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Navigating The Employment Law Waters

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Navigating The Employment Law Waters

What We Do

The MacLeod Law Firm advises and represents private and public sector employers of all sizes including non-profit organizations. Our motto, “All We Do is WORK,” means that our lawyers only practice workplace law. This includes employment law, labour law and human rights law.

What To Expect

Our goal is to give you peace of mind by quickly and competently resolving workplace issues.
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Because we are competent, we can respond to questions and provide advice quickly. We understand you want to get your legal question answered as fast as possible so you can focus on business priorities.

Since we provide our cell phone numbers to clients and we answer our phones directly, we are very accessible.

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We explain your legal rights in plain English and provide you with advice that makes business sense. We take your risk tolerance into account when providing this advice.

We only practice workplace law and our firm has been acknowledged by our legal peers and by the human resources community as being one of the top labour and employment law firms in Canada.

Services

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Employee Terminations & Severance Packages

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Employment Contracts

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Human Resource Policies

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Human Rights

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Employee Terminations & Severance Packages

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Employment Contracts

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Human Resource Policies

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Human Rights

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Employment Standards

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Departing Employees

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Occupational Health & Safety

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Employee vs. Independent Contractor

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Employment Standards

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Departing Employees

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Occupational Health & Safety

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Employee vs. Independent Contractor

Fixed Fee Services

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Fixed Fee Services

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À La Carte Fixed Fee Services

Employer Blog

Reducing Litigation Risk

In a recent case, Pohl v. Hudson’s Bay Company, 2022 ONSC 5230 (CanLII),an employer was ordered to pay a long service employee the equivalent of about 3 years pay and contribute about $ 35 000 to his legal fees. Although this was a without cause termination case, it...

