Overview

Alvin (Al) Kosak practices in the areas of municipal assessment and taxation, administrative law and general municipal litigation.  He has more than 20 years of experience in a practice that is principally litigation focused.
A leading practitioner of municipal assessment and taxation law, Al has appeared before all levels of courts and administrative tribunals, including numerous trials, hearings and appeals.
As just one example of the types of files he handles, he was lead counsel in the largest machinery and equipment assessment complaint ever filed in Alberta, successfully defending that assessment.
With vast knowledge and experience in municipal liability and defence litigation,  Al has focused his practice on property assessment and taxation litigation - a highly technical area - including appeals before Local Assessment Review Boards (LARB); Composite Assessment Review Boards (CARB) and the Municipal Government Board (MGB); judicial review and statutory appeals from administrative tribunals; tax recovery; review and drafting of local improvement plans and bylaws; review and drafting of assessor contractor agreements; and legislative review and drafting. He generally, but not exclusively, represents an assessor to defend municipal assessments; on occasion, he also represents landowners filing a complaint.
Al also provides advice on tax bylaws and on a variety of municipal assessment and taxation issues.
Prior to municipal law, Al worked in Brownlee’s litigation department doing insurance litigation, representing insurance companies and their insured. During that time, he began to represent a number of municipalities, and found that he very much enjoyed working with municipalities as a client group. After moving into the firm’s municipal department, representing municipal clients exclusively, Al’s practice then evolved to represent municipal clients in the areas of assessment and taxation.
Born and raised in Edmonton, Al has lived in Edmonton for nearly his entire life, with the exception of three years he spent in Ottawa, working at the House of Commons as a political assistant, and then at a law firm.
Al attended the University of Alberta, where he earned a Bachelor of

Practice Areas

• Administrative Law
• Municipal Law
• Taxation Law

Bar Information

Called to the bar: 1987 (AB); 1990 (ON)