Senior Counsel

Gary

A.

Befus

Gary is a Senior Counsel at Walsh LLP who practices in the area of Civil and Commercial Litigation.

Gary has been a lifelong student of the law who enjoys the challenge each case brings to develop a winning strategy.

Gary has been a steady hand at Walsh LLP since articling here in 1987. From the hard-to-believe now blue haze of cigarette and cigar smoke and the squawking telex machine in the earlier years to the modern digital office one thing never changed – Gary has been a fierce advocate for the firm’s clients.

Gary has been immersed in just about everything over his thirty years plus with Walsh, including major prosecutions for the federal government in areas of tax fraud and gang conspiracy cases, to corporate restructurings and insolvencies and First Nations land claims. He has litigated in every Court including the Supreme Court of Canada, Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal, and all levels of Alberta Courts. Throughout his career he accepted and enjoyed roles as trial counsel in a variety of areas on major complex litigation. These experiences have developed his skills as a team leader on difficult and complex legal battles. Gary has been a lifelong student of the law who enjoys the challenge each case brings to develop a winning strategy. The quest to get it right and fiercely advocate for his clients is his motivation for practicing law.

Gary has carried on the ‘team approach’ at Walsh LLP to resolving clients’ legal matters. Happily, it is that team approach that affords what senior litigators are often denied: life outside their legal practice. He assists with the U of C advocacy class and his volunteer work in community organizations and within the legal community has given him an appreciation for the insight and skills others share to build community and to help others succeed.

He is proud to call Calgary home and feels privileged to have grown up in this city, attended university, raise a family and build a successful career within it. Like many Albertans, his roots are in farming and his early work life was in the oil patch. He enjoys the great outdoors – especially cycling, skiing, fishing, and hiking.

Education & Professional Development

  • Bachelor or Arts, History, University of Calgary, 1983
  • Bachelor of Laws, University of Victoria, 1987

Professional
Affiliations

  • Law Society of Alberta, member in good standing since 1988
  • Canadian Bar Association