Bio

Benjamin Durnford is a partner in our Halifax office whose practice focuses on asset recovery, insolvency and restructuring, corporate and commercial law. He is counsel to various major financial institutions and has appeared before all levels of Court in Nova Scotia and the Utility and Review Board, and has also appeared before the Federal Court of Canada, the New Brunswick Court of Queen’s Bench and the Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court. Ben represents both secured and unsecured creditors in various asset recovery matters involving the Personal Property Security Act, Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act and other statutes related to creditors’ and debtors’ rights. With a focus on domestic and international bankruptcy and commercial matters, Ben is part of a division within the firm’s Asset Recovery and Insolvency Group which provides litigation support and general legal advice to receivers, trustees, monitors, court-appointed liquidators, administrators and other statutory office holders in connection with numerous insolvencies and regulatory appointments both in Canada and in the Eastern Caribbean region. Ben has assisted individual and institutional clients, debtor and creditor alike, in numerous domestic and international insolvency, litigation and commercial matters. Ben became a member of the Insolvency Institute of Canada in 2021. Ben is a past Chair of the Nova Scotia’s chapter of the Canadian Bar Association Bankruptcy and Insolvency Section, and a member of the Canadian Bar Association (Bankruptcy subsection), the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society. He has guest lectured at Dalhousie Law School on the subject of advanced legal research and writing, and has delivered and contributed to numerous presentations on insolvency and restructuring topics hosted by organizations such as Insight, the Canadian Bar Association, the Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals and other professional organizations. Ben has also been engaged by the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada to serve as oral board examiner of prospective Trustees in Bankruptcy and Administrators of BIA Proposals. Ben was co-author of “Back From the Brink: NewPage Port Hawkesbury Corporation”, in J. Sarra and B. Romaine, eds., Annual Review of Insolvency Law, 2012 (Toronto: Carswell, 2013).