David Wotherspoon
Principal

Strategic Counsel

Most commercial disputes are downstream failures – of governance, of agreements, of early decisions made without a view of how things end.  David advises boards, owners, and executives before positions harden:  governance and shareholder arrangements, reputation and crisis strategy, pre-litigation risk assessment, and negotiated outcomes that leave the relationship standing.

“Any company would be well served in retaining him to advise them when they need a win-win outcome for both sides.”

Dispute Resolution

When litigation is unavoidable, clients get a courtroom lawyer with three decades of results in defamation and anti-SLAPP proceedings, shareholder and partnership disputes, intellectual property and anti-counterfeiting, contract disputes, and technology matters – in court, in arbitration, and in the negotiations that end most cases.

“I’ve lost count of the number of matters he’s gone to court for me on, and he has never lost any of them.”

The best strategic advice comes from someone who has seen how disputes end.  After thirty years in courtrooms, David knows which contract terms fail under pressure, which governance gaps become lawsuits, and which early moves decide cases years before trial.  That is the experience clients draw on – ideally before there is a dispute at all.

Message from David

“My goal has not changed in thirty years: solve the client’s real problem, at the lowest reasonable cost, with their long-term interests in view. Sometimes that means court, and my record there speaks for itself. More often it means getting the strategy, the agreements, and the relationships right early enough that court never becomes necessary. What matters most to me is the trust clients place in me, and I work to keep deserving it.”

David Wotherspoon

Recognitions and Awards

 Canada’s Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers (Canadian Lawyer)

Lexpert – Canada’s Leading Lawyers

The Legal 500 Canada

The Best Lawyers in Canada

Thomson Reuters Stand-Out Lawyer

Sample Publications

Co-author with Alim Khamis, “Got Privilege? Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know,” The Advocate, November 8, 2022, p. 851

Featured counsel, “Take Five January 2022  BC Edition“, Counsel Comments, OnPoint Legal Research Law Corporation, p. 6

Co-author, “Commercial Arbitration Appeals – The Leave to Appeal Hurdle,” June 4, 2021

Whether a dispute is on the horizon or already here, the earlier the conversation, the more options you have.