Jim has mediated, or arbitrated over 2,000 disputes involving commercial/industrial/public & residential construction, professional negligence, franchising, employment, debt, insurance, (incl. fatalities and severe injury), corporate and shareholder issues, royalties, trusts, market rent, industrial land sales, government contracts, fires, pipelines, municipal subdivision, petroleum/coal exploration & development rights, power purchase arrangements, partnership explusion, and other high value disputes.

He is a Chartered Mediator and Chartered Arbitrator, has been President of the ADR Institute of Alberta, and a Vice-President of the ADR Institute of Canada (2016 recipient of the McGowan National Award of Excellence in Dispute Resolution). He is a member of ADRIC’s Arbitration Committee and was involved in drafting Med-Arb Rules, the 2016 Arbitration Rules and co-chair of the committee that prepared 2025 Arbitration Rules.

He has been on the ADR rosters of the Provincial Court, the General Insurance OmbudService, the Alberta Energy Regulator, the Canadian Transportation Agency, the Alberta New Home Warranty Program, the AIT Alberta Bid Protest Panel, and the ADR Institute of Canada’s commercial and interim measures rosters. He was a member or chair of two Oil Sands Dispute Review Committees, and a member or chair of four NEB Pipeline Arbitration Committees. He has been court-appointed as a Claims Officer under the CCAA and since 2006 has served on the discipline and appeal tribunals of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Alberta.

Jim became a director of EIG Ltd (Energy Insurance Group) in 2005 and served as Board Chair from 2009—2020.

A lawyer for 52 years, Jim practiced civil litigation involving commercial and tort law at all court levels in Canada. He regularly attends, and presents at, continuing education courses. In November 2024 he taught commercial mediation theory and skills to Mongolian mediators, lawyers, and judges. The course, sponsored by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and implemented by the International Development Law Office, was part of Mongolia’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its judicial, legal, and commercial systems. He also met for wide-ranging discussion of ADR with the Minister of Justice and Home Affairs and later with other officials in his ministry.

Bachelor of Arts, University of Calgary, 1972

Bachelor of Laws, University of Alberta, 1973

• International Academy of Mediators
• Western Canada Commercial Arbitration Society
• ADR Institute of Alberta
• ADR Institute of Canada
• Client Choice Award 2020: Arbitration & ADR
• Lionel J McGowan Award of Excellence in Dispute Resolution 2016
• ADRIC Commercial Arbitration Roster
• ADRIC Interim Measures Roster
  

Hourly. Disbursements at cost. No charge for travel time. Late cancellation terms.

Details available upon request.

English