All Custom-Made Services
For Your Needs

EXPERIENCE

Diverse experience; Different perspectives.

We can deploy our expert legal services on your requirements in several key focal clusters, as follows.

Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) / Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) Advising.

Assume that the business owner saw that the tree was weak and contracted with someone to take it down before being fined by the City.  The contractor did not show on the appointed day because their vehicle, with all tools, got towed and impounded for excessive parking tickets. 

After the contractor got it back but before they could perform, a business visitor parked in the lot, despite being asked not to, and the tree fell.  Under strong protest from onboard AI (artificial intelligence) and embedded other sensors regarding the general lack of concern for their own losses and wellbeing, no humans were injured, thankfully. 

So then, with no fault vehicle insurance, adequate business insurance for the other two parties, good facts, and in the absence of any statutory scheme laying degrees of fault, a trier of fact may find all 3 liable (driver, contractor, business owner) and just apportion the tree removal costs amongst these three regulated parties.
 
We have solid experience in formulating corporate, regulatory, and administrative policy by developing and delivering comprehensive strategies and initiatives to help enable, promote, and monitor best practices amongst regulated entities and individuals through good governance, nimble risk management, and responsible and responsive compliance programs – including targeted and timely “entity-wide” private sector corporate, or “whole of government” regional and national, crisis response strategies; with our past work including:
* Advising clients on diverse matters regarding their international trade in goods, trade in services, and outsourced operations;
* Advising multiple web-based businesses regarding their ongoing compliance obligations and the attendant risks;
* Advising an e-health services provider that was subject to several U.S. and Canadian health and privacy laws;
* Advising a New Jersey church on refinancing of the mortgage on, letting-out a residential property, and then advising on conforming residential lease documents and tenancy matters;
* Advising a New Jersey lessee in the re-negotiation of a distressed New York restaurant lease;
* Working in a governance, risk, and compliance advising capacity, as In-House Counsel,  for a U.S-based telecommunications consulting entity that regularly bid on and won installation and operation contracts in education, healthcare, and national security;
* Advising on the expansion of a franchise in compliance with the franchise agreement;
*Advising on the formation of an innovative agro-industrial wholesale concept with implicit supply chain risks;
* Advising a resource industry entity on initiating operations overseas in jurisdictions fraught with GRC challenges.
 
With the increasingly complex, wired, and interconnected regulatory and trade environment in which we all now live, work, and play, both businesses and individuals can find themselves subject to overlapping and not always uniform, regulatory environments and a staggering array of risks to themselves, their partners, and counterparties.  The spectrum of risks considered in all of these above engagements, has included but not been limited to:
* Political risks (“key person” loss, legislative and regulatory changes, Referenda, sanctions, Tariffs);
* Operational risks (Payment Cards Industry compliance, supply chain events, and Cybersecurity);
* Legal and lifecycle risks (GMO disputes and food recalls);
* Integration and interoperability risks (DDOS impacts on eCommerce, and core- and back-office functions);
* Triangular risks (training of staff, terror events, and third-party actor events);
* Interest rate and market risks (deficits, credit ratings, market and taste shifts);
* Counterparty and climate risks (business continuity planning pinch points);
* Situational risks (including advising a Chief Executive on the planning and risks of their travel with the state Governor on a 40-person delegation to Asia, that same CEO’s own spearheading of 10 business leaders traveling to pursue business opportunities in West Africa), and consideration of several other possible causes of uninsured or un-insurable loss found in other entities’ business lines and contemplated operating environments.
 
Tell us, which risks do you face, how do you assess their potential severity of impact on your and partner or counterparty operations and likelihood of occurrence, how do you plan to re-align your GRC / ESG programs to navigate this, or precisely why do you see them as being just fine, for now?

Regulatory, Administrative, and International Law and Policy.

.We have solid experience in formulating legislative, regulatory, administrative, and even international law and policy.

We accumulated this experience through developing and delivering comprehensive strategies and initiatives to help regulators make, manage, uniformly apply and mainstream principles, guidelines, standards and procedures.

Our work in this area, has included:
 
REGULATORY:
* Researching, comparing, and contrasting wetlands sanctions policy across the five states of Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, and Pennsylvania for a Professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), as a basis to advise and assist the state of Virginia on its own workable and outcomes-based wetlands sanctions policies overall, specific regulatory regimes, and modifications thereto.

