Sonia Sahota is a founding partner of the firm and is currently the Managing Partner. She practises in the areas of procurement, construction and land development, with a particular focus on tendering law, procurement fairness and construction contracting. Sonia practised as a professional engineer for 10 years and worked on civil and geotechnical design and construction projects in northern British Columbia, the United States, northern Africa and South America. She provides legal advice with practical insight by drawing upon her unique professional understanding of construction and engineering projects. She routinely provides advice on structuring and administering public tenders and competitive RFPs, managing contractor performance and lien issues and securing land tenure. Sonia has advised on, drafted and negotiated complex contracts for construction, professional services and operational services, in respect of public projects including a multi-use recreational complex, district energy facility, new school sites, stormwater management, waste handling and environmental remediation. Sonia presents regularly on legal topics of interest to members of the local government and engineering communities, such as the Municipal Engineers Division of Engineers and Geoscientists of BC and the Public Works Association (BC).
T604.358.7167Esonia@civiclegal.cavCard
Pam Jefcoat is a founding partner of the firm. With over 19 years of combined experience in local government and commercial real estate law, Pam is a seasoned advisor to owners and developers alike on a wide variety of local government and real estate development matters, with a focus on land use planning, subdivision, and rezoning and redevelopment of residential, mixed-use and industrial properties. Having honed her skills on numerous projects for both municipalities and developers, Pam brings extensive experience into advising clients on rezoning and permit approval processes, public hearings, phased developments, development agreements, density bonusing, density transfers, the imposition of development cost charges, community amenity contributions, housing agreements, alternative transportation requirements and subdivision servicing requirements. Pam holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and offers unique insight into matters of public policy and its impacts on urban development. Pam frequently speaks throughout the province on matters of interest to both local governments and developers, including recent topics such as Phased Developments: Managing Growth and Securing Amenities, The Subdivision Application Process, Statutory Considerations and the Broad Powers of the Approving Officer and the Regulation of Lot Sizes, Subdivision Standards and Discretionary Imposition of On-Site and Off-Site Works and Services. Pam is also on the CLEBC’s Editorial Board for the British Columbia Real Estate Development Practice Manual and is the co-author of the chapter in that manual entitled Real Estate Development on First Nations Lands.
T604.358.2248Epam@civiclegal.cavCard
T604.358.1663Eeugenia@civiclegal.cavCard
David is an associate lawyer of the firm. His practice is focused on municipal, land development and construction matters. Prior to working at Civic Legal LLP, David worked as a litigator and represented insurance corporations, local governments, construction managers and local and national companies in a variety of legal actions and disputes. David has developed a unique perspective on risk management, negotiation, and strategy from his litigation experience, which he draws on to advise his clients on a variety of legal and regulatory issues. In his solicitors practice David routinely advises clients on local government issues, procurement processes and land use planning and development regulatory matters. He has further drafted construction contracts and municipal service agreements on varied construction projects and contractual matters.
David completed his law studies in Ontario at the University of Windsor and was called to the British Columbia Bar in 2019. Prior to studying law, David worked for a credit union and legal advocacy non-profit where he worked on community outreach initiatives on Vancouver’s downtown eastside. David completed his undergraduate studies at the University of British Columbia with his capstone research focused on Chinese foreign direct investment in infrastructure projects across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Edavid@civiclegal.caT604.358.7443vCard
Sara Gray is an associate lawyer of the firm and maintains a general municipal law practice. Prior to working at Civic Legal LLP, Sara worked as a litigator, primarily representing local municipalities and community groups in land-use disputes. She also worked in-house as counsel for a major insurance brokerage, providing risk management advice and resolving coverage disputes on behalf of clients, who were mainly local governments and commercial entities. Her previous litigation and solicitors practice gives her a unique outlook on a wide range of issues affecting local government. She provides advice on land-use, regulatory, and liability matters, while also drafting and reviewing contracts.
Sara completed her law studies at Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia. She was called to the Bar of Ontario in 2018, after spending two years post-graduation working abroad in London, England as a legal advisor to a cyber security company. She hopes to use her experience and passion for local government to deliver outstanding legal advice to her clients as her practice continues to grow.
