Mr Ted Betts > Gowling WLG > Toronto, Canada > Lawyer Profile

Gowling WLG Offices

Gowling WLG
1600 – 1 FIRST CANADIAN PLACE
100 KING STREET WEST
TORONTO, ONTARIO, M5X 1G5
Canada
Visit website 1 416 862 7525 1 416 862 7661

Mr Ted Betts

Ted Betts photo
1 416-862-7661 ted.betts@gowlingwlg.com View profile

Position

Partner
Head of Infrastructure and Construction Group

Career

Ted Betts is a lawyer and partner in Gowling WLG’s Toronto office. He practises corporate, construction and infrastructure law with more than 25 years of experience in the construction and infrastructure sectors. Ted is the Head of the firm’s Infrastructure and Construction Sector Group and Co-Head of the firm’s Transportation and Mobility Sector Group, and he is certified by the Law Society of Ontario as a Specialist in Construction Law.

Ted acts on all aspects of tendering, negotiating and drafting of construction contracts, structuring, project management, financing and commercial contracting. His practice focuses on large-scale construction, infrastructure and development projects, particularly power generation, transportation, urban development, city-building projects and public-private partnerships (PPP).

Ted works in all sectors that involve construction projects, including commercial construction, real estate development, infrastructure and civil works, power and energy (nuclear, hydro-electric and solar power generating stations), mining and transit/transportation. Ted regularly acts for provincial procurement agencies and ministries, as well as large and small municipalities and other broader public sector organizations on construction matters. He has drafted and negotiated all types of contracts and project structures, including construction management, design-build, EPC/EPCM, consulting agreements, and more recently progressive design-build and integrated project delivery projects.

Ted is recognized as a leading construction, infrastructure and projects lawyer by Chambers, Canadian Legal Lexpert and Legal 500 Canada, The Best Lawyers in Canada and Thomson Reuters Stand-out Lawyer. He has also written papers and presented seminars on tendering and construction law. Ted is the former Chair of the Construction and Infrastructure Law Section Executive of the Ontario Bar Association (OBA). He is also the former chair of the OBA’s Construction Lien Act Reform Committee.

Ted has a great deal of experience on boards of directors, both for private and not-for-profit organizations. He currently sits on the board of The York School and Premises Chair, and is the former Chair of its Risk Management Committee. Ted is the former President and Chair of the Board of Directors of Family Service Toronto, one of the largest and oldest charitable organizations in Toronto. He also coaches community-level hockey. In 2013 to 2018, Ted was recognized by the province of Ontario for his volunteer services, receiving a Volunteer Service Award.

Lawyer Rankings

Canada > Construction

(Leading Individuals)

Ted Betts – Gowling WLG

Gowling WLG leverages the global bench strength of locations in 19 cities across nine countries and three continents, to advise on the entire lifecycle of major constructions, including multi-phased, multi-purpose real estate development projects (such as office, retail, commercial and residential complexes). In addition, the group’s full service extends to procurement processes, the negotiation of contract and labour agreements, project financing and insurance, environmental issues, health and safety, workers’ compensation and construction litigations, mediation and arbitration. The firm’s client portfolio spans such sectors as education, insurance, government, energy and aerospace. Ted Betts heads the practice, bringing over 20 years of experience to construction and infrastructure matters. Other key figures include seasoned litigator Sahil Shoor and associate Tristan Neill, who works at the firm’s office in the Waterloo region. Matthew Bernardo and Aaron Hunter joined as partners from in-house roles in January and February 2023. Unless noted, all lawyers mentioned work in Toronto.

Canada > Infrastructure projects

Among Gowling WLG’s key attributes, sources value the infrastructure team’s ‘high level of collaboration’ and ‘strong reactivity’. Primarily recognized for its public sector-side work, where it leverages the wider firm’s close relationships with Crown corporations and municipal clients, the group also routinely acts for contractors. In a recent example of its work in the latter sphere, Toronto-based Mark Platteel paired up with talented Vancouver-based senior associate Natasha Rana to advise a consortium (formed by Dragados Canada, Acciona Infrastructure Canada and Aecon Infrastructure Management) on its bid for Phase One of the Calgary Green Line LRT Project. Platteel co-heads the practice together with Toronto-based Ted Betts and Montreal’s Luc Lissoir. Former department co-head Faithe Holder recently retired.

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Top Tier Firm Rankings

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