Professional Background

Peter Gorgopa is Counsel practicing in the Corporate Commercial and Wills and Estates Practice Groups at Singleton Urquhart Reynolds Vogel LLP. He has earned a reputation for providing quality legal work and personal service with an understanding of and focus on his clients’ needs.

Peter provides strategic advice to individuals and corporations on a broad range of matters, including:

  • structuring business enterprises, corporations, joint ventures, and partnerships;
  • preparing buy-sell, shareholder, joint venture, and partnership agreements;
  • negotiating and implementing business and asset acquisitions and dispositions;
  • implementing corporate reorganizations;
  • preparing construction contracts, including financing and public-private partnerships; and
  • negotiating and preparing employment contracts and providing advice on employer-employee relations.

He has an active real estate practice for both business and personal transactions. His real estate expertise includes commercial leasing, commercial and residential lending, real estate development, and residential and commercial real estate purchase and sale transactions.

As an experienced wills and estates lawyer, Peter advises individuals on the full spectrum of estate, business succession, and tax planning strategies, including wills, representation agreements, alter-ego trusts, spousal and common-law partner trusts, family trusts, and other special purpose trusts.

Education

  • Called to the British Columbia Bar, 1985
  • Bachelor of Laws, Dalhousie Law School, 1984
  • Bachelor of Arts (International Relations), University of British Columbia, 1981

Memberships

Peter is a member of the Law Society of British Columbia, where he has served as an Ad Hoc Bencher on an ethics and competency committee, and of the Canadian Bar Association, where he has served as a Practice Advisor. He is an active member of his community, and donates his time and experience to many projects, charitable organizations, schools, and sports organizations throughout the lower mainland.

  • Structuring business ventures and the ownership of the business and the assets used in the business;
  • Negotiating and preparing business agreements, including leases, services agreements, purchase and sale contracts, and employment contracts;
  • Arranging personal affairs to minimize or avoid taxes on death and to protect assets from wills variation claims by disgruntled or disappointed beneficiaries;
  • Negotiating and preparing construction contracts for contractors, subcontractors and suppliers, including underpinning, shoring, and crane swing agreements and indemnities for property owners adjacent to development projects;
  • Interpreting agreements and recommending actions that limit potential liability and risk of loss;
  • Reorganizing private corporations to facilitate the introduction of new owners and the intergenerational transfer of future growth;
  • Managing the discipline and termination of employees.

Presentations

  • Presenter, “Wills and Estate Planning,” Wills & Estates Seminar (with RBC, German-Canadian Business Association, and Philippines Canada Trade Council), November, 2023