ADMINISTRATIVE:
* Working within the federal government in Canada, to deliver government pensions, first as a frontline Officer, then as a fraud and abuse Investigator to validate or invalidate allegations of abuse, educate the public, and ensure program integrity, and finally, as an Expert Advisor to review and maintain quality, recommend and communicate program improvements, and deliver training, coaching, and mentoring to departmental staff at all levels.

REGULATORY / ADMINISTRATIVE:
* Working in the Office of Bond Counsel for several distinct New Jersey municipalities
- Cherry Hill
- Cinnaminson
- Evesham
- Palmyra, and independent state agencies
(The Garden State Preservation Trust, and the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency).

In this capacity, duties included:
- performing research and advising on, their requirements in Public / Municipal Finance according to applicable regulations and Administrative laws and procedures;
- suggesting policy options in accordance with their Public Finance needs and subject to market fundamentals as they existed from time to time (interest rates, lending climate, credit ratings, proposed usage of proceeds, maturity, other repayment terms ); and
- assisting in preparing Offering Memoranda.

ADMINISTRATIVE / INTERNATIONAL:
* Publishing a peer-reviewed paper on the interplay of national security laws and policies, and environmental law and policy, demonstrating the high and sustained interdependence of these two expanding fields in an era of climate change,  resource nationalism, carbon trading, surface warming, and sea level rise.

REGULATORY / INTERNATIONAL:
* Working in the Satellite Policy Branch of the International Bureau, at the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

In this capacity, duties included:
- conducting regulatory compliance analyses of applications to build, launch and operate satellites;
- performing satellite-specific, national security law (export regulations, arms control regulations, committee on foreign investment in the United States), general communications law, and First Amendment rights (free speech) research as directed; and
- drafted a Public Notice issued to modify the Commission’s ex parte rules;
- drafted a Report and Order acknowledging surrender of a satellite license and mooting related Commission proceedings.

REGULATORY/ LEGISLATIVE/ ADMINISTRATIVE:
* Working on a law firm, Government Affairs team, that assisted elected officials, policy advisors, bureaucrats, and executive management, as Counsel to the New Jersey State Senate in Trenton, New Jersey.

In this capacity, duties included:
- to review and advise on proponent responses to Request for Proposal (RFP) to provide consulting services to New Jersey entities on critical infrastructure and essential government services;

- to counsel and advise on the legal and other implications of topical regulatory, legislative, and administrative policy matters and options on which the New Jersey state senate required occasional assistance; and

- hosting meetings, with and without New Jersey legislators present, involving business leaders and concerned citizens for:
- high-level and tactful advocacy
- concerns resolution and issues management
- stakeholder development or informal consultations
- lobbying.
 
Tell us, what are the key questions or concerns in regulatory, administrative, and international law or policy for someone in your specific position?

Corporate, Business, and Not-for-Profit Law; In-House Counsel (ERM) - Enterprise Risk Management.

We have worked as In-House Counsel, and separately advised Sole Proprietors, For-profit business entities, and Not-for-profit corporations and Associations in Canada and the United States, as well as Limited Liability Companies (LLCs).
 
Our “For-profit” representations have included:
 * Advising on initial establishment with choice of entity and financing;
* Conducting due diligence on counterparties via regulatory filings, open-source and online research, and word of mouth;
* Drafting non-disclosure agreements and Board of Directors’ resolutions;
* Drafting and negotiating Cloud (SaaS) contracts and commercial leases;
* Contacting and negotiating with talent agents and Counsel for demo-shopping (music) and go-see visits (modeling);
* Drafting, negotiation, and review  and revision of production contracts, management agreements, venue  contracts and related deal papers;
* Filing and advising on copyrights  and other intellectual property matters, and Artist(e) dealings with Performing Rights Organizations;
* Advising on crises and dispute resolution;
* Serving as In-house Counsel for an IT consultancy;
* Providing general ongoing advice and counsel;
 
“Not-for profit” entities acting through their founders, boards, and executive directors have also sought out and retained our services to secure their status as registered not-for-profit entities under the laws of Canada (through the Charities Directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency and in accordance  with the Income Tax Act, as amended), and in the United States (through 26 United States Code, §501, as amended, within the Internal Revenue Code).  Our not-for-profit clientele have included a healthcare charity, a community group, an alumni association, a green cooperative, and a  family foundation. 
 