Esara@civiclegal.caT604.358.0293vCard
T604.358.7590Emarcela@civiclegal.cavCard
Talya is an associate lawyer of the firm and maintains a general municipal law practice with a focus on construction, procurement, and insurance law. Her experience includes bylaw drafting, advising on liability issues, and representing local governments in court, negotiations, and mediation. Talya articled at Civic Legal LLP and was called to the Bar in June 2021. She completed her Master of Laws (CL) at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia. Prior to obtaining her master’s degree, Talya graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Law in Israel. During law school, she volunteered with the Israel Anti-Poverty Association, where she provided legal advice to low-income clients and taught academic writing and legal research to junior law students. Before relocating to Canada, Talya practiced as a lawyer for over three years and gained extensive experience in civil litigation, including medical malpractice. Through this unique background, Talya strives to understand each client’s needs and craft an effective and practical solution.
Etali@civiclegal.caT604.358.0252vCard
T604.358.2669Epars@civiclegal.cavCard
We provide a broad range of solicitors and litigation legal services to municipalities, owners, builders and developers.
We have extensive experience in all aspects of land use planning, land development and rezoning including:
With a professional engineer on our team, we can speak the same language. Our advice will not only consider the legal aspects of the issue but also focus on practical, workable solutions. From concept to completion, or any stage in between, let our knowledgeable team shoulder the load of your next project with our expertise in:
Real estate is a mainstay of our practice. Let our extensive experience help you maneuver through your next transaction, big or small:
We assist our clients with negotiating and drafting a myriad of different agreements from the very simple to the highly complex, including:
We provide day-to-day practical advice and support to local governments in their decision making under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, including:
With over 40 years of combined legal experience in local government, real estate, construction and corporate law, our team of lawyers is well positioned to advise local governments on:
We have worked through many land development and commercial transactions involving environmental issues. Let us assist you by drawing from our experience in:
We strive to increase efficiency and create predictability in fees by working directly with you at the beginning of each engagement to define expectations, plan the scope of work and monitor and manage the work to ensure your legal matters remain on track, on time and on budget.
We may from time to time engage reputable independent research lawyers and paralegals, with your consent, for certain aspects of a project, where this would be sensible, cost-effective and efficient.
We are committed to providing exceptional service to our clients. Our goal is to raise your expectations and then exceed them. We will be accessible, responsive and will put the needs of our clients first. How will we do this?
We will return phone calls and emails as soon as possible and within one business day at the latest.
We will let you know when we will be out of reach and will provide the contact information of the person who can answer your questions.
We will ask you about your service preferences before, during and after each engagement.
We will communicate clearly regarding fees, costs, team members and deadlines.
We will respect our agreed upon fee arrangements and will staff each matter in a way that provides the best value for the service provided.
We will strive to meet or exceed our deadlines. If we cannot, we will let you know well in advance.
We will keep you completely up to date on the status of your matters.
Our bills will be clear, correct and prompt and will be in a format that meets your preferences.
We will meet with you in person or by telephone at least once a year - off the clock - to ask about your satisfaction with our services.
Last, but not least, we will, upon request and at no cost, provide you with on-site / in-house seminars on legal topics of interest to your staff.
We will work with you to customize billing arrangements that are attuned to the services required and your bottom line, including traditional hourly billing, fee estimates, price caps and pre-agreed flat fees.
Reasons in West Kelowna (City) v. The Owners, Strata Plan EPS2459 2022 BCSC 1020 were published by the British Columbia Supreme Court today in which the City of Kelowna was successful in obtaining an interlocutory injunction against a strata corporation that had erected gates with no trespass signage on a public walkway next to Lake Okanagan.
One of the frequent issues that comes before courts in the tendering context is whether a tender bid is compliant with the tender documents. There are considerable legal implications arising from a determination that a bid is not compliant.
While in other business contractual relationships an irregularity in the contract documents may be reasonably ignored by the parties, in the tendering context irregularities have greater significance due to the unique legal framework of tendering. In order to uphold the fairness and integrity of the tendering process the law requires that only compliant bids be considered for award. In this article, we discuss the general principles that apply in a compliance assessment.
As published in the NRCA’s Northern Construction Connection June 2022 Newsletter, and VICA’s e-New.
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