Please join us on Wednesday November 16th for our joint meeting taking place at the Atrium Banquet and Conference Centre located NW of the QEW and Burloak Drive in Burlington.

The first speaker of the night is Dr. Richard Shulman. Dr. Shulman is a geriatric psychiatrist with his clinical practice based out of Trillium Health Partners Hospital in Mississauga where he has served as the medical director. Dr. Shulman has been providing medical-legal options for lawyers and their clients for over 10 years (both contemporaneous and retrospective) and over time has been qualified by the courts as an expert witness in order to provide evidence for disputes related to incapacity and/or susceptibility to undue influence. Given his medical training and experience as an expert witness, Dr Shulman is uniquely able to provide medical-legal opinions in situations where there is complex medical history and/or situations that will likely result in conflict.

The second speaker is Nathan Spaling. Nathan received a diploma in Social Service work and eventually he became a lawyer and partner at a well-respected law firm operating out of Waterloo, Wellington and Halton regions – focusing his practice on corporate, real estate and estates. Nathan recognized that most industries do not have access to decision-making capacity training, solutions to reduce their professional liability when understanding decision-making capacity risks or easy access to specialized capacity evaluation resources. In response to this, Nathan founded the Capactiy Clinic to address these concerns for all different industries interacting with clients – especially those participating in the estate planning/incapacity planning sectors. Nathan recently left his law firm’s partnership to continue his focus as CEO of the Capactiy Clinic. He and his family live in Milton and enjoy most sports included hiking around the escarpment whenever possible.

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Matters covered in meeting:
– What is decision-making capacity and susceptibility to undue influence in the context of financial/investment/estate planning/incapacity planning?
– What are some risk factors of incapacity and undue influence when meeting clients?
– What is the importance of holistic screening for diminishing decision-making capactiy? – including an example model
– What is a medical-legal opinion (contemporaneous and retrospective) and how can it be used during estate planning or if litigation arises?