Mr. George has also served as In-House Counsel (working remotely), for an information technology and energy consulting services provider where he led and advised, and partnered with other members of the legal and compliance team on Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), in developing, managing, implementing and monitoring various compliance protocols, policies and procedures. In this role, inter alia, he:
* Led and/or actively participated in high-level meetings to monitor and oversee policies, procedures and practices in creating templates and processes for legislated compliance at the local, state and federal levels;
* Horizon-scanned proposed actions, strategies, and due diligence activities to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) and proactively sought solutions and improved practices that set an appropriate compliance tone and philosophy to prevent and mitigate strategic, legal and compliance risks, and address them as soon as they surfaced, whether mission-critical or mundane;
* Managed, liaised, and worked proactively with a roster of outside counsel when additional support or expertise was needed for investigations and internal controls, compliance and contracting, privacy and data protection, employment law, intellectual property, general corporate law, or contentious matters;
* Researched key considerations relevant to budgets, specific clients, products and jurisdictions in order to determine and clarify strategic challenges and risk profiles of entity business lines, predict legal issues based on dependencies in multi-phase project plans, identify and estimate risks based on assumptions and dependencies, and ensure organizational awareness with interpretations and recommendations;
* Managed, liaised, and worked proactively with external parties such as regulators, trade and industry associations, and influencers to stay abreast of legal, regulatory, social and industry developments that might impact company operations or interests, thereby ensuring that the employer remained ahead of, shaped the narrative regarding, and effectively managed media and emergent issues that might impact company reputation or profitability; and
* Co-developed with business unit leaders and other members of the legal and compliance team, advised-on, canvassed and create consensus for, oversaw the implementation of, and later assessed, a variety of strategies, actions, and action plans.
 
Tell us, what can we do for you today in your company, other business entity, or not-for-profit corporation or association?

Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR).

The very many panoramic windows would enable several similar and even unique perspectives and viewpoints - especially over a business lunch in this revolving rooftop restaurant.  Finding a common agreeable way to see things, should really not be so hard to do.

In both Canada and the United States,  we have settled many business and personal disputes out of court,  resolved regulatory and administrative charges at Boards and Tribunals,  and negotiated pleas to criminal charges without the need for a full trial.

These successes came as a result of our litigation successes in several Superior Courts in Ontario, Canada, and within  several New Jersey and New York state courts, and other client representations before:
* the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Tribunal, in Ottawa, Canada
* the Zoning and Planning Board of the City of Englewood, in New Jersey, U.S.A.
* the Environmental Control Board of the State of New York, in the borough of Queens, U.S.A.
 
Of Note, you generally "do" need to litigate a few disputes, before you develop some skills in and a preference for, Alternate Dispute Resolution.
 

UNITED STATES -
As an Attorney-at-Law in the United States, Mr. George acted in advocacy for clients on contentious and criminal law matters:

in New Jersey state courts
- Bergen
- Burlington
- Essex, and
- Mercer counties);

in New York state courts
- Bronx
- Brooklyn
- Queens, and
- Staten Island boroughs; and in federal court, at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).

*Representative litigation matters in the United States included insurance defence, aviation defence, and complex litigation and class actions; contested custody and access and uncontested adoption proceedings; complaint and defence in business disputes; wrongful termination, severance negotiations, and hostile work environment; and defamation and criminal matters (DWI/DUI, driving on a suspended license, fraudulent conversion, writing false statements, theft over $3,000, criminal sexual conduct, and record expungement).

*Representative transactional matters in the United States, ranged from real estate transactions (zoning, purchase, sale, commercial leasing, refinancing), through entity formations and contract drafting and negotiations in general business, entertainment law, and import/export.

*Representative matters in Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) in the United States, included technology, privacy, outsourcing, and employment law.
 

CANADA -
As a Barrister and Solicitor in Canada, Mr. George has concentrated on health law and policy (audit, compliance, and re-engineering); energy, banking, and transportation law policy and regulation (audit, risk analysis and stress-testing, and crisis counseling); and general business counseling (privacy and health privacy, cybersecurity, and regulatory compliance). 

