Rodrigue Escayola

Rod Escayola is a partner in Gowling WLG's Ottawa office. He practises in the area of civil litigation and represents clients from Ontario and Québec before the provincial Superior Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, the Federal Courts, the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board, and numerous other administrative tribunals.

Rod has vast experience in condominium law, representing condominium corporations, directors, owners and property managers. Rod is also the founder and editor-in-chief of the legal blog CondoAdviser.ca, which has received two prestigious Clawbie Awards in recognition of its quality. He regularly publishes articles, gives interviews to the media and is asked to speak on various condominium law issues. He also co-founded the highly popular Condo Directors Group, an organization that provides a forum for condo directors to network and learn how to better manage their corporations. Rod is a former director of the Canadian Condominium Institute for Eastern Ontario, where he served as the editor of their semi-annual magazine. He continues to act as a writer and presenter for the Canadian Condominium Institute for Eastern Ontario as well as for the Community Association Institute.

Rod has also been an elected director on the board of his condominium in Ottawa since 2009. He and his colleagues are called upon to manage the affairs of the corporation in accordance with the Condominium Act.

Rod also has a great deal of experience with estates and capacity litigation, representing beneficiaries and trustees. His expertise involves challenges and interpretation of wills, contested passing of accounts, claims for support by dependants, and disputes relating to breaches of fiduciary duties.

Since 2005, he has given countless in-depth seminars to employees and managers of various federal departments, and to other professionals on estate planning and the managing of estates. The Law Society of Upper Canada has asked Rod to speak at webinars on a lawyer's obligations when dealing with clients with disabilities. He also developed and taught the estate module for the Law Society's French Practical Program.

In the past, Rod has taught civil procedures at the Université de Montréal, and has acted as legal counsel for the Law Branch of the Supreme Court of Canada. He also served as a reservist for over 18 years and was deployed to Haiti as a United Nations peacekeeper in 1995. He retired as a warrant officer after having received several medals and awards.

In 2014, the University of Ottawa's French Common Law Program invited Rod to develop the wills and estates module of their new French Law Practice Program, an alternate pathway to the Law Society of Upper Canada accreditation. This pilot program was developed by lawyers who are experts in their fields of practice and who are known for their community involvement. Rod served as principal teacher of the wills and estates module from 2014 to 2016.

Rod is fluently bilingual and practises law in both English and French.