Bio

William Fowlis , KC, FCPA, FCA, TEP, FEA is a lawyer, a Chartered Professional Accountant/Chartered Accountant, and a Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP). With this complementary professional background, Bill focuses on taxation, corporate, trust, succession, and estate planning law for privately owned businesses, corporations, family enterprises and high net worth individuals. His practice covers merger and acquisition transactions with a focus on private corporations and dealing with taxation authorities on contentious matters on behalf of his clients. Bill is a King’s Counsel, he was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2014, and awarded a Fellow of the Chartered Accountants (FCA) designation in 2014. Bill was the national leader in tax law for Miller Thomson from 2008-2015 and the Firm’s national lead for corporate tax from 2015 to 2017. He has been a partner at Miller Thomson since 1988 and was the Calgary office Managing Partner and a member of the Firm’s National Executive Committee from 2000-2006. Bill is ranked by the Chambers HNW Guide for Private Wealth Law – Canada. He was named Lawyer of the Year for 2015 in the area of tax law for Calgary by The Best Lawyers in Canada list in addition to being listed by Best Lawyers in Canada in the areas of tax law, trusts and estates, and corporate law. Bill is also listed in the Canadian Lexpert Legal Directory as one of Canada’s leading tax practitioners in the areas of estate and personal tax planning and corporate tax. Bill is recognized in Martindale-Hubbell Directory with an AV Preeminent. He is also rated in Who’s Who Legal in the area of Private Client. Bill has been an active member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners and was Chair of the Calgary branch and a Director of STEP Canada from 2008-2010. Bill served on the Board of the Calgary STEP branch and chaired the STEP Canada Awards Committee for many years. Bill has served as an elected representative of STEP Canada on the STEP Worldwide Council commencing in 2017 and was reelected for a second term starting in 2020. Bill was a member of the panel of 2015 judges for the STEP Private Client Awards, which celebrate global excellence in private client practice and he is a member of the Panel of Experts for these awards. In 2015, Bill received a STEP Founder’s Award in recognition of his outstanding long-term voluntary contributions to STEP. Bill is an accomplished speaker and writer. He has presented numerous papers on tax topics at conferences, written articles for many publications, and been a frequent lecturer for income tax courses for the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Alberta. Bill is a member of the Family Enterprise Xchange, Conference for Advanced Life Underwriting (CALU) (Associate Member), International Academy of Estate and Trust Law, Canadian Tax Foundation, Canadian Bar Association, the Entrepreneurial CPA’s of Calgary Society and the Calgary Advisory Group. Bill completed the FAMILY ENTERPRISE ADVISOR program in 2016 and is a FEA certificant. Bill is a member of the editorial board of Miller Thomson on Estate Planning, a leading Canadian publication on tax and estate planning.