Having Articled in Family Law and Child Protection, he assisted his Articling Principal by representing clients as First or Second Chair in Family Law, Child Support, and Child Protection (litigation) matters at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice
- Belleville
- Brockville, and
- Ottawa courthouses.
 
From experience, we are well aware of the costs, time, and aggravations to be saved through curtailing costly litigation by settling, or forgoing it in the first place in favour of ADR:
-Negotiation
-Mediation/Conciliation
-Collaborative Law
-Arbitration

* Representative Canadian matters in alternate dispute resolution, have included work terminations, alleged breach of contract, hostile work environment, criminal court, landlord and tenant disputes, and several other areas.
 
Tell us, which major or minor dispute of yours, just does not want to go away?

Complex Systems Advising, and Large Project Experience.
 
We planned, designed, and conducted a 2012 healthcare, senior care, and home care program comprehensive legal, policy, fiscal, and technical review after assembling a team of 25 ("twenty-five") multidisciplinary George Law Offices professionals who worked out of Ottawa, Owen Sound, and Mississauga in Ontario, as well as California and Florida in the United States.
 
In the role of Project Leader, Mr.  George – 
* brought people together with diversity and  empowerment, while facilitating communications and motivating them to build a collaborative environment for the PhDs, MBAs, Masters’ degree  holders, economists and statisticians, lawyers and paralegals, law  students, an M.D. and registered nurses of varied specialties, web and  graphic designers, sociologists and computer scientists, and Undergraduate students in political science, public policy, international  development, and human rights whom he had assembled on the project team;
* maintained solid, 2-way client communications, responded to client queries, interim regulatory and policy changes, and staff emergencies, and divided the team into 5 cross-disciplinary, operational sub-cells for: 
- fiscal impact,
- legal analysis,
- medical aspects,
- technical analysis, and
- human resources aspects;
* led and coordinated visits to 12 sites (each up to 3 hours distant, one-way, from our downtown Ottawa offices),
* met and spoke with 40+ program Managers, reviewed mandates, program literature, front-line and supporting operations, and law, and assessed voluminous government statistics, digested qualitative and quantitative data from our customized surveys and questionnaires of managers, dozens of front-line staffers, associated medical personnel, and current program clientele across the 6 top Ontario LHINs (Local Health Improvement Networks) of program concentration;
* tasked and arranged:
- the conduct of Gap and SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analyses of status quo variants;
- the application of multi-goal and socioeconomic analysis to assess effectiveness, unintended effects, and equity;
- the application of cost-benefit analyses to review risk management options (share, avoid, reduce, accept), and
* presented synthesis upgrades, multiple alternative approaches, and best practices from other jurisdictions for possible Ontario or national mainstreaming.
 
Of note, our 230+ page report to the Steering committee representing 24+ separate stakeholder agencies and primarily received by the funding Ontario Ministry of Health and Longterm Care (MOHLTC), immediately secured more provincial funding for seniors, and as released in further funding tranches through the following several years.

Then, in Budget 2017 under Dr. Jane Philpott as federal health minister, the federal government designated an additional $4.2 billion federal dollars for home care and mental health in Ontario alone, to be expended over 10 years, as part of a total allocation for the same purpose across all Canadian provinces and territories of $11 billion over 10 years which was central to the landmark Common Statement of Principles on Shared Health Priorities of August 2017, wherein Canada's federal, provincial, and territorial governments laid-out specific goals and standards for homecare, community care, palliative care, and mental health and addiction services.

This was thanks to our project work stressing the national priority to  maintain critical seniors’ services despite macro-level fiscal challenges, in an aging population of baby boomers and new immigrant seniors all with  their own fiscal imperatives, and ever more senior bankruptcies that are  major mental health stressors.

Further thereto, the 2019 federal budget brought Canada’s first National Dementia Strategy ($50 million over 5
years in Budget 2019 and $20 million over 5 years in the prior Budget 2018), as well as increased funding and efficiencies for the Old Age Security, Guaranteed Income Supplement/Spousal Allowance programs ($1.76 billion over 4 years from 2020), and promoting automatic enrollment in the Canada Pension Plan for seniors who are over 70 years of age and yet to apply ($9.6 million), amongst other initiatives.  This was all done so as to better ensure “a secure and dignified retirement for Canadians”, in the words of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Canada’s federal and provincial governments have taken several initiatives for healthcare and seniors since 2020, and some of these undoubtedly hail back to, rely on the findings and recommendations from, or were otherwise inspired by, our Report.

