Employment & Labour Lawyers In Calgary

Get comprehensive, tailored advice and creative solutions for all workplace issues. We seek to implement legal strategies that promote a productive work environment for you and your employees. When the need and circumstances require, we have deep experience to represent our clients in any legal dispute, including litigation, arbitration or tribunal matters.

We can help you navigate sensitive and complex employment and labour matters. We are skilled in alternative dispute resolution, including mediation and arbitration. If our clients face formal litigation, we have the advantage of our extensive experience in all levels of court, commissions and tribunals. Our team also appears before provincial and federal labour relations boards and arbitrators.

The advantages of a cross-disciplinary team.

By drawing on the skills and knowledge of the firm's lawyers in privacy, securities, tax, intellectual property, occupational health and safety, workers' compensation, and other areas, we can provide you with the best advice and craft the best solution for you. Relationships with workplace investigators, accountants, actuaries, economists and other professionals mean we can bring the right experts together whenever needed.

What we do

We provide advice on and draft employment contracts, independent contractor agreements, policies, practices and other employment-related agreements. That includes areas of harassment, discrimination, medical testing, drug and alcohol testing, human rights, COVID-19, document retention, privacy, confidentiality, and bonus and equity-related plans and policies. We also offer seminars for human resources teams and executives on all aspects of employment law. Our lawyers can help you with:

Hiring, downsizing, terminations, and issues that arise from mergers and acquisitions
Wrongful dismissal
Audits, contracts, management agreements, consulting arrangements
Executive employment agreements and issues
Consulting and independent contractor agreements
Non-competition, non-solicitation and confidentiality agreements
Change of control and retention contracts, stock option and bonus plans, and trade secrets
Privacy law, pension issues, WCB and other related matters
Provincial and federal human rights complaints
Defending and prosecuting employment-related litigation
Collective bargaining, including analyzing and preparing union and management proposals, advising on strategies, and representation throughout the process
Provincial and federal labour legislation, certification and decertification applications, voluntary recognition agreements and unfair labour practice issues
Successorship and common employer applications and strategies
Collective agreements and handling individual, group and policy grievances

Did you know?

We have extensive experience in all levels of court, commissions, tribunals, provincial and federal Labour Relations Boards, and arbitrators.

Representative work

ARC Resources Ltd.'s $8.1 billion combination

Counsel to ARC Resources Ltd. in its $8.1 billion strategic Montney combination with Seven Generations Energy, resulting in ARC becoming Canada's largest condensate producer, third-largest natural gas producer and sixth-largest upstream energy company.

Greenfire Acquisition Corporation acquisition of Japan Canada Oil Sands Limited

Counsel to Greenfire Acquisition Corporation in its acquisition of all of the shares of Japan Canada Oil Sands Limited, which has a working interest in the Hangingstone facility in Alberta, for an undisclosed amount.

Kicking Horse Oil & Gas Ltd.'s $300 million acquisition by Whitecap Resources Inc

Counsel to Kicking Horse Oil & Gas Ltd., a portfolio company of Quantum Energy Partners, in its $300 million acquisition by Whitecap Resources Inc.

Scoular Company's sale of its edible bean business for US $25 million

Canadian counsel to the Scoular Company, a large, privately-owned US agricultural commodities trading company, in the sale of its edible bean business, which included processing plants in St. Hilaire, Minnesota, U.S.; Plum Coulee and Morden, Manitoba; and receiving stations in Garske and Grafton, North Dakota, U.S., to Cooperative Elevator Co., for approximately US $25 million.

Gear Energy Ltd.'s $70 million acquisition

Counsel to Gear Energy Ltd. regarding a $70 million plan of arrangement acquisition of Steppe Resources Inc.

Enerflex Ltd.'s acquisition of Mesa Compression, LLC

Counsel to Enerflex Ltd., through the U.S. entity Enerflex Energy Systems Inc., in its US$106 million acquisition of U.S. based contract compression business, Mesa Compression, LLC.

Sale of Marathon Oil Canada Corporation to CNRL

Counsel to Marathon Oil Corporation in the US$2.5 billion sale of Marathon Oil Canada Corporation to Canadian Natural Resources Limited and Shell Canada Energy.

