Daniel Nelson
PartnerMassey LLP
- +1 416.775.0675
We’re entrepreneurs first, lawyers second.
We believe your legal team should empower you to be successful, instead of counting on things going wrong. From estate planning, administration, and dispute resolution, we’re a collaborative and dynamic team who provide businesses with legal advice and litigation solutions that work for their needs.
We don’t believe in silos. We want to work with your other providers (even other legal professionals!) to help streamline your advice, services, and to reduce your costs while serving your end-goals. We’ll coordinate with your accountant on your taxes, your strategists or branding experts on your get-to-market strategy, and more.
Why?
Because times change. So have we. Whether you’re incorporating your business, administering a Trust, or seeking general counsel, we offer plainly spoken, direct advice without sugar-coating.
Our Promise & Philosophy
We know that the law can seem daunting. Instead of dour partner portraits and dusty mahogany furniture, you’ll find an agile, hardworking team that’s passionate about using technology to its full advantage. We operate in a contemporary environment in order to serve modern business needs.
We are friendly, compassionate, and committed to delivering timely, practical, and cost‐effective legal services. These three pillars underscore our services:
Surge Capacity
Bringing together the best legal and business advisory services to work together seamlessly for you. We have the best resources from around the globe at our fingertips.
Proactive Risk Management
From early liability protection, proper insurance, and talking to the right people, we truly believe an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We want to help you feel secure and insulated against future legal risks.
No Surprises
We work in the open with you beforehand and throughout to help you make legal decisions that make the most financial and business sense for you.
As entrepreneurs, we’re open to discussing models or a retainer that will fit your company best, while also offering traditional, fixed fee, or lawyer-share models for particular scopes of work. We promise we can make something work for your business needs.
Show more +As an experienced estate lawyer, it is my job to guide you through the emotionally challenging work of estate law, no matter your stage in life. Whether you need a will, power of attorney or trust deed, need assistance with substitute decision-making, or need help in administrating an estate, I'm here to help.
Having managed a legal practice for many years, I also have extensive experience in navigating the marketplace and I offer practical legal advice to business people, particularly in the field of design, no matter their skill level. This commitment led to my appointment as General Counsel to the Association of Canadian Industrial Designers, Counsel to the Institute without Boundaries, and to the boards of several new media companies.
A skilled adjudicator and mediator, I also serve as a member of the Conservation Review Board, which has jurisdiction over disputes related to the designation of historic property in Ontario.
I am a frequent lecturer and writer on legal, historical, and new media topics, have appeared on CBC TV, CBC Radio, Global News, CTV and Canada AM and have been quoted newspapers as diverse as the Lawyer's Daily, the Washington Post, Canadian Business Magazine, and the Toronto Star. I also frequently lecture to students in the School of Design at George Brown College. As a result of my academic research, I was awarded the 2013 Widdifield Award from the Ontario Bar Association for my work on the intersection of estate planning, estate administration, and social media, known as digital legacy, which addresses questions of what happens to our online lives when we die. I've even been cited in the High Court of Australia decision of Griffith University v. Tang for my work on judicial review in the university context.
Before entering practice, I attended Trent University, in Peterborough, Ontario where I earned a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree and a Master of Arts degree in Canadian Studies. Under the tutelage of Professor T.H.B. Symons, my graduate specialty was in the history of Ontario before Confederation. This was followed by a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) degree from the University of Windsor with its innovative focus on access to justice. While there, I was ranked in the top 10% of my class and earned The Scotiabank Award for Wills, The Frank W. Wilson and Marion Claire Wilson Memorial Scholarship in Constitutional Law, and the Cassels Brock & Blackwell Centennial Prize.
An active volunteer, I am proud to give my time to the Sharon Temple Museum Society (a national historic site), Pickering College, Scouts Canada and to a non‐profit cemetery board.
Commercial Law in Canada - East
10 King Street East Toronto, Ontario M5C 1C3 Canada
Massey LLP