Roberto Aburto
Roberto practises municipal law and civil litigation, with a focus on development disputes including real property disputes, construction law, land use planning law, expropriation, municipal tax assessment, and commercial litigation. Roberto is a member of Gowling WLG's national Municipal Law Group and the national Expropriation Law Group.
Roberto regularly represents clients in a variety of areas, including complex commercial litigation, real property disputes, construction disputes, land use planning matters, expropriation, interpretation of municipal by-laws, municipal tax assessment, development charge disputes, municipal conflicts of interest, municipal privacy matters, and environmental contamination disputes.
Roberto represents all sides of the development industry, including developers, municipalities, municipal councillors and community organizations. He regularly engages and works with experts in the fields of land use planning, real estate appraisal, municipal tax assessment, traffic engineering, civil engineering, environmental consulting, economics, business loss quantification and business valuation.
Roberto has appeared before the Court of Appeal for Ontario, Divisional Court, Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Ontario Court of Justice, and various administrative tribunals, including regularly appearing before the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (formerly the Ontario Municipal Board) and Assessment Review Board. His practice also involves alternative dispute resolution, including engaging in mediation and arbitration.
Active in the community, Roberto serves on the board of directors for the Lifesaving Society (Ontario Branch) as the corporate secretary/legal adviser. Roberto is also on the board of trustees for the County of Carleton Law Association, and sits on the Association's Diversity Sub-Committee.
Roberto sits as regional representative for Eastern Ontario on the board of directors of the Ontario Expropriation Association. He is a member of Lambda Alpha International Land Economics Society, the Ontario Bar Association, Greater Ottawa Homebuilders' Association and the Canadian Property Tax Association.
He is also co-chair of Gowling WLG's National Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Council and is committed to promoting principles of diversity and inclusion. Roberto serves as host of Diversonomics - a podcast on diversity in the legal market. In October 2020, Roberto was distinguished as an Excellence Award Recipient for the "Pro Bono Gender Markers Initiative" at the Canadian Law Awards.