Peter Swanson Bio

Peter is a founding partner of the firm with over 35 years of professional legal experience. He practices primarily in the fields of maritime and health law. Peter’s maritime case work involves carriage of goods by sea, civil and regulatory liability for ship source pollution, collisions, chartering and other contract disputes, maritime lien enforcement or response, ship arrest and sale, advice in response to port state control actions, immigration in the context of shipping, as well as constitutional issues arising in the context of “navigation and shipping”. Peter also routinely advises on the preparation and completion of transport and terminal contract documentation and is often involved in casualty investigations in both a marine and non-marine context. Peter’s health law case work involves assisting health care professionals in relation to regulatory or disciplinary issues before their governing regulators, as well as providing assistance in respect of audits or court attendances. This work includes handling complaints against health care professionals through to hearing and possible judicial review. Peter appears regularly as counsel before a variety of Courts. He has represented clients in the British Columbia Provincial Court, the British Columbia Supreme Court, the Federal Court, the British Columbia Court of Appeal, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. He has also represented clients before a variety of tribunals including the Health Professions Review Board, the Medical Services Commission, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia and the Workers Compensation Appeal Tribunal. Peter is an Adjunct Professor of law co-teaching the Maritime Law course at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia to 2nd and 3rd year law students. Peter is a regular contributor to local trade journals on maritime law topics. He has written for the Advocate, the International Insurance Law Review, and co-authored the section on Canada for the International Comparative Legal Guide to: Commodities and Trade Law 2006. Peter is currently active on number of boards and other organizations. He is a director of a number of not-for-profit organizations including the Chamber of Shipping of B.C. He is past Chair of the Provincial (BC) and National Maritime Law Sections of the Canadian Bar Association (“CBA”), and was Chair of the Host Committee of ICMA, 2012. He has a long tradition of charitable fund raising for different organizations. In 2008 and in 2014 Peter competed as a team member in the Sailors Society Three Peaks Challenge (a 24 hour effort to climb three of the United Kingdom’s tallest peaks – Ben Nevis (4,406ft) in Scotland; Helvellyn (3,117ft) in England and Snowdon (3,560ft) in Wales). He has also been involved in the organization of many events (fundraising and educational) including Comité Maritime International, Vancouver (2004) and ICMA 2012 (Vancouver). Peter is recognized by his peers as a leader in the field of maritime law. He has been listed in the Best Lawyers in Canada since it was first published in 2006, is rated as Repeatedly Recommended for shipping and maritime law in the Canadian Legal L’expert Directory, is listed in Who’s Who Legal Canada for Shipping & Maritime and Who’s Who Legal for Shipping and is listed with Chambers and Partners for transportation law.