Thomas F. Isaac

Thomas F. Isaac

Thomas Isaac is a partner in Vancouver practicing in our Aboriginal Law Group. Mr. Isaac is a nationally recognized authority in the area of aboriginal law. He advises clients across Canada on aboriginal legal matters, and related environmental assessment, regulatory, government relations, negotiations, and constitutional issues.

Mr. Isaac has extensive national experience advising energy, oil, gas, pipeline, forestry and mining companies and provincial, territorial and municipal governments on aboriginal, environmental assessment and constitutional legal matters. Mr. Isaac regularly negotiates on behalf of industry and governments respecting impact, benefit and access agreements with aboriginal groups and advises on aboriginal consultation and accommodation processes and agreements.

He is a former Chief Treaty Negotiator for the Government of British Columbia and prior to that he was Assistant Deputy Minister responsible for establishing Nunavut for the Government of the Northwest Territories. Mr. Isaac also served in a senior capacity with the Government of Saskatchewan dealing with aboriginal issues.

Mr. Isaac has represented industry and government clients before the Supreme Court of Canada, the British Columbia Court of Appeal, the British Columbia Supreme Court, the Northwest Territories Supreme Court and the British Columbia Environmental Appeal Board. Mr. Isaac's published works on aboriginal law have been cited with approval by Canadian courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada and the Federal Court of Appeal.

Mr. Isaac's experience includes:

· negotiating on behalf of industry and government in negotiations with aboriginal groups respecting impact and benefit, economic development, access, municipal services and other agreements;

· negotiating, and advising in respect of, treaties and comprehensive land claims agreements across Canada;

· negotiating, and advising in respect of, forestry, mining, oil, gas, environmental regulation, economic development, fiscal relations, accountability and governance in respect of aboriginal groups;

· advising industry and governments on environmental assessment, National Energy Board and other regulatory processes involving aboriginal issues;

· extensive experience working on major transportation and infrastructure projects, including negotiating agreements with first nations, representing proponents in dealing with governments, and managing environmental assessment programs;

· advising industry and governments respecting northern legal, natural resources, environmental and governance issues involving the Yukon Territory, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut;

· advising the Government of British Columbia on the governance model for its public-private partnership agency, Partnerships BC and on streamlining provincial approval and regulatory processes;

· advising financial institutions and investors on security, mortgage, tax and loan agreement issues involving Indian reserve lands; and

· negotiating and advising on the federal Indian Act and easements, rights of way and surrender/designation issues in respect of Indian reserve lands in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Mr. Isaac has published extensively in the areas of aboriginal and constitutional law. He is the author of seven books including Aboriginal Law: Commentary, Cases and Materials, (3 editions), used in law schools and universities in Canada and the United States and Aboriginal and Treaty Rights in the Maritimes: The Marshall Decision and Beyond. He has been a contributing editor to the Canadian Native Law Reporter since 1992 and has taught aboriginal, constitutional and business law at a number of universities in Canada.

Mr. Isaac holds a BA in Political Science from St. Thomas University, an MA in Political Science from Dalhousie University, an LLB from the University of New Brunswick and an LLM from the University of Saskatchewan.

Mr. Isaac appears in the 2009 Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, a guide to the leading law firms and practitioners in Canada, as a leading practitioner in aboriginal law.

He is a member of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, the International Mining Professionals Society, the Canadian Bar Association, the Vancouver Bar Association and the Law Societies of Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut.

(Also at Vancouver, British Columbia Office)