Ongoing Legal Counsel, Crisis Control, and Other Areas of Law.

People like to talk about building protective "moats" around their businesses, but it is the "rocks" impacting businesses and individuals alike, that appear more often as the topic(s) of the day in common business parlance, including:
- Solid as a rock
- Sank like a rock
- Rocked off-course 
- Between a rock and a hard place

Besides, if what you structure is not built on solid ground, i.e. a rock, then that supposedly protective moat might actually become the downfall, into which it sinks - gradually or with surprising speed.

Things come up, laws change, and the personal circumstances of business founders and their managers can also change over time; at times drastically and in quite unexpected ways. 

Some  people only start to scramble for legal Counsel and other crisis-related professionals after the crisis hits, whilst others have “Retained  Counsel” in place for ongoing advice and consultation, solid business continuity and crisis communication plans in place, and veteran crisis  response and management professionals on standby and otherwise within easy reach. 

BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE:
Acting through our management and strategic consulting and advisory subsidiary, Strategic IMPRIME Consulting and Advisory, Inc. (S’imprime-ca), we wrote a policy and strategy brief for Alberta Energy on adjusting to the global falling oil price crisis in late 2014, with a view to achieving interim operational stability and long-term  profitability, and keeping systemic surge capacity pending resumption of a more favourable fiscal operating environment.  The province of Alberta, indeed the entire country of Canada, found itself between a rock and a hard place.

Working under a very tight deadline to address this fast-moving and multidimensional crisis, our selected key recommendations, included:
(i) to enlist public and private sector stimulus spending for infrastructure;
(ii) to ensure petrochemicals can get from the prairies to tidewater;
(iii) to refine locally; and
(iv) to re-deploy skilled oil and gas workers into local infrastructure projects and further education, thereby keeping them local and spending locally.

ROCKED OFF COURSE:
Shaken, Canada and Alberta recovered, and these recommendations were actioned by way of:
* the Canada Infrastructure Bank;
* the purchase by Canada’s federal government of the Trans Mountain Pipeline for $4.5 billion in order to better and more closely ensure the  completion of its expansion, and operational restart; along with Alberta’s initial plan to purchase 7,000 railcars to ship oil out, which later became a solid deal to lease 4,400 railcars for the same purpose, and at a cost of $3.7 billion over 3 years; and
* Alberta’s push to increase local refining and upgrading to both create domestic jobs and boost export value.
 
SANK LIKE A ROCK, because of:
* The 1997 Asian Financial crisis?
* The 2001 dot-com bubble burst?
* The 2008 global financial crisis?
* The 2014 global oil price crisis?
* Post-2024 massive disruption from AI uptake?
*The terror and turbulence of "Tariff Talk" .....
This is not what you want said of your business, and it is not anywhere that you want to be.

SOLID AS A ROCK:
We have worked with and reported directly to such senior leaders in for-profit and not-for-profit  entities at the C-level, as
- Chief Executive Officer, 
- Chief Financial Officer,
- Director of Operations,
- Lead and General Counsel,
- Board of  Directors, 
- Executive Director, Project Steering Committee, and verbally briefed a Quorum of 60 Senior Government Program Managers on the circulated written results of one of our investigations, with a lively lunchtime question & answer (Q&A) session. 

Accustomed to working with the most senior leaders, we are therefore open to discussing your unique circumstances, the several categories of risks that you might face in your line or lines of  business, and working towards tailoring legal services to your needs and your budget, if Retained Counsel might be an option. 

Where we do not have the staff depth in a specific area, or do not offer services in a specific type of  law, we can access our colleagues and contacts to try and get you to that desired end-state. 

Tell us, what do you do?  
What have you learned from the last major crisis that you (or a cooperating /competing peer) faced?
How have you prepared for the next one?

Let us help make you solid as a rock!

LET US TALK ABOUT YOUR MATTER OR PROJECT, today

Copyright © 2001-2025 George Law Offices
ЭĐ® - All Rights Reserved.