Lawrences - Brampton's Business Lawyers

Called to the Bar: 1984

Phone: (905) 452-6880

Fax: (905) 451-5058

Mike chairs the firm's Estates Group. His practice is focused on estate planning and wealth transfer during lifetime or on death and includes the preparation of Wills, Trusts, Powers of Attorney and tax planning. Mike designs unique solutions for individual assets such as the family cottage or family farm, or for special beneficiaries such as minors, the disabled, second spouses and non-resident beneficiaries. Working with our Corporate Group, Mike also helps business clients develop integrated solutions for their business and personal planning objectives.

Mike assists executors, trustees and attorneys for property and personal care with the fulfillment of their duties and obligations. He also provides advice to beneficiaries or others who have a financial interest in an estate or trust (creditors, spouses, children from prior relationships and other dependants). Mike has guided many families through crisis situations involving unexpected death or incapacity.

Prior to focusing on estate planning and estate administration, Mike had extensive experience as a family and estate litigation lawyer. He has a wealth of experience dealing with all aspects of family disputes. He has successfully challenged Wills and participated in a wide variety of estate-related court proceedings. He is a panel lawyer for both the Children's Lawyer for the Province of Ontario and the Public Guardian and Trustee.

REPRESENTATIVE WORK

Mike has prepared estate plans for clients who are in second or multiple relationships and who wish to provide for fair treatment of the second spouse and children from prior relationships. He has negotiated and prepared numerous cohabitation agreements and marriage contracts.
Mike works with business owners to implement plans involving the use of family trusts, testamentary trusts and multiple wills.

He advises Attorneys for Property on the administration of incapable persons' affairs, and has prepared Applications for the appointment of a and Guardian of Property and Guardian of Personal Care in situations where the mentally incapacitated individual did not appoint an Attorney while capable.

Mike has appeared in court on estate dispute cases dealing with such issues as:
• how an estate is to be distributed when a beneficiary disclaims his or her interest in the estate,
• the administration of an estate in the face of conflict in the family and conflicting interpretations of a Will,
• the appointment or removal of executors and trustees;
• breach of trust, and
• estate accounting and executor compensation disputes.

PUBLICATIONS

“The Use of Trusts in a Will” Ontario Bar Association, September 2012.
“The Difference Between a Will and an Estate Plan” The Lawrences Letter, Spring 2012.
“Being an Executor can be Taxing” The Lawrences Letter, Winter 2011.
“Estate Planning: Who Gets What?” The Lawrences Letter, Fall 2010.
“Estate Planning for Blended Families”, with Gosha Sekhon. Ontario Bar Association Estates and Trusts newsletter Deadbeat, March 2010.
“Death. Taxes, and Testamentary Trusts: How Estate Planning Can Help”. The Lawrences Letter, Spring 2008.
“A Matter of Trust: Joint Bank Accounts with Children”. The Lawrences Letter, Winter 2008.

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS/TEACHING

• Regular speaker and presenter at estate-related programs offered by some of Canada's leading organizations, financial institutions, and charities
• Participated in a five-week program on estate planning on Radio 740 AM
• Speaker at Ontario Bar Association and Peel Law Association seminars on estate planning
• Past instructor in estate planning at the Bar Admission Course on Trusts and Estates for the Law Society of Upper Canada
• Past lecturer in Business Law at Sheridan College

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

• Member of the Advisory Board for the Brampton Retirement Council
• Member of the Mississauga Estate Planning Council
• Member of the Society of Trusts and Estate Practitioners (STEP)
• Former member of the Executive Committee, Trusts and Estates section, Ontario Bar Association and former chair of the Statutory Review Committee, whose recommendations have resulted in amendments to the Family Law Act of Ontario
• Peel Law Association
• Ontario Bar Association
• Law Society of Upper Canada

EDUCATION

• Called to the Ontario bar 1984
• LLB University of Windsor Law School 1982
• BA (with high distinction) McMaster University 1979

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

• Former Member of the Donor Development Committee for the Canadian Mental Health Association-Peel
• Member, Canadian-Croatian Chamber of Commerce and 2010 Canadian-Croatian Professional of the Year
• Member, Brampton Board of Trade
• Former director, Big Brothers of Peel