Professional Profile
After practicing 50 years as a lawyer, Lou recently retired from legal practice at Milrad Law and continues his career as a Senior Advisor and Legal Editor.
Prior to establishing Milrad Law (a specialty boutique professional firm), Lou practiced in both an Associate Counsel role, and as a partner in some of Canada’s nationally & internationally recognized law firms. In parallel with the practice of law, Lou broadened his hands-on experience and relationship building strengths by accepting the dual role of CEO (3 1/2 years) and Chair (2 three-year terms) of the GTMA – Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance, the Regional Economic Development Agency for the Greater Toronto Area.
Recognized as a seasoned leader and skilled communicator, with a strong business, technology, and intellectual property law background, Lou counsels public and private sector management on a variety of business, policy and legal issues that include public-private partnerships and associated alliances. Aligning legal credentials with hands-on experience, Lou provides client-sensitive, senior-level consulting and advisory services.
Lou had also been appointed as Associate General Counsel for IMLA in Canada – International Municipal Lawyers Association.
With extensive experience in initiating and launching ”common-purpose” public/private alliances that provide value-added and sustainable solutions, Lou’s career niche has been working closely with and representing Canadian municipalities, provincial governments, public hospitals, clinics, and labs and served two years as Co-Chair of Technicity – A Celebration of Technology as an Engine of Economic Growth.
A published authority and respected as a visiting university and college lecturer at both graduate and undergraduate levels, Lou is the creator and editor of Computers and Information Technology – a 7 volume technology law series published by Thomson Reuters and which is going into its 64th release – he is also editor of the Computer and Information Technology chapter as well as the Public-Private Partnerships chapter in O’Brien’s Commercial and General legal forms.
Recruited early in his career as Chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s Task Force on Computerizing the Legal Profession, and of its CBANet electronic communications network, Lou was a founder and Chair of CSALT (Canadian Society for the Advancement of Legal Technology) and a featured technology columnist in Canadian Lawyer magazine. He continues as a contributor on ICT issues, open government & open data, cloud computing, shared services, and procurement to a variety of publications that include Municipal World, IT World and CIO Canada/Canadian CIO. Named by the Privacy Commissioner of Ontario as an Access by Design (AbD) Ambassador, and as the 2013 John Cushing Award recipient by the Municipal Information Systems Association (MISA) in “significant recognition of the time, effort, and energy put into MISA over the years”. Lou was further recognized by URISA (Urban & Regional Information Systems Association) as the recipient of the 2017 Exemplary Service Award.
As a regular contributor to Municipal World & to CIO Canada on open data, cloud computing, and municipal technology, and regularly presents on these topics as well as public-private partnerships, public procurement, and ethics issues to the CBA (Canadian Bar Association), IMLA (International Municipal Law Association), MISA Ontario (Municipal Information Systems Association, Ontario Section), OBA (Ontario Bar Association), and URISA Ontario (Urban and Regional Information Systems Association, Ontario Chapter) of which Lou is also a past president.
As a then Director of the Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS), Lou accepted an invitation in the 1980s to publish a “first” Canadian legal guide for IT managers on contracting for computer systems.
With early recognition by LEXPERT as a leader in Computer and IT Law, and by Canadian Lawyer Magazine as one of Canada’s five leading Information Technology Law practitioners, Lou has been consistently listed in Canadian Who’s Who, and in Who’s Who of Professionals.
A member of the Executive Committee of the Ontario Bar Association’s Public Sector Lawyers Section, Lou is a graduate of the University of Toronto (BA) and of the Osgoode Hall School of Law of York University (LLB) and also an alumnus of Phi Delta Phi Legal Fraternity.