Irina Samborski
Irina Samborski is an associate in Gowling WLG's global Private Client Services Group. She acts in complex and highly sensitive matters, with a focus on trusts, estates, fiduciary and capacity litigation. Prior to joining the group, Irina's practice focused on complex corporate/commercial litigation.
Irina represents Canadian and international clients on a wide range of contentious matters, including:
- Working with family businesses and closely-held private companies on issues of succession.
- Counselling trust companies, government agencies, beneficiaries of estates, executors of estates, trustees of trusts and attorneys for property and personal care.
- Assisting with the administration of an estate (i.e. the probate process).
- Litigating estate and trust matters (e.g. will challenges and interpretations, passing of accounts, breach of trust actions, variation of trusts, trustee disputes, testamentary capacity disputes, undue influence claims, dependant relief claims, etc.).
As preferred counsel for LawPRO, Irina acts on matters of professional negligence with respect to estate and trust issues, including defending solicitor negligence claims, working with the Canada Revenue Agency in matters involving voluntary disclosures under the Income Tax Act, and rectification to defective wills and trusts.
As a student member of the international Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), Irina is currently in the process of completing her Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) designation.
Outside the Firm, Irina is actively engaged in the profession and broader community. Irina is a member of the Toronto Junior Trusts and Estates Practitioners' Group, The Advocates’ Society, the Canadian Bar Association, and the Ontario Bar Association. She frequently participates in various Pro Bono Ontario programs, providing legal advice and acting as duty counsel for unrepresented litigants. Irina is also an avid lover of the arts, and has served as a member of the Donor Programs Committee at the Art Gallery of Ontario since 2019.
Before entering private practice, Irina completed her law degree at Osgoode Hall Law School. During her studies, she served as the director of research and writing at the Osgoode Hall Law Journal, and worked as the managing editor of the constitutional legal blog TheCourt.ca. Irina competed as an oralist in Osgoode's mooting program, with competitions taking her to New York City, the University of Oxford and Nuremberg, Germany. Irina obtained a bachelor of arts degree (with high distinction) from the University of Toronto, with a specialization in international relations. She is fluent in Russian and English.