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Donovan uses his broad based labour and employment and industry expertise to provide innovative, value-added advice for clients’ complex employment and labour law matters.

Donovan is a partner in our Labour & Employment Group in Vancouver. Recognized for his practical, business-minded approach and ability to anticipate client needs, his practice focuses on numerous areas of employment and labour law, including as counsel in employment litigation, labour relations board and grievance arbitration matters, collective bargaining and human rights litigation. Donovan advises employers across a broad range of both provincially and federally regulated industries, with significant experience working with employers in the Retail and Consumer Markets, Mining, Banking & Financial Services and Transportation industries. He is the Retail Sector Lead of our firm’s National Retail and Consumer Markets Group.

Donovan also has extensive experience drafting employment contracts restrictive covenant agreements, and other employment related documents, as well as advising on all manner of workplace legal issues including privacy, disability, and the application and interpretation of collective agreements. Donovan’s significant labour and employment law knowledge allows him to tailor his approach to best suit clients’ business, risk tolerance, and corporate culture. Clients value his flexibility, responsiveness, and ability to craft workable solutions to complex and challenging business matters.

Donovan has appeared as counsel in matters before all levels of court in British Columbia, as well as before the British Columbia Labour Relations Board, the Canada Industrial Relations Board, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal and grievance arbitration panels. Some of his representative experience includes:

• representing employers in employment related litigation, including wrongful dismissal, human rights, privacy, and departing employee matters;
• representing unionized employers in grievance arbitration and labour relations board proceedings, including discharge, discipline, interpretation of collective agreements, unlawful strike and unfair labour practice complaints;
• advising employers regarding union organizing campaigns and certification and decertification applications;
• advising employers on a wide variety of human resources and labour relations issues, including employee disability and accommodation, attendance management, privacy, human rights and employment policies, and terminations; and
• advising on labour and employment issues in corporate mergers, acquisitions and reorganizations.

Donovan is a prolific publisher and regularly presents on labour, employment and human rights legal issues, including legal issues in workplace investigations, the duty to accommodate, defending human rights complaints, best practices in terminating employment, aggravated and punitive damages, and workplace privacy. He is a frequent presenter at industry events and CLE’s, including presentations for the Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia, the Canadian Bar Association, the Association of Corporate Counsel, and the Canadian Association of Counsel to Employers.

Donovan obtained a BA (Hons) from the University of Ottawa in 1997, and his LLB from the University of British Columbia in 2000. Following law school, he served as a judicial law clerk with the Supreme Court of British Columbia. He was called to the British Columbia bar in 2002.