BARRISTER & SOLICITOR

ISAAC J. PAONESSA
Founding Lawyer

BIO

I have an extensive background in financial services from my time on Bay Street at BMO Nesbitt Burns and BMO Bank of Montreal. At Nesbitt Burns I was an investment advisor on a team that included life insurance advisors and accountants. From those client files I learned the power of a team approach on complex property matters for high net worth individuals. I take those lessons with me in law where a separation involves the division or equalization of significant assets that are mixed in personal, corporate, and trust holdings. I work with your other experts to ensure the best set of options are explored and presented to a client.

Bay Street experience in financial planning and investment advisory enables me to offer an in-depth perspective when personal or corporate assets are at stake in a legal dispute, especially in a family law or divorce matter.

I completed articles of clerkship at a full-service law firm with locations across Canada. This exposed me to a wide variety of legal experience, such as family law litigation, commercial litigation, mediation and arbitration, creditor-debtor litigation linked to insolvency and bankruptcy, and regulatory & white collar defence. This diverse experience allows me to understand the importance of a forensic approach to help clients advance and protect their economic and parental interests.

When undergoing lawyer training in the early years, I had the opportunity to help my supervisor on many cases in the criminal law system. I assisted on jury trials and appeared regularly before judges of the criminal courts on guilty pleas and other matters. Because one's past can continue to haunt them later as they try to negotiate a property matter in a separation or try to achieve a fair amount of parenting time with their children, my appreciation for the impact of the criminal justice system on a family law matter helps me to be a better advisor to my client. It also helps me to understand what they have gone through.

I regularly appear for clients in the Ontario Court of Justice and the Superior Court of Justice. My law practice focuses exclusively on divorce and family law matters. This ranges from high-conflict court proceedings and complex property division to mediated settlements for parenting time with one's child.

I am able to guide a client through any legal path available that best suits their situation. This includes negotiated settlements, mediation, mediation-arbitration, and court proceedings such as binding judicial dispute resolution or all the way through motions and trial.

As a student, I worked for the Government of Canada. Collaborating with government lawyers at Transport Canada and Innovation Science and Economic Development, I analyzed the impact of legislation and assessed legislative proposals, gaining invaluable insights into the workings of the legal system.

I earned my law degree (Juris Doctor) from Western University in London, Ontario. As a law student, I volunteered as a caseworker at the Western Intellectual Property and Legal Innovation Clinic. I also served as a staff editor and then managing editor for the Western Journal of Legal Studies, which has been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada in its decisions. In June 2023, I became licensed as a lawyer by the Law Society of Ontario.

For clients who are in close-knit religious communities, I understand the complex dynamics that come into play when a person is separating or divorcing while in such a community. This allows me advise on the application of specific areas of law that apply to divorce and parenting time with children in those niche settings. Having this knowledge allows me to be sensitive to what my client is going through while maintaining professional space to competently assist them.

EDUCATION
Bachelor of Arts (Hons), Concordia University (Montreal)
Juris Doctor (JD), University of Western Ontario

MEMBER OF THE LAW SOCIETY OF ONTARIO

Licensee Number: 87676H

OTHER CREDENTIALS:
Notary Public
Financial Planning

Investment Advisory

SELECT PUBLICATIONS:

University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review

Vol. 80 No. 2, March 2022 - "Side Wind: The Right Holder's Quest for IP Enforcement"

Western Journal of Legal Studies - Chambers

"The Puzzling Case of Reference Re Genetic Non-discrimination Act"

MEMBERSHIPS

Law Society of Ontario

Middlesex Law Association

Middlesex Family Lawyers Association

Lambton Law Association