Chilwin C. Cheng

Chilwin is a tenacious business litigator with extensive experience in white collar criminal and regulatory defence and complex commercial litigation.

He is a former Chief Counsel of the regulator of Canada's public equities markets and trading systems, a former prosecutor with the BC securities commission, and a former Crown Counsel.

Some of Chilwin's professional highlights include:

• Defending a major TSXV mining issuer in a major environmental prosecution

• Advancing the interests of a major health profession in an appeal engaging the constitutional rights of freedom of expression

• Convincing a real estate regulator to drop its investigation of a successful real estate agent based on unfounded, but highly publicized, allegations of wrongdoing

• Defending a major B.C. forestry company in a criminal prosecution involving forestry practices

• Pursuing a rare review of a regulatory body's decision denying a license to an applicant in the commercial sector

• Representing a client in multiple complex concurrent proceedings, each involving significant commercial real estate parcels, involving complex commercial issues

• Counsel, with monitor and trustee, in major CCAA and commercial proposal proceedings, Plans of Arrangement, and corporate rectifications in the listing of public companies

• Defending manufacturing company in 7 other individual defendants in an alleged conspiracy to compete unfairly against a major national retailer

Chilwin is a skillful business litigator with leading experience in complex administrative and regulatory legal issues, white-collar criminal defence, constitutional challenges, challenges of government authority, expropriations, and complicated multi-party, multi-stage, and multi-jurisdictional business litigation.

He has conducted criminal, regulatory, and civil cases in a range of regulated industries, including mining, forestry, oil and gas, real estate, securities, banking, financial services, health professions, and many others. His civil cases usually involve multiple jurisdictions, multiple parties, and complex areas of law.

Chilwin is a thought-leader in the profession, especially B.C.’s regulatory defence and white-collar field. He is the Chair of the Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia Regulatory Proceedings and White-Collar Defence conference, a convening of leading practitioners in the province. He is a frequent conference chair, panel speaker, and guest lecturer at conferences, professional development panels, and training for law students and young lawyers.

Chilwin leads in law practice innovation and is a pioneer in adapting proven quantitative-modelling approaches to litigation assessment and management to forecast outcomes with high confidence and develop practical solutions that can avoid unnecessary litigation and resources. In 2021, Chilwin was appointed Chair of CBABC's Business Practice & Innovation Committee. He was a member of the BC Supreme Court’s consultative body on technological improvements to the courts. He was recently appointed to the advisory body to University of Victoria Law School’s Access to Justice Project.

By combining his experience in law, management, technology, and operations, Chilwin has created innovative business solutions to legal problems that affect businesses. He likes to get things done with great care and attention to detail. He is meticulous when it comes to organization, gathering data, and assessing all options for his clients carefully before committing to a result.

Chilwin was awarded his B.A. (Honours) from Simon Fraser University in 1994 and earned his LL.B. at the University of Toronto in 1997. He was called to the Bar in 1998. He went on to complete his M.B.A. from Simon Fraser University in 2005 (Award for Top Graduate).