Roberto Aburto
Roberto Aburto practises municipal law, administrative 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. He also specializes in administrative law and sports law. Roberto is a member of Gowling WLG's national Municipal Law Group, as well as the national Expropriation Law Group.
Roberto regularly represents clients in a variety of areas, including administrative law, complex commercial litigation, real property disputes, construction disputes, land use planning matters, expropriation, interpretation of municipal by-laws, municipal tax assessment, development charge disputes, heritage, conservation authority 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 Ontario Land Tribunal (formerly the Ontario Municipal Board/Local Planning Appeal Tribunal), and Assessment Review Board. His practice also involves alternative dispute resolution, including engaging in mediation and arbitration.
Roberto is a member of Gowling WLG’s Food and Beverage Group. He advises and represents clients with respect to Administrative Monetary Penalties (AMPs), including notices of violation (NOV) with warnings and financial penalties issued by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), and appeals to the Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal (CART)
Active in the community, Roberto is on the board of trustees for the County of Carleton Law Association, and sits on the Association's Diversity Sub-Committee. Roberto served in various roles with the Lifesaving Society (Ontario Branch) and the Lifesaving Society (National Branch) for over two decades.
Roberto sits as regional representative for Eastern Ontario on the board of directors of the Ontario Expropriation Association. Roberto is a member of the Canadian Hispanic Bar Association, where he acts a mentor. 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 Canadian Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Council, and is committed to promoting the 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.