Outdoor/Adventure

Learn more at adventurelawyers.com.

The MLT Aikins outdoor/adventure industry team has years of experience helping companies in this sector protect their interests and achieve their goals, from small startups with an idea through to large multinational conglomerates.

We are a law firm with deep roots in Western Canada, and we take full advantage of the outdoor opportunities this provides. Not only are we lawyers, but we are also Search and Rescue team leaders, mountaineers, climbers, downhill and backcountry skiers,  snowboarders, adventure racers, cyclists and former professional, semi-professional and varsity athletes. We understand your industry, because that is where we spend our time outside of the office.

MLT Aikins also represents a number of environmentally responsible businesses in the outdoor/adventure industry. We understand the value of protecting the environment when the world is your playground.

The services we offer include:

• Starting up and growing your business
• Ongoing corporate records and filing obligations
• Labour and employment
• Commercial agreements/contracts
• Risk management advice
• Commercial and insurance litigation
• Property transactions
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Intellectual property
• Administrative and regulatory
• Construction and infrastructure
• Import/export and taxation

• Owner-Operators: Working with entrepreneurs to form an integrated team of advisers to simplify and make sense of complex legal matters and offer practical business-driven legal advice to help owner-operators focus on growing their business.
• Liability and Risk Management: Providing waiver and risk management advice for a variety of clients including outdoor educational organizations, adventure race competitions and skateboard parks.
• Labour and Employment: Representing companies in wrongful dismissal trials, arbitrations and human rights tribunal complaints. Protecting a company’s interests in actions for breach of non-competition agreements and the removal of proprietary information. Successfully defending private and public employers in arbitrations involving the duty to accommodate, human rights and harassment issues. Drafting drug and alcohol testing policies for private-sector employers with safety-sensitive operations.
• Risk Audit: Proactively advising large and small companies on legal compliance and strategies to identify, assess and manage risk
• Corporate Governance: Recommending best practices for effective governance and oversight, efficient process, proper due diligence and regulatory compliance, and meeting reporting and disclosure requirements for corporations, not-for-profits, partnerships and co-operative associations.
• Project Development: Legal counsel for a professional sports team in Saskatchewan on the construction of a new stadium.
• Litigation: Representing a B.C.-founded high-performance outdoor equipment/apparel manufacturer in litigation alleging breach of contract (distribution agreement) and representing its multinational foreign parent company in a jurisdictional challenge to the BC Courts in both the BC Supreme Court and BC Court of Appeal: Flying Frog Trading Co. Ltd. v. Amer Sports Canada Inc., 2017 BCSC 1885, 2018 BCCA 384
• Regulatory: Assisting with guide/outfitter permitting and licensure. Advising on compliance with environmental, fisheries, heritage conservation and wildlife statutes and First Nations interests.
• Real Estate: Serving as counsel to corporations and real estate investment trusts in acquisitions and divestitures of commercial properties and ski hills in resorts across North America, including major properties in Whistler and North Vancouver, British Columbia and Ontario.
• Product Liability, Personal Injury and Premises Liability: Defending equipment manufacturers in product liability claims (insured and uninsured), and significant trial and appeal experience defending personal injury actions. Serving as defence counsel in the leading Canadian case on tort law causation, Clements (Litigation Guardian of) v. Clements, 2012 SCC 32 (also counsel in Court of Appeal: 2010 BCCA 581).
• Corporate: Drafting dealer/manufacturer agreements in the water sports industry.
• Privacy: Providing advice to employers on compliance with statutory duties involving freedom of information and protection of privacy.
• Mergers and Acquisitions: Representing the purchaser of a significant yachting business on coastal British Columbia.
• Intellectual Property: Helping to identify and protect a company’s key intellectual property, through patents, trademarks, copyright, industrial design marks, and negotiating and enforcing related licensing agreements.