Holly V.A. Cunliffe

First Year of Call
2014

Areas of Practice
Estates and Trusts

Description
Holly focuses on providing her clients with practical solutions to a wide range of estate, trust and capacity issues, helping her clients navigate through emotionally challenging litigation with compassion.

As a member of the firm’s Tax Group and Estates & Trusts Group, Holly represents individuals and trust companies with a range of court proceedings, such as will challenges, applications to pass attorney and trustee accounts, dependent support claims, rectification and interpretation of wills and trusts, variations of trust deeds, power of attorney and capacity disputes, estate and trust administration issues, trustee applications for advice and directions, appointment or removal of trustees/guardians, breaches of trust and guardianships. She is preferred counsel for LawPRO on matters of professional negligence with respect to estate and trust issues.

Holly is active in leadership positions: she has sat on the Executive Committee for the Ontario Bar Association’s Elder Law section since 2019, and has previously sat on the Executive Committee of the Trusts & Estates section. Holly is also an accredited Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) and is one of 12 global members of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) elected to sit on the Mental Capacity Global SIG Steering Committee.

Holly routinely appears before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (including the Estates and Commercial Lists), and has also appeared before the Court of Appeal for Ontario.

Holly has additional experience in real estate disputes, contract disputes, oppression actions, civil fraud, asset and debt recovery, civil enforcement, employment disputes, product liability, judicial reviews and Indigenous law.

Holly is a long-standing volunteer with Pro Bono Ontario, providing free legal advice to low-income parties appearing in Small Claims Court, and taking calls on the Pro Bono Ontario Free Legal Advice Hotline providing advice on estates, powers of attorney, civil litigation and civil appeals.