Briana Donnelly

Briana Donnelly is an associate in Gowling WLG’s Ottawa office.

She is the only practitioner in Canada to hold both the Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and Chartered Business Valuator (CBV) designations while also being called to a Canadian bar. She also holds the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) designation, further strengthening her capabilities in forensic accounting and financial investigations.

Drawing on her combined experience in law, forensic accounting, and business valuation, Briana advises clients on complex disputes involving financial and valuation issues. She brings a distinct perspective to developing legal strategy, analysing financial evidence, and communicating complex financial concepts in a clear and straightforward manner.

Briana completed her juris doctor at Queen’s University Faculty of Law, where she also volunteered as an editor of the Canadian Journal of Commercial Arbitration.

Before entering the legal profession, Briana built a career as a forensic accountant and business valuator. She began her career at a boutique forensic accounting firm, where she specialized in damage quantification, analyzing complex financial information and presenting her findings in a clear, court-ready format. Briana was subsequently recruited by Atlantic Canada's largest accounting firm to spearhead the launch of its Litigation Support Valuation sector in the region. Across both roles, her engagements spanned personal injury, wrongful death, lost profits, business interruption, fraud, shareholder disputes, and expropriation matters, for which she authored and presented independent expert reports on damages and led forensic accounting audits.

From 2020 to 2024, Briana instructed for the Canadian Institute of Chartered Business Valuators’ Level IV: Special Topics in Business Valuation course, teaching topics including damage quantification and complex business valuation matters.