Faculty

Dr. Michael F. Motala H.Ba., M.Sc., M.A., J.D., Ph.D., F.R.S.A., is a practicing litigation and transactional lawyer, a political scientist, and a legal scholar who has conducted research and/or taught at Columbia Law School, Stanford Law School, and the University of Toronto’s Trinity College. Dr. Motala is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and holds degrees from the University of Toronto’s Department of Political Science, Columbia University, Osgoode Hall Law School, the London School of Economics, and the University of Toronto’s Trinity College.

Ed Kroft, Q.C., CPA (Hon.), FRPSC represents clients in domestic and international matters including transfer pricing, treaty interpretation and tax avoidance. Ed practices in our Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary offices and regularly appears for clients before various Canadian courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, the Tax Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

Ed is recognized as a leading lawyer in directories such as Chambers Global, Chambers Canada, and Lexpert’s recent Canadian, US/Canada Cross-Border and Corporate Tax guides.

Ed was a member of the Rules Committee of the Tax Court of Canada for many years, and is currently a member of the Federal Courts Bench and Bar Committee. Ed has received numerous awards including the Canadian Tax Foundation’s Lifetime Contribution Award in 2016.

For several years, Ed has taught tax courses at the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia, the Certified General Accountants Association of British Columbia and the University of British Columbia Law School. Since 2008, he has been the course director of tax administration and litigation for the Osgoode Hall Law School LL.M. program. Ed is also Chair, Tax Litigation Practice Group, The Advocates’ Society.

John Sorensen is co-head of the Business Law Department in the Toronto office, a member of the Toronto office management committee, and co-leader of the Firm’s Tax Dispute Resolution team. He has been ranked by the Best Lawyers in Canada, International Tax Review, Lexpert Special Edition: Litigation, and the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory.

A partner based in Gowling WLG’s Toronto office, John provides prudent advice and expeditious, cost-effective solutions to tax problems. He has extensive experience resolving income tax and GST/HST disputes at the audit and appeal stages, as well as before the Courts. His practice also includes voluntary disclosure, taxpayer relief, rectification, rescission, and remission order applications.

John frequently speaks and writes on tax dispute resolution topics, including for the Canadian Tax Foundation, Tax Executives Institute, and the International Fiscal Association. He is a co-editor and contributing author to Taxation of Private Corporations and Their Shareholders, 5^th ed. (CTF, 2020) and Tax Disputes in Canada: the Path Forward (CTF, 2022 – forthcoming). John is also chair of the Advocates’ Society tax litigation section, and a member of the board of directors of the Advocates’ Society.