Howard Wise

Practice Areas

Howard Wise is a partner at Goodmans. He specializes in the areas of construction law and commercial litigation.

Howard is retained as counsel by owners, general contractors, subcontractors, material suppliers and lenders in large construction disputes, including construction liens, contract claims and negligence claims. Howard’s litigation practice includes trial and appellate work, as well as mediation and arbitration of construction disputes. He has also acted for owners and contractors in negotiating complex construction contracts including design build agreements and EPC contracts. He is regularly retained to act in large multi-partied disputes, including acting for owners, general contractors, subcontractors, financiers and design professionals.

Career

Howard is recognized as a leading practitioner of construction law by Chambers Canada, The Legal 500 Canada, Law Business Research’s International Who’s Who of Construction Lawyers, Who’s Who Legal: Canada, Best Lawyers in Canada, The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, The Lexpert/American Lawyer Media’s Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada, the Lexpert Special Edition: Canada’s Leading Litigation Lawyers and the Lexpert Special Edition: Infrastructure.

Professional Memberships

Howard is Past President and Fellow of the Canadian College of Construction Lawyers, Past Chair of the Construction Law Subsection of the Canadian Bar Association, and Past Chair of the Construction Law Subsection of the Ontario Bar Association.

He is also a member of the Advocates’ Society, Association of Trial Lawyers of America, ABA Forum on the Construction Industry, and Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

Publications

Howard is the author of the Manual of Construction Law published by Thomson Reuters and the co-author of Bristow, Glaholt, Reynolds and Wise on Construction, Builders’ and Mechanics’ Liens in Canada, the leading text in the area of construction lien law. The 8th edition of the book was published in March 2020. He is a contributing author to a textbook entitled Construction Disputes: Representing the Contractor, published by Wolters Kluwer. Howard is also the contributing editor of Canadian Forms & Precedents: Construction Liens, published by LexisNexis.

He is a frequent lecturer to both legal and industry-based associations on various topics relating to construction law including design build contracts, bidding and tendering, and construction liens.