Bio
Marc McAree provides advice and solutions to a wide range of clients that help them overcome their environmental law and litigation issues. Marc also provides mediation on environmental issues. Marc is admitted to the bars of Ontario and British Columbia.
Rankings and Awards
- Certified Specialist in Environmental Law, Law Society of Ontario, since 2004
- Selected for inclusion in the 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 Lexpert™®/American Lawyer Guides To The Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada
- Named annually in the Chambers & Partners Guide for Environmental Law
- Peer selected annually for The Best Lawyers in Canada©—Environmental Law
- Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP is named "Law Firm of the Year" for The Best Lawyers in Canada©—Environmental Law, 2017 Edition and 2021 Edition
- Named annually “Most Frequently Recommended” in the Canadian Legal Lexpert directory
- Named annually in the international Who’s Who Legal—Environment and Who’s Who Legal—Canada
- Ranked “AV® Preeminent™” by peers in Martindale-Hubbell
- Recipient, Linda Adlam Manning Award for Volunteerism, Ontario Bar Association, 2009
Environmental Law
Marc provides specialist advice and solutions on all aspects of environmental law including expertise with contaminated land/brownfields clean ups, transactions and litigation, and environmental compliance and approvals. Marc also helps clients reduce and manage their environmental risks and liabilities, including assisting with transactional environmental due diligence and ongoing environmental compliance.
Environmental Litigation
- Environmental civil litigation
- Defence of environmental regulatory prosecutions
- Environmental appeals
Marc represents clients at all levels of Ontario Courts on actions, applications, judicial reviews and appeals. He defends clients against environmental prosecutions and appears before the Environmental Review Tribunal and other administrative law decision-makers.
Marc has particular experience in the courts and tribunals litigating soil and groundwater contaminant impacts, and nuisance and odour issues. He frequently negotiates settlements of substantial and complex environmental damage claims without resort to civil litigation.
Clients
- Industrial companies
- Insurers and financial institutions
- Municipalities
- Transit authorities
- Conservation authorities
- Land developers, property owners, landlords, tenants, real estate investment trusts & portfolio companies
- Construction companies
- Dry cleaners
- Individuals
Representative Work
- Environmental Counsel to Major Food Processing Company—Canadian environmental counsel to an international food processing company. Advice about environmental regulation of truck-to-train transfer requirements for crude oil, environmental requirements for the sale of a grain terminal, environmental site assessment reports associated with a lease surrender, and ongoing multi-party environmental risk and associated litigation.
- Migration of Chlorinated Solvents Through Property—Achieved a multi-million dollar settlement for a government client that owns a flow-through contaminated property with broad indemnification from the long-time former industrial owner of the upgradient source property after a decade of civil litigation and regulator engagement.
- Appeal of Regulatory Order to Tribunal—Appeal of an order against a municipal client involving the deposit by an owner of fly ash received from a municipal energy-from-waste facility that was lawfully deposited at a property pursuant to an agreement and in accordance with environmental laws, and initiation of a civil action against several potentially responsible parties for damages incurred to appeal the order.
- Defence of Lawyer in Civil Litigation—Defence of a lawyer on behalf of the lawyer’s insurer against allegations of negligence, misappropriation of funds, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty associated with the migration of petroleum hydrocarbons from a major oil company’s property to the Plaintiff’s property (lawyer’s former client), where the former client alleged that the lawyer failed to issue a claim within the limitation period.
- Environmental Coverage Opinion, Defence and Subrogation Claim for an Insurer—Initially provided insurance coverage advice to an insurer about its insured’s claim in response to a significant fuel loss at a service station impacting commercial and residential properties in the vicinity of a nearby river. Managed environmental regulator involvement by working with the regulator and insured to strategically spend insurance proceeds. Defended a bad faith claim initiated against the insurer by the insured after the coverage limit was spent. Initiated a subrogation action against other potentially responsible parties.
- Defence of Environmental Consultant to Sewer Use Prosecution—Defence of an insured environmental consulting firm and its principal against charges relating to sewer discharges from the consultant’s client’s wastewater treatment system, where the consultant did not engage in, or cause or permit any discharge to the municipal sewer.