McDougall Gauley LLP is pleased to welcome Amanda Wickett, Brandon Hicks, Brendan Bernakevitch, Matthew Schmeling, and William Lane to the partnership.
Amanda maintains a corporate commercial practice, with a focus on tax-driven corporate reorganizations, corporate governance, regulatory compliance, and energy and mining matters.
Amanda leads McDougall Gauley LLP’s tax practice group. She is a former law clerk to the Federal Court of Appeal, and has obtained a Master of Laws degree. Amanda has experience as in-house counsel to the provincial water regulator, and has published academic articles in a number of areas, including debtor creditor law, personal property security law, and energy law. She has a diverse and loyal client base made up of individuals, corporations, members of the financial services industry, and government entities.
Brandon advises clients on a wide range of corporate transactional matters and governance issues. He has significant experience managing corporate acquisitions, advising condominium corporations, and providing practical solutions to property related issues. Brandon leads the firm's Information Technology and Intellectual Property team.
In 2021, Brandon was appointed by the City of Regina to the Development Appeals Board for a three year term. He also presently sits as a director and Vice-President for the South Saskatchewan chapter of the Canadian Condominium Institute.
Brendan maintains a broad corporate practice. He has experience with small and large businesses with respect to corporate governance, financing, transactional work, restructuring and general corporate strategy. For start-ups and early stage companies, he focuses on solid, efficient and creative solutions to access capital (including portals and crowdfunding) and to set the expectations of investors, founders, officers and directors. For expanding businesses, he focuses on financing, transaction strategy and risk management, including debt and equity financing strategy, protection of IP and employee liability. For companies in transition or sale, he focuses on proper structuring to allow generational transition, employee buyouts or third-party sales.
Brendan grew up in Regina and left after high school to pursue education and professional hockey in North America and Europe. Upon retiring from professional hockey, he has moved back to Regina along with his wife, Danelle, and three children.
Matt’s practice focuses primarily on criminal and civil litigation. He regularly defends individuals and organizations charged with all forms of criminal, regulatory and professional discipline offences. Matt has appeared before all levels of Court in Saskatchewan on criminal and civil matters. He has appeared in provincial courts in Manitoba and Alberta.
Matt grew up on a farm outside of Milestone, Saskatchewan. He obtained his engineering degree from the University of Regina in 2008 and worked as an engineer in Grande Prairie, Alberta for a number of years. He moved back to Saskatchewan in 2011 and obtained his law school degree in 2014, joining McDougall Gauley the same year. Matt looks forward to building his practice and raising his young family alongside his wife, Amanda.
William maintains a civil litigation practice focused on complex commercial litigation, construction disputes, and regulatory proceedings. He has experience in the Court of Queen’s Bench and the Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan.
During law school, William served as a Managing Editor of the Saskatchewan Law Review and a teaching assistant for the College’s Legal Research and Writing course. Prior to joining McDougall Gauley, he clerked at the Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan. William also obtained a Masters of Law from the University of Chicago Law School. William has been recognized by Best Lawyers in Canada as “One to Watch” in corporate and commercial litigation, for 2022.
Lindsay Hart, on behalf of the firm’s Executive Committee, had this to say about the new partners:
The firm is proud to welcome this talented group of lawyers to our partnership. They are highly valued members of their Practice Teams for their commitment to excellence in professional service and in handling complex legal matters. Each new partner has demonstrated dedication to our clients, colleagues and community. Congratulations to each new partner on this significant milestone.
Please join us in congratulating the new partners and in welcoming them to the partnership.
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