Sean is Co-Chair of the firm’s Energy, Environmental & Regulatory Practice Group.  The time Sean spent in the environmental consulting field before becoming a lawyer has provided him with a valuable technical foundation to support his practice in environmental and regulatory law. 

Sean advises on an array of environmental management projects and commercial transactions, with a focus on brownfield redevelopment and contaminated site litigation.  He acts for a wide variety of clients including large industry players, municipalities, landowners, government departments and administrative tribunals.

Education:

• LL.B., University of Alberta
• B.Sc., Environmental and Conservation Sciences, University of Alberta (with Distinction)

Professional Associations, Affiliations and Community Activities:

• Member, Canadian Bar Association
• Board of Directors, Environmental Law Center
• Board of Directors, Environmental Services Association of Alberta

Sean counsels and represents large industrial players, municipalities, small independent operators and individual landowners on various environmental law and regulatory issues. Some representative examples include:

• Acted for an individual and corporate vendor of real estate and successfully defended a claim for alleged losses flowing from the sale of a parcel of contaminated land. Issues related to disclosure of environmental conditions of the land pre-sale and the purchaser’s lack of due diligence.
• Advised a large industrial services company when conducting due diligence in relation to the purchase of several properties with potential environmental liabilities.  This matter required analysis of various technical environmental reports, assessment of the risk associated with the proposed transaction and developing strategies to manage the risk to our client.
• Represents and advises an individual, and their related corporations, when dealing with environmental regulators enforcing administrative orders against them. This matter involves strategic planning when engaging the regulators in discussions and making submissions to the Environmental Appeals Board. The terms of the order have been amended significantly to allow for business operations to continue while the order is being fulfilled.
• Acted as defence counsel for a large energy company prosecuted for alleged environmental offences. Due to the complexity of the engineering issues involved, expert consultants were identified and retained to refute the prosecution’s theory of the case and defend the charges laid.
• Counseled a coal mining company dealing with regulators and other stakeholders in order to obtain the required permits and operating approvals. This matter involved identification of a wide range of legislative and regulatory requirements and working with the client to ensure that the same were satisfied. This matter also involved navigating the new alternative dispute resolution process administered by the Alberta Energy Regulator to resolve concerns raised by several stakeholders.
• Provides ongoing advice to a government department on the development and maintenance of its environmental management system. This advice includes an annual review of the department’s environmental management system, undertaken in conjunction with a comprehensive review of all potentially applicable federal and provincial environmental legislation.
• Acted as counsel to an administrative tribunal during appeal proceedings between government regulators and an energy company relating to denial of a proposed resource development project.  This matter was classified by the tribunal as a complex appeal due to nature of the issues and novel procedural considerations that arose. A number of precedent-setting decisions, many relating to procedural issues, were made by the tribunal in the course of hearing this matter.

• Acted for a large international company defending multiple lawsuits from neighbouring landowners alleging damages from historic operations of a nearby retail gas station.  We successfully bought a summary dismissal application and had all claims against the client dismissed at an early stage in the litigation.
• Acted for a large energy company in a complex commercial arbitration. This matter required assessing a broad array of issues and defending wide range of allegations. Due to the highly technical nature of the issues raised, extensive efforts were undertaken to review enormous volumes of documents and develop analyses in conjunction with world-leading engineering experts.

• "Environmental Compliance in the COVID-19 Pandemic", Canadian Bar Association Law Series Webinar, 2020
• “Inspections and Investigations: What to do when the regulator comes knocking?”, Environmental Services Association of Alberta, 2020
• “Alberta’s Remediation Regulation”, Alberta Chamber of Resources, 2019
• “Cocktails and Conversations: Contaminated Sites”, McLennan Ross Seminar, 2019
• “Brownfields in Alberta: A Changing Legal Landscape”, Environmental Services Association of Alberta Remediation Technology Symposium, 2019
• “A Broker’s Guide to Contaminated Sites”, McLennan Ross Seminar, 2019
• “Environmental Law: Key Strategies for Everyday Practice”, Legal Education Society of Alberta, 2018
• “Administrative Monetary Penalties and the Increased Use of the Economic Benefit Component”, Canadian Bar Association North, Environmental Subsection, 2017
• “Contaminated Sites: The Real Law”, McLennan Ross Webinar, 2016
• “Environmental Case Law Update”, Canadian Bar Association, Environmental, Energy & Resources Law-North Subsection, 2016
• “Basics of Environmental Law”, Environmental Services Association of Alberta, Environment Business Conference, 2015
• “Creative Sentencing for Environmental Offences”, University of Alberta, Alberta Land Institute: Land Use, 2014
• “Environmental Consultants' Liability Risks”, McLennan Ross, 2013
• “Basics of Environmental Law”, Environmental Services Association of Alberta, Environment Business Conference, 2012
• “Construction Consultants’ Liability”, McLennan Ross Construction Law Symposium
• “Environmental Law - The Civil Side”, McLennan Ross, 2012
• “Environmental Inspections, Investigations and Enforcement”, McLennan Ross, 2012
• “Basics of Environmental Law”, Environmental Services Association of Alberta, Environment Business Conference, 2011

