Executive Summary
With extensive experience in not-for-profit and charitable organizations and corporate and commercial law Cliff provides his clients with the benefit of his broad range of legal knowledge. He counsels Boards of Directors on procedural matters, contracts, employment matters, business activities, grant applications, taxation and regulatory compliance and works with charitable donors and their advisors. He advises on governance and continuance issues under federal and provincial non-share capital statutes. As a business law advisor, Cliff acts for private companies, partnerships, joint ventures, entrepreneurs and professionals, assisting them in all aspects of their establishment, financing, relationships, business activities and succession.
Expertise
- Business and Corporate Commercial
- Non-Profit and Charities
- Wills and Trusts
Representative Work
- Advice to national religious organization on application of Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act to its special legislation
- Acting for environmental non-profit on financing off-balance sheet financing for energy retrofits of publicly and privately owned commercial and residential buildings
- Establishment of trust structure to hold private company shares for benefit of public charitable foundation
Articles and Presentations
- Nathan & Goldfarb’s Company Meetings for Share Capital and Non Share Capital Corporations 12th ed.), 2020, co author - LexisNexis
- Practice Advisor, Canada Not-For-Profit Corporations Act, author - LexisNexis
- "Building an Ideal Non-Share Corporations Act", Canadian Bar Association - 2020
- Changes to the Rules on Gifts and Exports of Cultural Property and Registered Charities and Political Advocacy - May 23, 2019
- Changes to the Rules on Gifts and Exports of Cultural Property, Registered Charities and Political Advocacy - May 23, 2019
- Social Clubs with Share Capital and the ONCA - June 21, 2018
- Now in Effect: Amendments to Ontario Charities and Not-For-Profit Laws - December 19, 2017
- Charities Carrying on Activities Through an Agent or Intermediary - September 16, 2016
- Dealing With Corporate Disputes - Planning To Avoid Disputes - February 23, 2016
- Directors' Duties to the Corporation: Focus on Dual Loyalty - November 12, 2015
- Ontario Postpones implementation of new Not-for-Profit Corporations Act - September 22, 2015
- “Special Challenges of Special Act Corporations”, Canadian Bar Association, Annual Charity Law Symposium - 2013
- “Dual Loyalties on Non Profit Boards”, (Canadian Bar Association, Annual Charity Law Symposium) - 2011
- Dual Loyalty on Non-Profit Boards: Serving Two Masters - May 6, 2011
My Blog
- Social Clubs with Share Capital and the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, 2010 - August 25, 2022
- The ONCA at one month: the good, the bad, and the frequently misunderstood - November 22, 2021
- Ontario Business Registry: Moving Businesses Online - October 14, 2021
- SPECIAL RELEASE Re Proclamation of Not-For-Profit Corporations Act, 2010 (Ontario) (the “ONCA”) ONCA will be proclaimed October 19, 2021 - August 19, 2021
- Preparing for the ONCA - November 12, 2020
- Social Clubs with Share Capital and the ONCA - June 21, 2018
- Social Clubs with Share Capital and the ONCA - June 21, 2018
- Now in Effect: Amendments to Ontario Charities and Not-For-Profit Laws - December 19, 2017
- Registering a Charity in Canada - August 28, 2017
Recognition
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Lexpert consistently recommended for Charities/Not For Profit Law – 2023
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Chambers and Partners, recognized for Charities/Non-Profits Nationwide Canada, 2023
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Best Lawyers in Canada 2023 for Charities / Non-Profit Law
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Recipient of the 2012 AMS/John Hodgson Award of the Ontario Bar Association Charity & Not‑for‑Profit Section for excellence in the sector
Professional Involvement
- Past Chair of the Charity & Not-for-Profit Law Section of the Ontario Bar Association, 2018-2019
- Law Society of Ontario
- Canadian Bar Association, Charities and Not-for-Profit Section (Executive)
- Canadian Tax Foundation
- Member, Ontario Nonprofit Network
Pro Bono
- Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Reference Library (Chairman)
- International Churchill Society Canada (Director)
- The World Remembers 1914-1918 (Director)
- Canadian Institute for Mediterranean Studies (Director and Secretary)
- The Bootmakers of Toronto (Honorary Solicitor)
- Ontario Volunteer Service Award, June 17, 2008,for service to Toronto Public Library
Beyond the Office
Cliff is the author of The Great Shadow: Arthur Conan Doyle, Brigadier Gerard and Napoleon (1996) and co-author of Investigating Sherlock Holmes (2014), as well as numerous articles on Doylean and Sherlockian topics. He is a recognized expert on Arthur Conan Doyle and collects anything related to his Napoleonic War writing. He also enjoys tennis, genealogy, biblical archaeology, reading (history, science fiction, biography, popular science), sudoku and cryptic crosswords and especially playing with his grandchildren.