Paul Seaman

Paul Seaman is a partner at Gowling WLG and past leader of the Firm's Indigenous Law Practice Group. Working out of the firm's Toronto and Vancouver offices, Paul has a leading national practice and acts on complex constitutional, regulatory, environmental, and transactional matters. His Indigenous law practice focuses on projects and transactions where the Crown's duty to consult Indigenous Peoples is engaged. This includes acting for clients in the contexts of formal regulatory processes, and government-to-government and commercial negotiations involving Indigenous communities, industry, and government.

Paul regularly represents Indigenous clients and project proponents in the courtroom, boardroom, and around the negotiation table across Canada in connection with large scale and high-profile resource development projects. The subject matter of those mandates includes mining, oil & gas pipelines, LNG, forestry, and electricity generation and transmission projects. Paul also regularly advises Indigenous communities on complex issues relating to self-governance, membership, and citizenship-related matters, economic development, and taxation.

Since 2019, the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory has recognized Paul as a top Indigenous law lawyer, including in the Energy, Infrastructure and Mining Special Editions. Paul is also recognized by Chambers Canada in the Aboriginal Law – Representation of Indigenous Peoples category. Paul has extensive experience appearing before all levels of court across Canada, including the Supreme Court of Canada. Paul is also widely recognized as leading legal counsel in the ongoing development of Métis rights law in Canada, and is frequently asked to speak at conferences on Métis rights issues and Indigenous legal issues generally.

Before practising law, Paul spent nearly a decade managing a high-speed internet protocol network for one of Canada's largest cable providers. While in this role, he designed the fibre optic network for a school board, assisted in the design of a high-availability commercial metropolitan Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) network, and consulted with the RCMP on lawful intercept technology.

Paul is Métis, a proud citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation, and an active member of the Métis community. He carried the Olympic torch in the Vancouver 2010 relay on behalf of the Métis Nation of British Columbia.