Brian Gilfillan

Practice Areas

Forestry

Career

Brian D. Gilfillan, RPF, is a lawyer and a registered professional forester in the Vancouver office. With more than 35 years’ experience serving British Columbia’s forestry sector, Brian represents both large and small, publicly-traded and privately-held, Coast and Interior Forest Act tenure holders and their trade associations, forestry professionals and other organizations and individuals engaged in BC’s forest sector.

He assists his clients on all aspects of forestry law and policy, including: agreements related to timber harvesting, road use and construction, inventory, silviculture, rights of way, log and chip sales and purchases, and market logging; assessing and providing advice and training on legislation affecting forest operations; tenure transfers, consolidations and subdivisions; forest stewardship plans; information sharing and management agreements between forest companies and First Nations; assisting licence holders subject to enforcement proceedings under forestry legislation; assignments and disputes related to “Bill 13” contracts; assisting forest professionals subject to discipline by their professional association; compensation claims for takings of harvesting rights and related improvements; and obtaining exemptions from legislative requirements.

Prior to joining Lawson Lundell, Brian was an in-house legal counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary for a major forest products company in BC. He also spent 15 years with the Council of Forest Industries, both in their Prince George and Vancouver locations, where he rose to the position of Senior Vice President, representing the BC forest industry on all forest policy matters of provincial significance. He has also practiced in a major law firm in the province. In 2003, Brian established Gilfillan Forestry Counsel in Vancouver.

Brian is a co-editor of DLA Piper’s British Columbia Forestry Law and a co-author of Halsbury’s Laws of Canada – Forestry (2019). He was awarded Forester of the Year by the Association of BC Forest Professionals for his work on forestry legislation enhancing reliance on British Columbia’s forest professionals.

Professional Memberships

Law Society of British Columbia, Member

Association of BC Forest Professionals, Member