We are delighted to announce that Casey & Moss LLP partners Angela Casey, Angelique Moss, and Laura Cardiff have been recognized in the 2025 Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory as leading practitioners in Estate & Personal Tax Planning – Estate Litigation. We are honoured to receive this recognition once again this year. We sincerely thank our peers, colleagues, and Lexpert for this recognition!
In the winter of 2023, I had just finished my honours bachelor’s degree at the University of Toronto and was ready to launch forward into adulthood. As a 22-year-old, I found the working world quite daunting, so the thought of having real ‘adult job’ was intimidating. Come the new year, I decided to put myself out there and apply to a variety of positions – one of which was a legal assistant at Casey and Moss.
While reading the C&M website, I was thoroughly impressed by the work the firm had done and their prestigious recognition among estate lawyers. I resonated with their mission to provide excellent service to clients, and their emphasis on providing flexibility to their employees. Next thing I knew, I was interviewing and had secured my position as a legal assistant!
I began as an assistant to Angela Casey and Angelique Moss, both of whom provided a warm welcome and an open-door policy. I’ll admit that the first month in this position was especially challenging as I was unfamiliar with estate law and the responsibilities of a legal assistant. Thankfully, my colleagues provided me with a space where I felt comfortable asking questions and, over time, I was able to build skill and confidence.
Once I was more settled, I was given the opportunity to work on projects more independently. In addition to secretarial work, Angela and Angelique had me assist in preparing pleadings. This was when I was really given the chance to see estate law in practice and understand what is required when engaging with estate litigation, guardianship, and other matters. I did (and still do) very much enjoy doing this work alongside Angela and Angelique.
After months of hard work, dedication and continued learning, I was offered a position as Rebecca Suggitt’s legal assistant. While I was initially worried about assisting three lawyers and the increased workload, I now couldn’t be happier to work alongside these three wonderful lawyers. They have taught me essential lessons not only in estate law, but also in life. Importantly, they helped me to see the value in trial and error and helped me realize when I was being too hard on myself (I’ll never pass on one of Rebecca’s pep talks!).
The most recent addition to my responsibilities has been assisting Angela with an ETDL file (“Estate Trustee During Litigation”). As a legal assistant, working on an ETDL file requires constant monitoring and communication with counsel. Accordingly, I was able to develop my multitasking skills and learn to better prioritize tasks. Though it can be challenging at times, I am especially grateful for the opportunity to work on this type of file because I’ve been able to do more independent work and exercise initiative.
Working at Casey and Moss continues to be an invaluable experience. As I come up on one full year with this firm, I reflect on my development as both a Casey and Moss employee and as a person. Without this team, I would not be where I am or who I am today.
I look forward to another year in my career journey with Casey and Moss!
Nothing contained in this post constitutes legal advice or establishes a solicitor-client relationship. If you have any questions regarding your legal rights or legal obligations, you should consult a lawyer.
We are proud announce that Casey & Moss LLP partners Angela Casey, Angelique Moss, Cara Zacks, and Laura Cardiff have been recognized in the 2025 Edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada™.
Additionally, we are thrilled to congratulate Zara Wong and Adam Giancola on their well-deserved achievement of being named in the 2025 Edition of the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Canada™.
We are extremely honoured to be recognized by Best Lawyers since 2017!
We moved into our office two years ago and there was always something (ahem… billable work) which put us off hanging art on the walls. When we finally got some pieces a few weeks ago we realized we didn’t really want to hang them ourselves. So Cara Zacks asked the local shop that had printed them for us if they knew someone who could do it. The owner, Vinny, said he would be glad to do it himself on the Friday before the Canada Day weekend. This was perfect as we had given our staff the day off.
When Friday morning turned to afternoon and then late afternoon, Laura Cardiff and I had our doubts Vinny would show but Angela Casey, eternally optimistic, had no qualms whatsoever, and right she was again. Vinny arrived while I was wrapping up an intense potential client call. When it ended, l wanted nothing more than to head home and forget about the week. But when I opened my office door there was Vinny, standing rather precariously on our furniture, attempting to hang art all the while laughing and trading tales with Angela. I knew I wouldn’t be leaving this party anytime soon.
It quickly became clear to us that Vinny (who never represented himself this way) was not a professional picture-hanger. Exhibit A: he came without a tape measure. Exhibit B: his frequent exclamations of “well, I cocked that up!” whenever he messed up a measurement. But Vinny’s humour, enthusiasm, and can-do attitude made up for any shortcomings in his skills.
The three of us worked together to hang the canvases over the course of a couple hours. What would have otherwise been an uneventful Friday afternoon turned into a fun kick-off to Canada Day weekend.
Cheers to all of the Vinnys who make life brighter, in the most unexpected ways. And check out Mr. Photo Canvas for all your photo canvas printing needs!
Nothing contained in this post constitutes legal advice or establishes a solicitor-client relationship. If you have any questions regarding your legal rights or legal obligations, you should consult a lawyer.
In my experience, it’s quite common to have a call with a potential client that involves the following situation:
In some cases, the facts provided by the client strongly suggest that the relative was unlikely to have had the capacity to make the disputed Will. However, most situations do not fit into this category and there are often many gaps in the potential client’s knowledge. This is often because some key information and documentation is not available to review. For instance, documents such as medical records and the file of the lawyer who prepared the Will are not normally going to be available until a court Order is obtained for their release. But one cannot obtain such an Order without first starting a court application to challenge the Will.
Once the Order for production of documents is obtained and the medical, legal, financial, and other documents are reviewed, the case may look quite different than it initially appeared. It may be a better or worse case than the lawyer initially might have thought given the very limited information that was first available. For this reason, it is very important to re-assess the strength of a Will challenge case at each step of the litigation process.
On a related point, a client should not wait too long to challenge the validity of a Will. The estate trustee named will be busy administering the Estate and will eventually distribute the assets if they aren’t prevented from doing so through a court Order which ties up the administration. This type of Order is typically granted when a Will is challenged. As well, it is extremely important that a limitation period not be missed, as a limitation period could have the effect of blocking a Will challenge from proceeding. (Legal advice will be required to determine when the limitation period begins to run as the particulars of each situation must be considered.) But, generally speaking, while some things may age well, a Will challenge case is not one of them and it’s generally best to commence a claim as soon as possible.
Nothing contained in this post constitutes legal advice or establishes a solicitor-client relationship. If you have any questions regarding your legal rights or legal obligations, you should consult a lawyer.