Canadian Lawyer

w w w . c a n a d i a n l a w y e r m a g . c o m A P R I L 2 0 1 9 33 "The things that come across my desk are quite varied week to week — a novel food application, an investigation into food additives or companies looking for test market authorization for products. They all have different components to them, and that's something that's really satisfying." Glenford Jameson, G.S. Jameson & Co. office and co-leader of the agribusiness and food law industry group. "Science and technology is really pushing the boundaries of possibility in food law. In my view, this is particularly so with respect to the production of our food. This area tends to garner a lot of negative publicity, but really it has presented society with so many opportunities." Carol VandenHoek, co-leader with Johnson of Miller Thomson's food law group, is a partner at its office in Guelph, Ont., a region with a wealth of food and agriculture businesses and research institutes. Food law "is an area of growth we see as a firm," she says. "We see it in our practices, and I don't see signs of it slowing down any time soon." VandenHoek says there may still be misconceptions in the legal community about what food law is, particularly in regions that have not traditionally been as rich agriculturally. "I think perhaps sometimes people may not fully appreciate how multi-disciplinary the food law area is. When we look at agribusiness and food production, we see it as a whole — we look at all segments of the industry sector, from farmer-producer to manufacturer right to the end consumer. And there are so many facets along that value chain where there's an opportunity to do agribusiness or food work." Variety is the spice of life A significant part of food law involves interpreting regulations and policy, as well as working closely with the CFIA to help clients navigate the laws. "We cover a variety of issues," says Laura Gomez, a partner at Gowling WLG in Ottawa, who specializes in product regulation, compliance and enforcement. "Some of our very sophisticated clients are large corporations who already have legal counsel, they have robust research and development departments, they have quality assurance people and usually an internal regulatory team as well. They tend to come to us with very specific, high-level questions with respect to where policy development is going and what will be coming in the future. Those tend to be the more difficult questions but also the most interesting." Gomez says foreign food companies hoping to enter the Canadian market are also looking for advice on how to get products to retail, in addition to more technical "The reality is that, if you're in the food business, you're swimming in a sea of regulations. That's also why I think it's a growing area of law." Ron Doering, Gowling WLG

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