Ernest F. Gutstein

Ernest brings exceptional negotiation skill and business savvy to the difficult files other solicitors are not prepared to take on — a “fixer” consulted by lawyers, developers, real estate investors and business people when the going gets rough. His eclectic practice spans real estate acquisitions and sales, mortgage financing and enforcement, land development, condominiums, construction contracts, joint ventures, commercial leasing, partnerships and estate matters.

As preferred LawPRO counsel he has resolved many complex errors-and-omissions matters on behalf of other real estate solicitors, and he maintains an active mortgage enforcement practice for several financial institutions, focused on maximizing realization. He often facilitates mediations, holding an LL.M in Alternative Dispute Resolution from Osgoode Hall Law School.

A Chartered Mediator on the Ontario Superior Court mediation roster and past Chair of the CBA-Ontario Real Property Section, Ernest was called to the Ontario bar in 1979 — an engineer by first training who takes a results-oriented business approach to every file, in English, Spanish or Hungarian.

• Best Lawyers in Canada — Real Estate Law (2025, 2026 editions)
• Preferred LawPRO counsel
• Chartered Mediator

• Mediator Roster — Mediation Program of the Ontario Superior Court
• Past Chair, Real Property Section — Canadian Bar Association of Ontario
• Past Director, Arbitration and Mediation Institute of Ontario
• Law Society benchers committee on real estate law
• Advisory Board, Seneca College Mortgage Brokers Course
• Mortgage enforcement counsel to several financial institutions
• Board of Directors, Camp Northland B’nai Brith

• Arbitration & Mediation chapter (with Dianne Prupas), “Tenant’s Rights and Remedies in a Commercial Lease: A Practical Guide” — Canada Law Book, 1998 · library record ↗
• The Six-Minute Real Estate Lawyer (Law Society) — land transfer tax deferral; deemed trust provisions, Retail Sales Tax Act
• “Surviving the New Practice of Real Estate — Mortgage Mishaps” — Law Society CLE
• “Is There a Role for ADR in Mortgage Collection?” — Canadian Journal of Dispute Resolution
• “Arbitration in Real Estate Matters” and “ADR and the Real Estate Lawyer” — CBA-Ontario Real Property Section, 1995–1996
• Presenter and lecturer — banks, trust companies, Ontario Mortgage Brokers Association, City of Toronto Legal Department, Law Society and CBA

• LL.M, Alternative Dispute Resolution — Osgoode Hall Law School, 1998
• LL.B., University of Toronto, 1977
• B.A.Sc. (Engineering), University of Toronto, 1974
• Called to the Bar of Ontario, 1979