- Has PSH Lawyers acted on matters before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario or the Ontario Municipal Board?
- PSH Lawyers has acted for clients in human rights matters before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario and in municipal hearings before the Ontario Municipal Board.
- Should I bring my Air Miles and iTunes details to a will appointment at PSH Lawyers?
- PSH Lawyers recommends gathering your documents ahead of a will-drafting appointment and bringing copies along, to save time and expense. Its checklist covers records of any transferable digital assets that apply, with Air Miles, iTunes accounts and rewards points among the examples.
- Will the firm talk through a Henson trust when I make my will?
- PSH Lawyers discusses trusts for minor children and for people receiving disability support, known as Henson trusts, as part of its wills work.
Where to find them
73 Water Street North, Unit 403, Cambridge, ON N1R 7L6
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