Mary Wahbi

Called to the bar in 1986

Mary practices in corporate/commercial law and trusts and estates law. She articled at Basman Smith in 1984 and joined the firm after her call to the bar in 1986. Mary became a partner in 1991 and is one of the Managing Partners of the firm. Mary’s corporate/commercial practice is focused on business acquisitions and dispositions, business relationships (including executive employment agreements, partnership agreements, and shareholders’ agreements), business financing (secured transactions), corporate re-organizations (including tax related transactions) and general business and commercial agreements. Mary’s estates and trusts practice focuses on estate planning (including business succession, estate freezes, creation of trusts), and the preparation of wills, insurance directions and trusts, powers of attorney for property and powers of attorney for personal care, medical directives, and the administration of the estate of deceased persons. Her two areas of expertise allow her to provide her high net worth entrepreneurial client base with an integrated solution to their business and personal planning issues. Mary received her law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1984 and was called to the Ontario Bar in 1986. Mary received her Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Certificate from the Faculty of Law, University of Windsor in 2000. She is also a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP). Mary is also active in the legal community. She is a past instructor in Estate Planning at the Bar Admission Course, Law Society of Upper Canada, and is former Chair of the Statutory Review Committee, Executive of the Ontario Bar Association. In her latter role, Mary was instrumental in achieving an amendment to the Family Law Act by the Ontario legislature which eliminated the windfall on death associated with jointly held property in favour of a surviving spouse seeking equalization of Net Family Property. Mary also acts as a Mentor in the Ontario Bar Association’s Mentorship Program, providing guidance and mentoring new lawyers. Mary volunteers as a supervising lawyer at Pro Bono Student Canada’s Wills Clinic, which provides estate planning legal services to low income clients. The Clinic delivers such services through the efforts of law students from Osgoode Hall Law School and from the University of Toronto Law School, under the supervision of volunteer lawyers. Mary is instrumental in both the training of law students and in supervising students. Mary is also a volunteer lawyer at the Wellspring Pro Bono Wills/Powers of Attorney Clinic which provides estate planning legal services to cancer patients who have little income and assets. Mary is a frequent speaker with the Ontario Bar Association, speaks regularly to community groups, is former Treasurer of the 344th Brownie Pack, and is co-founder of Smart Choices, a women’s information exchange and networking group. Born in Israel in 1960, Mary relocated to Canada in 1967 with her family.