Hein Poulus KC

Practice Areas

• Contractual Disputes

• Shareholder Disputes

• Securities Litigation

• Professional Negligence Claims

• Real Estate Disputes

• Commercial Arbitration

• Injunctions

• Regulatory Matters

• Defamation Claims

• Plans of Arrangement

• Franchise Disputes

• Appeals

Career

Called to the British Columbia bar in 1974, Hein calls on his extensive experience and makes it his mission to help clients avert litigation if that is possible; to help them find early off-ramps if litigation is unavoidable; and to minimize the present value of the total cost of litigation.

He has held senior management positions with Kaiser Resources, the Denver Broncos and Southeastern Capital Corporation, a U.S. private equity firm.

Hein has appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada, the B.C. Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, as well as various regulatory agencies and courts in B.C. and elsewhere.

He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2001 and was made a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in 2010. Hein is fluent in Dutch.

Professional Memberships

Member, Canadian Bar Association

Member, The Advocates' Society

Member, Board of Trade

Director, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, 2001 – 2006, 2011 – 2020

Vice-Chair, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, 2007 – 2010

Awards

Work Highlights

Lead counsel for the developer One West Holdings Ltd. in the successful prosecution of a 34-day trial to recover a commercial parking area unlawfully seized by a strata corporation. The case makes new law on two new points: developers do not owe fiduciary duties to condo purchasers; and a legal structure used in BC to allocate tens of thousands of parking stalls is valid and binding.

Lead counsel for the Petitioner in an application to compel the Registrar of Land Titles to register a rectification to a strata plan that gave a strata lot owner the right to exclusive possession of a roof deck.

Lead counsel for Concord Pacific Acquisitions Inc. in the successful defense of a five-day summary trial application brought by the owner of the Plaza of Nations land, who sought dismissal of CPAI’s claim for damages (estimated to be in excess of $100 million) arising from an alleged breach of a contract to jointly develop the Plaza of Nations land in Vancouver.

Lead counsel for Alternative Earth Resources Inc in the successful appeal of two judgments which had found that the company and its directors had oppressed a minority shareholder, Jaguar Financial Corporation, by pursuing the acquisition of a private company called Black Sea Copper & Gold and by defending a proxy contest launched by Jaguar, who sought to take control of the company. The appeal decision preserved the present management of the company and is now a leading BC authority on the disclosable interests of directors and the oppression remedy.

Lead counsel for the Aquilini family in the successful defence of claims by the Gaglardi and Beedie families to an interest in the Vancouver Canucks.

Lead counsel for Canaco Resources Inc. and its CEO in the successful defence of a claim by the Securities Commission that they had traded in securities on the basis of material undisclosed information.

Lead counsel for CIBC World Markets in the successful defence of a claim that the trustees of a publicly traded real estate investment trust, advised by CIBC, had improvidently sold the assets of the trust.

Lead counsel for a multinational medical device maker in the defence of a $100 million class action alleging negligence in the design of a medical device resulting in a favorable confidential settlement.

Lead counsel in a successful Petition for leave to commence a derivative action challenging the going-private transaction of the Vancouver Canucks and the Vancouver Grizzlies.

Lead counsel for the successful plaintiff in the assessment of compensation in the first corporate oppression case in BC.