Canadian Elder Law Conference 2023: Day 1

Course Chairs
Hugh S. McLellan — McLellan Herbert Locke, Vancouver
Kimberly A. Whaley — Whaley Estate Litigation Partners, Toronto
Geoffrey W. White, KC — Geoffrey W. White Law Corporation, Counsel, Clark Wilson LLP, Kelowna & Vancouver

About the Course Chairs
Hugh McLellan, a partner in the law firm of McLellan Herbert Locke, practices in the areas of estate litigation, estate planning, and elder law. He is a former chair of the CBA Wills and Trusts (Vancouver) Subsection. He is the founding vice chair (and past chair) of the CBA National Elder Law Section and the founding chair of the CBABC Elder Law Subsection. He is a member of the Estate Planning Council of Vancouver and the US National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. He has served on various committees dealing with law reform in the areas of adult guardianship and wills and estates. He was awarded the CBABC Community Service award in 2004 for his involvement with mental health and elder issues.

Hugh is the author of numerous articles on estate litigation, estate planning and elder law, co-editor of Financial and Estate Planning for the Mature Client in British Columbia (LexisNexis, 2000), a contributor to the Annotated BC Representation Agreement Act, Adult Guardianship Act and Related Statutes (Carswell, 2000), and is an associate editor of the Estates and Trusts Reports. He is a frequent lecturer for various professional and community programs.

Kimberly Whaley, CS, TEP, LLM, founding and managing partner, Whaley Estate Litigation Partners (WEL Partners), a dispute resolution firm based in Toronto, practicing throughout Ontario. WEL Partners has been repeatedly ranked by Canadian Lawyer as a Top 10 Boutique Trusts & Estates firms in Canada.

Kimberly practices dispute resolution throughout Ontario in the areas of estate, trust, fiduciary and wealth succession litigation including powers of attorney, inter vivos gifting, fiduciary passing of accounts, guardianship, dependant support, elder law and the related issues of capacity, undue influence.

Kimberly is a TEP, full member of STEP Canada, and the newly elected Canadian Representative on STEP Worldwide Council. Kimberly is designated as a Certified Specialist in Estates & Trusts Law by the Law Society of Ontario and has been consistently peer selected for inclusion in Best Lawyers in Canada, and by Chambers High Net Worth, Private Wealth Disputes in Canada in Band 1, is a Distinguished Fellow of the Canadian Centre for Elder Law, is inducted into the Ontario Chapter of the Canadian Academy of Distinguished Neutrals, and has published many articles in Canadian, international, legal and medical journals. Kimberly has taught at three Canadian Law Schools, is a guest lecturer to more, and presents regularly in Canada and internationally within institutional and community organizations. Kimberly is on various advisory boards including the Ontario Securities Commission's (OSC) Seniors Expert Advisory Committee (SEAC); Estate Planning and Litigation Forum, Cambridge Forums Inc., Steering Committee Member; Toronto Police Service Seniors Community Consultative Committee; the newly constituted Ontario Estates Bench-Bar Liaison Committee; the Canadian Center for British Columbia Elder Law (CCEL), co-chair, and fellow; CanAge fellow; and the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law (IAETL), Academician. Kimberly is an experienced mediator, mediating estate, and trust related disputes for over 23 years.

Geoff White, KC has 25+ years of expertise in wills, trusts, estates and elder law matters. He acts as counsel for Clark Wilson LLP and assists clients both in Vancouver and at his "heritage" office in Kelowna. He is a frequent author and lecturer for both the legal community and others.

Geoff is the past chair of the Law Foundation of BC, the past chair of the CBA National Elder Law Section, and the founding chair of the Okanagan Chapter of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. He is an editor of the CLEBC publication BC Probate & Estate Administration Practice Manual, which is acknowledged as the primary source for all estate matters in the province, and he helped to design the lawyer education programs for BC's Wills, Estate and Succession Act, which took effect in 2014.

Keynote Speaker
Isobel Mackenzie — BC Seniors Advocate, Office of the Seniors Advocate, Victoria

Faculty
Dr. Jatinder Baidwan — Chief Medical Officer, Burnaby
Dr. Peter Chan — Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, UBC, Vancouver
Christine Elliott — Christine Elliott Law Corporation, Vancouver
Bryan Gilmartin — Whaley Estate Litigation Partners, Toronto
Ian Hull — Hull & Hull LLP, Toronto
John McNamee — Chief Legal Officer, BC Coroners Service, Burnaby
Dr. Kenneth Shulman — Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto
Alexander J. Swabuk — Miller Thomson LLP, Vancouver
Zack Uganec — Seniors First BC, Vancouver
Amanda N. Winters — Farris LLP, Vancouver

Click here for full faculty bios

• the capacity to marry and divorce, including cross-provincial statutory requirements
• the consequences of a predatory marriage: considerations for marriage and property law
• responding to predatory marriages: the consideration of the use of equitable and other remedies
• abuse by a legitimate spouse—is divorce available?
• parties outside the marriage driving separation/divorce

• coroner's role, and when a death must be reported and investigated
• intersection between a coroner's investigation and a police investigation when elder abuse is suspected, and how the independent findings of each contribute to death determinations
• inquest process; how decisions to hold an inquest are made, and the role of the inquest jury, participants, and witnesses

• introduction
• the use of medical experts and evidentiary considerations
• clarity of capacity

• the role of the medical expert witness
• the use of medical expert evidence at a hearing or trail
• conclusion an summary review