Jason Ward Founding Lawyer (retired)

Jason founded (2003) and co-owns WARDS LAWYERSPC, a full-service firm in the City of Kawartha Lakes, Ontario.

In 2021, Jason was designated as and appointed a Certified Specialist – Civil Litigation, by the Law Society of Ontario.

In early 2022, after more than twenty years, Jason retired from WARDS LAWYERS^PC to pursue other interests and opportunities.

He practiced civil litigation generally, particularly family law, estate disputes and employment law. Jason initially articled with Siskinds (London), before practicing commercial litigation at (the former) Ogilvy Renault, Toronto.

After running in the 2003 Ontario provincial general election (Liberal candidate), he and his family relocated from Toronto to Lindsay, Ontario, his hometown, where he started his own law firm. Shortly afterwards, his wife, Karissa, left her position as a business lawyer at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, Toronto, to join Jason to build their own firm together, which today is one of the largest firms in Central Ontario.

Jason and Karissa, who have three teenage children, are dedicated to their community. Both have been awarded the Business Leader of the Year Award by the Chamber of Commerce. Karissa has also been honoured as the Extraordinary Woman of the Year in the City of Kawartha Lakes. Their law firm has been annually recognized locally as the favourite law firm in the area for more than a decade.

Both Jason and Karissa have served on local boards and offered advisory services to local non-profit and charitable organizations. They are passionate about youth mental health, too. Their firm has, among other things, run a huge, month-long Hallowe’en event in their community, known as “Haunt Your Home”, attracting millions of visitors from all over the world to the contest Website. They also present the largest kids’ road hockey tournament in Ontario, if not beyond, raising money and awareness for youth mental health. In addition, they passionately donate and actively participate in many, effective youth mental health awareness initiatives in their area.

Jason has been actively involved with children in the community, not only his own, including as a coach for many years for minor hockey, soccer and lacrosse. He has also sponsored many young athletes in their athletic-related goals.

Professionally, since becoming a lawyer in 2000, Jason has appeared and argued trials and cases in all the Ontario Courts, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, the (former) Ontario Municipal Board and other tribunals and administrative bodies. He has also represented the Public Guardian and Trustee, including being appointed by the Superior Court as “section 3 counsel”, representing incapable and vulnerable people. Jason has also been a faculty speaker for continuing legal education for Ontario lawyers, including most recently at the Law Society of Ontario’s Six-Minute Estates Lawyer and the “Step-by-Step Guide to Bringing a Motion” conference.

He often published legal articles, blogs and, recently, his new book entitled, “Resolving Grave Disputes – The Law of Dead Bodies in Ontario” was published by Amazon, Kindle, CanLII and by a nationally prominent legal journal, the Estates Trusts & Pensions Journal. He has also published other legal articles recently, such as, “Bringing a Motion in the Central East Region”, supporting continuing professional development for lawyers in Ontario.