Spur Resources Ltd.'s $407 million acquisition

Counsel to Spur Resources Ltd. in the $407.5 million acquisition by Tamarack Valley Energy Ltd.

ARC Resources Ltd. disposition of light oil assets

Counsel to ARC Resources Ltd. in the $700 million strategic disposition of light oil assets in southeast Saskatchewan to Spartan Energy Corp.

FirstEnergy Capital Corp.'s acquisition by GMP Capital Inc.

Counsel to FirstEnergy Capital Corp. in its $99 million acquisition by GMP Capital Inc..

Murphy Oil Canada Ltd.'s disposition of natural gas assets in British Columbia

Counsel to Murphy Oil Canada Ltd., Canadian subsidiary of Murphy Oil Corporation, in the $538 million disposition of the Tupper Main and Tupper West gas plants and associated pipelines in northeastern British Columbia to Enbridge G and P Canada Limited Partnership, a subsidiary of Enbridge Inc.

Kicking Horse Energy Inc.'s acquisition by ORLEN Upstream Canada Ltd.

Counsel to Kicking Horse Energy Inc. in the $356 million acquisition by ORLEN Upstream Canada Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of PKN ORLEN S.A.

Mullen Group Ltd. acquisition of Gardewine Group Limited Partnership

Counsel to Mullen Group Ltd. in the $172 million acquisition of Manitoba-based Gardewine Group.

Encana Corporation's $2 billion disposition of assets

Counsel to Encana Corporation (now Ovintiv Inc.) in the $2 billion disposition of its Bighorn assets in Alberta to Jupiter Resources Inc.

Spartan Energy Corp. acquisition of Renegade Petroleum Ltd.

Counsel to Renegade Petroleum Ltd. in the $495 million acquisition by Spartan Energy Corp. pursuant to a plan of arrangement.

Sale of Decisive Farming Corp.

Counsel to Decisive Farming Corp in the acquisition by TELUS Agriculture Solutions Inc.

Advising CNRL in an employment dispute

Counsel to one of the defendants, and was successful in having the action struck pursuant to Rule 3.68 and Civil Practice Note 7. (Freeman v. University of Alberta, 2021 ABQB 612)

Successfully represented the defendant in employment litigation

Counsel to the defendant in obtaining a court order (for security for costs) resulting in the plaintiff's claim being dismissed. (Freeman v Canadian Natural Resources Limited, 2018 ABQB 310)

Successfully represented respondent in human rights complaint

Counsel to the respondent in a human rights complaint. The complaint was dismissed as it was filed outside of the limitation period in the Human Rights Act. (Cromie v.Tourmaline Oil Corp et al, 2021 AHRC 79)

Advising the defendant in a wrongful dismissal case

Successfully represented the defendant in a wrongful dismissal action and the plaintiff's claim was dismissed following trial. (Jegou v. CNRL, 2021 ABQB 401. The decision on costs awarded to CNRL is Jegou v. CNRL, 2021 ABQB 943).

Advising Enerflex Ltd. in a wrongful dismissal claim by an employee

Successfully represented the defendant in a wrongful dismissal and loss of benefits claims by the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs' claim was struck in its entirety on the grounds that there was no genuine issue for trial, portions of the claim were issue estopped from proceeding, and certain elements of a cause of action were not sufficiently plead. (Cabot v. Enerflex, 2020 MC).

Advising the respondent in an alleged discrimination case

Successfully represented the respondent in a claim for alleged discrimination under the Alberta Human Rights Act. Following an Alberta Human Rights Commission Tribunal hearing the complaint was struck as the Commission had no jurisdiction due to the complainant entering into a valid and enforceable release and settlement agreement with the respondent. (Cabot v. Enerflex, 2019 AHRC 1).

Advising Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. in an employment-related dispute

Successfully represented the defendant in obtaining a court order striking the damages portion of the plaintiff's claim on the grounds that such portions of the claim were statute barred by virtue of the Workers Compensation Act. (LL v. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., 2018 ABQB 879)

International Petroleum Corporation acquisition of oil and natural gas assets from Cenovus Energy Inc.

Counsel to International Petroleum Corporation in the acquisition of oil and natural gas assets in Suffield and Alderson areas of southern Alberta from Cenovus Energy Inc. for proceeds of $512 million plus an additional deferred contingent amount of $36 million