Liane Langstaff Associate

Liane Langstaff

Liane Langstaff is an environmental lawyer in Gowling WLG's Toronto office. She represents clients and provides comprehensive legal advice on a range of environmental matters, including:

• Helping proponents navigate federal and provincial environmental assessments to get projects built and representing municipalities and other stakeholders to ensure their rights and interests are respected in environmental assessments
• Representing businesses, from local dry cleaners to global energy companies, in contaminated lands litigation, regulatory investigations and enforcement proceedings
• Guiding manufactures and importers on how to comply with regulations concerning climate change, chemicals, waste management and product stewardship
• Drafting agreements to protect clients from environmental liabilities, allocate ownership of carbon credits and establish carbon reporting and disclosure requirements
• Advising municipalities and businesses on land-use planning, zoning and cultural heritage conservation matters.

Liane frequently acts on cutting-edge environmental issues. For example, she represented the Canadian Public Health Association in its intervention in the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act constitutional cases before the Courts of Appeal of Saskatchewan and Ontario. As a Canadian Climate Governance Expert, she also presents to corporate boards and other corporate audiences to share her insights on the duties of directors, officers and pension and investment fiduciaries to address the risks and opportunities of climate change.

As an Environmental Sciences, Law and MBA graduate, Liane uses her technical expertise, legal skills and business acumen to advise her clients. As a result of her former role as a law clerk at the Court of Appeal for Ontario, she leverages an intimate knowledge of the courts to represent her clients in complex litigation proceedings before courts and tribunals.

Liane has appeared as a guest lecturer at law schools and a school of planning and was a co-instructor of the 2019 JD Environmental Law course at Osgoode Hall Law School. She writes extensively in the areas of environmental law, climate change law and environmental assessments, and co-authored the forthcoming A Guide to Canada's Impact Assessment Act, 2020 Edition to be released in March 2020. Outside her practice, Liane is active in the local environmental community, including as a board member for the citizen science organization, EcoSpark.