Jeff’s career has focused on dispute resolution on anything related to the workplace including collective bargaining, drafting employment contracts and policies, management of employees, workplace safety and health disputes, privacy matters, human rights and accommodation issues, discrimination and harassment claims and wrongful or unjust dismissal claims as well as interest and rights arbitrations. He also practices sport law.
He has been honoured to be listed among the peer-selected “Best Lawyers in Canada” in employment and labour law every year since 2008.
As a partner and the leader of the Labour and Employment Law Practice Group at Taylor McCaffrey LLP, Jeff’s work includes practical advice as well as creative and effective advocacy for clients. He is recognized as principled and fair, appreciative of the reality there are always different perspectives, and so has been accepted as an unbiased and experienced solution-facilitator and decision-maker in many contexts.
Jeff first served as an arbitrator with the Automobile Injury Compensation Appeal Commission over 20 years ago. He later became a Canada Labour Code adjudicator and referee and heard cases for about a decade, until the system changed and the CIRB assumed those functions.
Since 2015 Jeff has been on the list of arbitrators mutually agreed-to by a significant Manitoba municipality and its bargaining agent, and since 2018 he has been on the Manitoba Labour Board’s approved list of grievance arbitrators. Since 2014 Jeff has also been included on a national list of arbitrators appointed to decide disputes under the Sport Dispute Resolution Code of Canada. He presently is on the SDRCC Doping Panel, its Safeguarding Panel, and its Ordinary Panel.
Jeff is the primary member for Taylor McCaffrey LLP as the exclusive Manitoba member of the Employment Law Alliance, the world’s largest network of labour and employment lawyers with representation in more than 120 countries, every Canadian province and all 50 U.S. states.
Jeff approaches everything he does with enthusiasm and gratitude for being able to make a positive difference. This passion has inspired him to volunteer with organizations such as The Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame, Prairie Theatre Exchange, the United Way and Sport Manitoba. Volunteer highlights include being selected four times as Team Canada’s Ombudsperson with the Canadian Paralympic Committee, at the Paralympic Games in Beijing, Vancouver/Whistler, London and Sochi. More recently Jeff has been a fundraiser for and on-stage performer in the annual co-production between the Manitoba Bar Association and the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre.
Jeff also teaches employment at the University of Manitoba’s law school Robson Hall.