• "Alberta Court of Appeal Rules on the new “NORM” for Standing Before the Environmental Appeals Board", Sean Parker & Kyle Trolley, Student-at-Law, Assessing the Impact: Environmental and Resources Law Blog, 2020
• "Alberta Energy Regulator Suspends Environmental Monitoring Due To COVID-19", Mandy Kinzel & Sean Parker, Assessing the Impact: Environmental and Resources Law Blog, 2020
• "Alberta Court of Appeal Finds the ‘Big Molly’ Project Triggered a Full Environmental Impact Assessment", Eric Appelt & Sean Parker, Assessing the Impact: Environmental and Resources Law Blog, 2020
• "Federal Government Accepts Alberta’s New Carbon Pricing Program", Sean Parker & Anna Fitz, Student-at-Law, Assessing the Impact: Environmental and Resources Law Blog, 2019
• “Bill 19: Alberta’s Proposed TIER System for Addressing Greenhouse Gas Emissions”, Sean Parker & Anna Fitz, Student-at-Law, Assessing the Impact: Environmental and Resources Law Blog, 2019
• "Time to Clean Up: Alberta’s Revamped Remediation Regulation", Sean Parker & Stuart Chambers, Assessing the Impact: Environmental and Resources Law Blog, 2019
• "Better Late Than Never? Court of Appeal Rules on Extending Limitation Periods in Contaminated Site Litigation", Sean Parker & Gavin Fitch Q.C., Assessing the Impact: Environmental and Resources Law Blog, 2019
• "Back to the Future: Amendments to the Fisheries Act", Sean Parker & Ainslie Fowler, Student-at-Law, Assessing the Impact: Environmental and Resources Law Blog, 2018
• "New AER Water Act Authorization Procedure", Sean Parker, Assessing the Impact: Environmental and Resources Law Blog, 2018
• "Disgorgement of Economic Benefit and Increasing Penalties for Environmental Contraventions", Sean Parker and Sarah Levine, McLennan Ross Legal Counsel Newsletter, 2017
• “Environmental Claims Fail Despite Expert Evidence”, McLennan Ross Legal Counsel Newsletter, 2016
• "Phase What? Understanding Environmental Reports In Real Estate Transactions", McLennan Ross Legal Counsel Newsletter, 2015
• "Environmental Privacy", McLennan Ross E-Mail Alert, 2015
• "Enforcing the Species at Risk Act: Environmental Groups Gaining Ground", McLennan Ross Legal Counsel Newsletter, 2014
• "Court sets Aside Policy Barring Objectors from Role in Oilsands Approval Process", Canadian Bar Association, Eco-Bulletin - National Environmental, Energy and Resources Law Section Newsletter, 2014
• "Judicial Scrutiny of Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development Policy on Objections to Oilsands Projects", Mondaq, 2013
• "Significant Federal And Provincial Government Actions To Protect Vulnerable Species", Mondaq, 2013
• “A User’s Guide to Injunctions and Related Remedies in Alberta”, Legal Education Association of Alberta Workshop for Common Chambers Applications, 2012
• “Provinces as Creditors for Remediation Costs”, Lexology, 2012
• “Nunavut Planning and Project Assessment Act (Bill C-47)”, Lexology, 2012
• “Major Federal Changes: Bill C-38”, Lexology, 2012
• “Budget to Speed up Approval of Resource Development Projects”, Lexology, 2012
• “Alberta’s “Energy Superboard”, Lexology, 2011
• “New Federal Carbon Emission Standards for Coal-fired Power Plants”, Lexology, 2011
• “Integrated Oil Sands Environmental Monitoring Plan”, Lexology, 2011