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In The News

Pilots, air traffic controllers grounded from cannabis use

Pilots, air traffic controllers grounded from cannabis use

Changes for federal employees include leave provisions

Changes for federal employees include leave provisions

Contractor or full-time staffer — weigh benefits, drawbacks

Contractor or full-time staffer — weigh benefits, drawbacks

Maternity leave rights must be followed: MacLeod

Maternity leave rights must be followed: MacLeod

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Testimonials

Catherine Lang, Vice President, Human Resources, Manchu Wok (Canada) Inc.
Doug MacLeod of the MacLeod Law Firm has provided legal services for our organization for several years. His work and advice is both practical and relevant to our business. His firm has provided a wide array of employment law services such as: employment contracts; employee terminations; severance packages; human resource policy review; stock option issues; human rights complaints (including out of Province complaints); sick leave return to work issues; workplace harassment complaints; OHSA including Bill 168; and, various employment standards issues including leaves of absence, and vacation. Doug’s advice and support is timely and focused on the issue which allows our organization to reduce risk, limit exposure and move forward with our business.We are extremely pleased with all services provided and consider this firm as a strong business partner.
Laetitia Pacaud, Chief Operating Officer of Strathallen Capital Corporation
Doug MacLeod of the MacLeod Law Firm handles all of Strathallen Capital Corporation’s employment law advice across Canada. This partnership has greatly assisted Strathallen during its growth stages and has ensured that our business has exceptional policies and procedures to rely on. We are grateful to have an industry leader to turn to in times of need. His calm and practical approach has resulted in limited exposure to Strathallen concerning employee claims which has resulted in low cost solutions to legal claims. The use of his services comes with my highest recommendation.
Brian Cookson, President of RDP Associates Inc.
Doug MacLeod of the MacLeod law Firm has provided RDP Associates Inc. (RDP) with considerable employment advice and representation including: preparing employment contracts; preparing, commenting and revising human resource policies including a discrimination free workplace policy, and a workplace harassment and violence policy; advising on employees who are on sick leave; preparing severance packages; advising on employee terminations; defending RDP in connection with employment actions; dealing with other lawyers on behalf of RDP; and advising on RDP’s obligations under OHSA including Bill 168. In all cases and for all facets of our work with Doug, we have found him to be knowledgeable, helpful and always available when we required his services (many times at a moment’s notice).
Kate Venn, Manager of Human Resources, YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka
I have had the opportunity to work with Doug MacLeod on several occasions and I have found that I can always rely on him to provide great advice on a variety of issues in employment law. Doug has helped us successfully navigate through some unusual situations, and he was a great resource for us when we were revising our HR policies and employment contracts. I appreciate that Doug always takes the time to get to know all the details so that he can provide the best advice possible in each circumstance. In addition to Doug’s great legal advice, he also offers great insights through his blogs. I would not hesitate to call Doug again in the future when we need assistance.
Heather Crawford, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Clairvest Group Inc.
Doug MacLeod of the MacLeod Law Firm has provided us with practical legal advice on a wide range of employment law matters over the years. His advice has always been timely and proactive at reasonable rates that do not include the cost of unnecessary overhead. I would highly recommend Doug.
Kim Marshall, Innovative Automation Inc.
Doug has been a key advisor to Innovative Automation for the past 6 years. He focuses on providing sound professional advice in a refreshing manner that addresses ways to minimize our legal costs. Through the many free seminars offered in Barrie over recent months, he’s shared his ideas on how we can easily make changes in our business processes that will have long-lasting effects. These interactive seminars were highly informative with topics that proved relevant for many of us in the groups.
Deeter Rieckerman, West York Motor Cars Inc.
Doug MacLeod of the MacLeod Law Firm navigated our business through a very difficult closure minimizing the associated employee termination costs beyond our expectations. He was extremely responsive to our needs, practical, creative, and his work produced excellent results in terms of low cost solutions to our legal problems. I would not hesitate to use his services again should the need arise.
Sherry Phillips, former Board Chair, Legal Aid Clinic.
Doug MacLeod of the MacLeod Law Firm provided legal advice and representation to our non-profit organization during and after my tenure as Board Chair. His legal knowledge of non-profits and Board governance, and his experience and knowledge of case law pertaining to human relations matters were significant, and proved to be instrumental in successfully guiding the organization through three separate litigations with former staff. Doug’s professionalism is exemplary. He is able to work with lay people in a manner that is respectful and sincere. His approach to the legal work that our organization faced was thorough, and he provided us with sound advice and guidance in a manner that was coherent to us and free from bias, and that enabled us to more smoothly shepherd the organization through some challenging times. What I appreciate most about Doug’s approach is his deep sense of professionalism in working through matters that can charge others with emotion and confusion. Knowing that he was juggling a number of other cases while attending to ours, I was always impressed by his ability to be responsive and timely in addressing our many needs for legal advice and guidance. I would definitely engage Doug MacLeod if a future organizational need for legal counsel arose.
Robert W. Erent, President, North American Crating Inc.
We have used the services of Doug’s law firm in the past so when it came to having our Employee Handbook and Human Resources Policies reviewed we turned to the MacLeod Law Firm once again. Doug was able to illustrate to us that our policy manual was over burdened, out of date and on some issues left us vulnerable. Doug re-worked the entire policy that reduced the size of the manual considerably yet making it concise to the point and allowed us an easier way to manage our company. We highly recommend the services of Doug and his team for this need.
Tom De Simone, Rail Ontario Ltd.
I am a small business owner and one day I found one of my workers dead at work. He worked alone and he had overridden a safety feature on one of the machines. I immediately called the police. Following there was a police and Ministy of Labour investigation. As a result, the Ministry of Labour charged me under the Occupation Health and Safety Act. I was referred to Doug MacLeod of MacLeod Law Firm by a friend. Given my circumstances, the time and cost of a trial and a possible fine would have bankrupted me. Thankfully and skillfully, Doug negotiated a settlement that was significantly less than the fines courts were imposing on employers in fatality cases at that time. As you can imagine, this was a time of great emotional turmoil for me. I cannot say enough about how calming, kind, and professional Doug was. His empathy, assurance, and skill helped me get through this difficult time, and for that I am thankful and would give him the highest of recommendations.
Ashley L.
I retained Doug MacLeod of the MacLeod Law Firm to represent me in connection with a human rights complaint that was filed by a former employee. As a small employer, responding to a human rights complaint is a daunting process. Doug’s knowledge of recent amendments to the Human Rights Code was instrumental in helping us resolve the complaint through the mediation process, which meant we avoided a potentially lengthy and costly hearing. He was cognizant of the impacts a hearing would have on us financially and emotionally, and he provided us advice and guidance that best fit our goals and needs. I would certainly recommend Doug to small business owners/employers who find themselves the subject of a human rights complaint.

Toronto Office

702 - 2 Bloor Street West,
Toronto, ON M4W 3E2

Barrie Office

277 - 92 Caplan Avenue,
Barrie, ON L4N 9J2

Collingwood Office

220 - 1 First Street
Collingwood, ON
L9Y 1A1

Locations

Toronto Office

700 - 2 Bloor Street West, Toronto ON M4W 3E2

Barrie Office

277 - 92 Caplan Avenue, Barrie ON L4N 9J2

Collingwood Office

204 - 64 Hurontario Street, Collingwood, ON L9Y 2L6

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