The Toronto office of Gowling WLG has seen several changes in its leadership team, including the election of a new managing partner.
Benjamin Na, a 22-year firm veteran, was elected for a four-year term to the Toronto office managing partner role, taking over the position from Mark Ledwell, who completed his term at the end of December. Ledwell has returned to his practice, which includes agri-food and trade law, project finance, infrastructure development, and government relations.
Na, who has been at Gowling WLG since shortly after he was called to the bar in 1998, will be responsible for “furthering Gowling WLG’s mandate to be a top innovative global law firm through leveraging the firm’s extensive practice areas and experience around the world,” the firm said in a statement.
Na is a commercial litigator who led the office’s advocacy department prior to his election. He has extensive experience in directors’ and officers’ liability; contract, shareholder, partnership and cross-border disputes; civil fraud; and banking litigation, according to the firm.
In addition to Na, Jennifer Mak joins the firm as the new general manager of the Toronto office, replacing Heather Caldwell, who retired after 13 years at Gowling WLG.
Mak is a chartered professional accountant with experience in operations and business management. She previously worked at PwC Canada and had been the COO of Zeifmans LLP, a mid-sized accounting and consulting firm, for the past two years, the firm said.
Last week, Gowling WLG also announced that Erik Goldsilver, a lawyer with more than 20 years of experience helping mining companies through the full lifecycle of their projects, had joined its international mining group in Toronto from Borden Ladner Gervais, where he was a partner. Goldsilver’s practice focuses principally on mining law, including in-depth experience with streaming transactions and royalty agreements.
