Take a moment to meet our lawyers — they are the people who truly allow us to offer the quality of service for which we are known.

PRACTICE PROFILE

Gary Nijman is a member of the firm’s Maritime, Environmental and Insurance Practices. He has appeared in all levels of court including the Supreme Court of Canada.

REPRESENTATIVE LEGAL EXPERIENCE*

Maritime: With a Naval navigation background spent on the west coast, and a degree in physical oceanography, Gary’s pre-law experience has assisted him in his maritime practice, which includes:

• coverage counsel on all aspects of maritime claims from collisions to cargo and everything in between;
• inland marine claims, including warehousing; and 
• defense of collision, bodily injury and cargo claims.
  

Environment: Gary has a thorough understanding of the science of environmental contamination and acts as coverage and defense monitoring counsel on environmental liability claims, in Canada and elsewhere. Examples include:

• billion dollar claim by an international mining company for liability insurance coverage for clean up liability for all of its mine sites and off-site pollution;
• billion dollar claim by a national oil company to clean up all of its oil fields, refineries, bulk plants and service stations; and
• multi-million dollar claim by an international mining company to clean up a river after a large mine tailings escape.

Insurance Coverage: acts as coverage counsel in the courts of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba under the various Law Society agreements allowing practice in other provinces. As coverage counsel, Gary will also monitor the defense of actions in the USA under NAFTA rules and anywhere in the world, for example:

• £300,000,000 D&O case in England involving the sale of a truck manufacturer;
• $100,000,000 USD multiple E&O cases in the USA and Canada for a pipeline from northern British Columbia to Chicago;
• large E&O lawyer defalcation case in Manitoba;
• large British Columbia D&O class action case over a multi-company going-private transaction.
  

RELEVANT BACKGROUND EXPERIENCE

1973 – 1981 Officer in the Canadian Navy:

• Navigation Officer for HMCS Restigouche and HMCS Yukon
• Diving officer
• Demolitions officer
• Communications officer
  

RECENT PUBLICIATIONS

• Co-author, "Where Will You Be Sued?" (Choice of Jurisdiction Clauses in Insurance Policies) with Todd R. Davies, Canadian Underwriter, November 2007
• Author, "Liability inquiry:  Do you have the correct liability insurance coverage?"  The Tablet, October/November, 2006.