Overview

Daren is a Partner in McInnes Cooper’s Halifax, NS office, where his law practice centers on tax, estate planning, business succession, and corporate law. He provides a comprehensive range of tax services to corporations, trusts, non-profit organizations, and high-net-worth individuals, with a focus on tax planning for businesses and their owners. His expertise includes business mergers and acquisitions, domestic and cross-border tax planning, complex corporate structuring and reorganizations, and disputes with the Canada Revenue Agency.

In 2011, he received the Queen’s Counsel designation (now King’s Counsel) and is a Registered Trust and Estate Practitioner. His knowledge spans trusts, estate planning, and business succession, as well as taxation of corporations and their shareholders. He designs and implements tax-effective planning strategies tailored to client needs.

A frequent lecturer, he is active in the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), the Canadian Tax Foundation, and the Canadian Bar Association. He regularly speaks on taxation and estate planning at national and local continuing education programs and served as a trust law advisor to the Law Reform Commission of Nova Scotia.

From 2011 to 2017, he was twice elected by his partners to McInnes Cooper’s Board of Directors, serving on the Pension, Audit, and Governance & Management Compensation Committees. His leadership extended to the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society, where he was president in 2016–2017. Prior to that, he served a three-year term on the Society’s Executive and was elected three times to its Governing Council. He chaired several committees, including Governance and Nominating, Finance, Limited Liability Partnerships, and Incorporation of Law Firms, and contributed to many others. Between 2004 and 2010, he was Vice-Chair of the Nova Scotia Securities Commission and a member for a decade. In this role, he represented the Canadian Securities Administrators on the Joint Forum of Financial Market Regulators, which coordinates regulation of financial products and services across pension, securities, and insurance sectors in Canada.

He completed the Directors Education Program through the Institute of Corporate Directors and Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, and previously served on the Board of Directors and Audit Committee of a TSX-listed company.

Practice Areas

• Corporate Law
• Pensions & Benefits Law
• Estates & Trusts
• Taxation Law
• International Law

Bar Information

Called to the bar: 1992 (NS); 2011 (NS)