Corporate Dispute and Financial Planning Resolutions with Garth Dingwall

Garth Dingwall, a partner at Abrahams LLP, is my guest on the podcast this week. Garth has a broad practice focusing primarily on commercial and civil litigation, has acted in a variety of corporate commercial matters, and has a keen interest in business law. As you will hear today, he has a great deal of experience and skill in resolving disputes for his clients in the most effective and efficient manner so that they can remain focused upon managing their businesses and living their lives. He has successfully represented clients before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Ontario Court of Justice, and the Ontario Court of Appeal.

In today’s interview, Garth details his journey to becoming a lawyer, his reasons for moving from his own business to a larger firm, the role of a litigator, and some examples of the types of disputes with which he has worked recently. While he goes on to describe how he saves, invests, and protects his income, I also respond to some of his questions regarding my perspective on financial planning and the importance of disability and critical illness insurance. As open to asking questions as he is to answering them, Garth makes for an excellent guest here today, bringing to light so much information that will prove both fascinating and informative for listeners.

Listen to the podcast – Download the transcript

Highlights:

As a commercial litigator, Garth works with people and business owners who find themselves in a dispute by strategically advising them on how to resolve it and moving forward to execute on that strategy by aggressively advocating for them at all points in the process.
He frequently works on resolving construction litigation matters, shareholder and business disputes, franchise disputes and employment disputes.
His low point came while having to do everything himself in his first year of running his own business, but it became an opportunity to improve because of how much he learned at that time.
Garth has been saving money for a long time, and he started by putting his bonuses into RRSPs.

Quotes:

“Within the firm, there’s, of course, more staffing available to you. So, your ability to take on more work, and therefore, in the long run, be able to generate more revenues and improve profitability – there’s a good path there.”

“So, there’s always the opportunity to settle, and we’re always looking to do that if it benefits the client.”

“There’s an old adage in litigation…that you want to sort of treat every file as though it might go to trial.”

“I focused on the RRSP first…before increasing mortgage payments, because that reduces the amount of tax at least in that year that you’re paying, and also, the goal is to have money put away for financial independence at some point.”