Lawyer Profile
Robert J. Potts
Toronto, Ontario
Overview
Bob Potts has been a Partner in the firm for more than forty-five years and currently serves as its General Counsel. He is an experienced litigation counsel with a varied practice and extensive client list.
Bob chairs the firm’s Indigenous Law Group, and has actively represented and counselled First Nations since the early 1980’s. He has been consulted by many First Nations and has successfully negotiated several land claim settlements in Ontario and Alberta, including:
Bob has been voted by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in Canada® ranking in the Aboriginal Law category for over 10 years in succession. He is rated by Lexpert® Canadian Legal Directory as a Leading Practitioner (repeatedly recommended) in Indigenous Law.
In 2024, Bob was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree by Osgoode Hall Law School and York University in recognition of the impact that Bob has made as a long-standing legal advocate and expert in Indigenous law.
Bob has successfully completed the Harvard University Mediation Workshop and Advanced Mediation Workshop presented by The Advocates’ Society and is active in the field of alternative dispute resolution.
He participates in conferences and delivers papers on several legal topics including Aboriginal Law issues. Bob spoke at the 2012 Commonwealth Lawyers Association Property Law Conference in Belfast, Ireland on the subject of "Indigenous Peoples and Land Issues". In September 2007, he was a speaker at the Annual Commonwealth Law Conference held in Kenya, on “Aboriginal Claims in Canada”.
He has chaired seminars and lectured at the Ontario Bar Association, The Law Society of Ontario – Continuing Legal Education, and the Canadian Institute on commercial and litigation practice issues including class action proceedings. Bob has also spoken as a guest lecturer at the University of Ottawa and Osgoode Law School on Indigenous Law issues.
In addition to his work in Indigenous Law, Bob has successfully acted for clients in disputes involving real estate and business contracts, corporate disputes, and mortgage enforcement remedies. He has served as defence counsel in several leading Class Action law suits including Abdool, Bre-X and the class action stemming from the 2008 propane explosion in Toronto.
Practice Areas
Bar Information
Called to the bar: 1974 (ON); 1986 (AB)