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D. Bruce Clarke, QC is a graduate of Dalhousie Law School and was admitted to the Nova Scotia Bar in 1982. He articled with and joined the firm of Burchells, and became a partner in 1988. His practice is in the areas of Corporate and Commercial Law, Bankruptcy and Insolvency, and Aboriginal and Treaty Rights.
Corporate organization and commercial transactions have been a core part of Bruce’s practice since its inception. He has the privilege of representing some quite major banking and commercial clients. He also has the honour of acting for many local and regional businesses. Bruce was a lecturer for the Nova Scotia Bar Admissions course on the drafting of commercial documents for over a decade. He is well recognized as having expertise in the drafting of agreements, leases and licenses, the preparation of joint venture and shareholder agreements, in bank financing transactions and in business re-organizations.
Bruce acts as counsel for many of the insolvency practitioners in Nova Scotia and is the Bar representative on the Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justices' Committee on Bankruptcy and Insolvency issues. He has tried insolvency cases in the Supreme Court of Canada, the Federal Court, Trial Division and Appeal Division, and the Nova Scotia Supreme Court and Appeal Court. Bruce was the Chair of the CBA Bankruptcy and Insolvency Subsection from 1998 to 2000 and was a member of the part-time faculty at Dalhousie Law School, teaching the Bankruptcy and Insolvency course from 1994 to 1999. He has presented papers at many conferences on Insolvency issues.
Bruce has been active in the area of Aboriginal and Treaty Rights since 1983. He appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada in the landmark cases of Simon in 1984, Marshall in 1998, Powley in 2003, Bernard/Stephen Marshall in 2005 and Sappier/Gray in 2006. He co-represented the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (then the Native Council of Canada) in the Charlottetown Accord constitutional negotiations. He has acted as a contributor to numerous publications on Aboriginal issues and has often been a conference presenter on Aboriginal issues. He is active on aboriginal matters in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Bruce was a contributor to The Mi’kmaq Treaty Handbook (1987), the Netukulimkewe’l Aquatic National Life Guidelines (1990, 1994), the Netukulimkewe’l Land Based and Fowl Natural Life Guidelines (1990, 1995), Mi’kmaq and the Law (1991), Towards a Better Understanding (1993) and Completing the Circle (1997). Bruce is also the author of “Aboriginal Peacemaking Circles” (2001) and "The Limitation of Litigation as a Means of Reconciling Aboriginal Rights", published in "Legal Aspects of Aboriginal Business Development" in 2005. Bruce has acted as an external reviewer for the Indigenous Law Journal.
In 2005 and 2007, Bruce was elected to Council of the Nova Scotia Barristers Society. He is currently the chair of the Society’s Complaints Investigation Committee.
Bruce has been recognized in 2010's "Best Lawyers in Canada" in the field of Aboriginal Law.
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