Michael Stephens is litigation counsel at Hunter Litigation Chambers practising in the area of commercial law and public law litigation. Michael has law degrees from Dalhousie Law School and Harvard University, and is a former law clerk of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Michael acts as legal counsel before courts and administrative tribunals, and in arbitration proceedings, in respect of a wide variety of commercial and administrative law disputes. He has experience before British Columbia and Federal Courts, and at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Michael has experience dealing with litigious land use matters, and often represents clients in the forestry sector. For example, Mike was lead counsel for TimberWest in a successful challenge to a 2009 municipal bylaw increasing the tax rate to TimberWest's private forest lands on Vancouver Island.

Michael’s practice also includes constitutional law matters. Michael appeared as counsel with John Hunter QC in one of the leading cases on section 7 of the Charter, Blencoe v. British Columbia (Human Rights Commission), [2000] 2 S.C.R. 307, and published a paper on section 7 entitled "Fidelity to Fundamental Justice: An Originalist Construction of Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms".

Michael has appeared as a speaker at legal education seminars, and has been an instructor at the UBC Trial Advocacy Course. He has published in the areas of administrative law, constitutional law, and litigation practice and procedure. Michael is a member of the executive of the CBA Administrative Law (BC) Subsection, and has served on the Law Society of British Columbia's Working Group to develop Model Anton Piller and Mareva Injunction Orders for use in British Columbia courts. 

Education  
B. Com., Queen’s University, 1992 
LL.B., Dalhousie University, 1996 
LL.M., Harvard Law School, 1999

Clerkship 
Supreme Court of Canada, 1996-1997

Bar Admission 
British Columbia, 1998

Publications:

"The Fundamentals of Administrative Law", for the Western Canadian Conference on The Law of Policing Workshop, November 22, 2010

Update to chapter on "Pre-trial Disclosure of Expert Opinions" in the Continuing Legal Education's Expert Evidence in BC Civil Proceedings (2011)

"Administrative Law", co-authored with Greg Allen, in the Continuing Legal Education's Annual Review of Law & Practice (2011)

"Administrative Law" in the Continuing Legal Education's Annual Review of Law and Practice (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)

"Motions to Strike: Update and Strategic Considerations", co-authored with Robert J.C. Deane, for the Continuing Legal Education Motions to Strike Conference, held in Vancouver, British Columbia on November 13, 2009

"Civil Procedure -- Court Rules" in the Continuing Legal Education's Annual Review of Law and Practice (2005), by Mike Stephens, Mark Oulton and Jasmine MacAdam.

"Civil Procedure -- Court Rules" in the Continuing Legal Education's Annual Review of Law and Practice (2004), by Mike Stephens, Stephanie McHugh and Jasmine MacAdam.

"Fidelity to Fundamental Justice: An Originalist Construction of Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms", (2002), 13 N.J.C.L. 183

A list of representative cases is set out below:

Teal Cedar Products Ltd. v. British Columbia, 2011 BCSC 360 (arbitration re: compensation for creation of park affecting forest licence)

Burke v. Keefe, Vancouver Registry No. S081200, December 14, 2010 (judgment on claim for trespass, and to determine the location of a disputed property boundary)

TimberWest v City of Campbell River, 2009 BCSC 1804 (challenge to the validity of increase in municipal taxes upon holder of private forest land)

Murray v Langley (Township), 2010 BCSC 102 (summary trial as to whether landslide constituted an actionable private nuisance)

Wilson v Attorney General of Canada, 2010 FC 250 (judicial review from grievance decision concerning denial of leave without pay to a member of the RCMP)

VetshopAustralia Pty. Ltd. v. Pivotal Partners Inc., 2008 BCSC 1336 (application for production of privileged documents based on asserted waiver of privilege)

Jay & Mereti Holdings Ltd. v. British Columbia Lottery Corporation, 2008 BCSC 198 (successfully setting aside an ex parte injunction which sought to restrain the termination of a lottery operations agreement)

Weyerhaeuser Company Limited v Hayes, 2008 BCCA 120 (concerning the appeal of a decision denying leave to appeal an arbitration award in a forestry dispute)

Weyerhaeuser Company Limited v Hayes, 2008 BCCA 31 (appeal from decision setting aside arbitration award concerning a timber supply execution agreement)

Soussan v. Wolters, 2006 BCCA 478 (review of a decision to deny indigent status to appellant on appeal from decision dismissing action for assault and battery)

International Forest Products Ltd v British Columbia, 2006 BCSC 233 (action for the return of monies paid to Province pursuant to the invalid scaling of Crown timber)

West Vancouver v. British Columbia, 2005 FC 593 (challenge by way of judicial review to the environmental assessment concerning the Sea to Sky Highway Improvement Project)

Society Promoting Environmental Conservation v. Canada (Attorney General), 2003 FCA 239 (successfully defending a legal challenge to the validity of the expropriation of land by the federal Crown at Nanoose Bay, British Columbia)

Terrafund Financial Inc. v. 569244 B.C. Ltd. , 2000 BCSC 1719 (dismissal of action for enforcement of commitment letter on the ground it is not an enforceable contract)

Blencoe v British Columbia (Human Rights Commission), 2000 SCC 44 (leading case on the interpretation and application of section 7 of the Charter- the protection of life, liberty and security of the person)