Ben Barnes co-founded Gibson & Barnes LLP in 2005. Prior to founding the firm, Ben worked as an associate at a Toronto union-side labour law firm and as in-house counsel for a major construction union.

Ben’s practice includes the representation of trade unions and, especially, construction trade unions. He regularly appears before the Ontario Labour Relations Board and other adjudicative bodies. His work routinely includes applications for certification, grievance arbitration, collective agreement negotiation, unfair labour practice applications, jurisdictional disputes, and related and successor employer applications. The representation of construction industry trade unions involves the long-term representation of sophisticated clients on with many complex legal issues.

Ben particularly enjoys the many opportunities for strategic planning and litigation created by web of relationships in the industry. Ben received an LLB from the University of Toronto in 1999 and a BA (Hons.) from Queen’s University in 1995 and has, for many years been recognized by Lexpert as a leading practitioner in the field of Labour-Relations-Construction Sector.