Born in Vienna, Austria and raised in Canada, Eric P. Polten earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in philosophy from the University of Toronto, and also engaged in post-graduate studies as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Stanford University. He earned his law degree at the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto. During his university studies, he performed various university teaching roles.
Mr. Polten was called to the Bar of Ontario with honours in 1974 and has four decades of legal experience practicing in a broad range of civil litigation areas and related fields.
Early in his career, he worked with a public authority, during which time he acquired valuable experience in dealing with a broad range of commissions, boards, tribunals and other government regulatory bodies.
Mr. Polten has appeared as sole counsel and as senior counsel before all levels of the courts in Ontario and before the Supreme Court of Canada, including in trials, appeals and judicial reviews. He has also appeared before courts of British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba. He has served as counsel before an array of Ontario boards, tribunals and commissions, before professional regulatory bodies and university academic and disciplinary tribunals, and before boards of mediation, arbitration and referees. Furthermore, he has appeared on behalf of Ontario clients before the International Court of Justice in Paris.
Current Practice Focus
Currently, Mr. Polten concentrates on representing clients in matters involving wills and estates and family law issues, commercial litigation and administrative law. Given the reality of rapid globalization, legal problems increasingly extend beyond the confines of one locality or country. Accordingly, Mr. Polten focuses further on matters in which legal issues arising within the practice areas cited above reach across borders by virtue of their involving more than one jurisdiction.
Fluent in both English and German, Mr. Polten is engaged with increasing frequency in matters for which facility in English and German combined with an understanding of both the Canadian and German legal frameworks is an advantage. He has extensive experience in conducting Ontario legal actions on behalf of German clients and in arranging the conduct of legal actions on behalf of Ontario residents against persons or corporate entities in Germany. He aims to help link the legal worlds of German-speaking Europe and Canada in the evolving global economy.
Professional Associations and Memberships
Mr. Polten was the founding Coordinator and first Canadian Co-President of the Canadian-German Lawyers Association, and a founding member of the Canadian Chapter of the International Network of Boutique Law Firms. Mr. Polten is a member of long standing of the German Bar Association and the International Bar Association.
Other professional memberships include:
Law Society of Upper Canada
Canadian Bar Association
Canadian German Chamber of Industry and Commerce
German Canadian Business and Professional Association
German Bar Association
Working Committee for International Law of the German Bar Association
Working Committee for Family Law of the German Bar Association
Forum for German Inheritance Law
European Association of Attorneys (AEA)
International Bar Association
American Association for Justice
Practice Areas:
Wills and Estates
Estate Administration
Estate Litigation
Family Law
Separation and Divorce
Division of Property
Spousal Support
Child Custody, Access and Support
Commercial Litigation
Business and Contract Disputes
Shareholder and Partnership Disputes
Commercial Fraud
Collection of Debts
Administrative Law
Government Boards and Tribunals
Professional Discipline
University Academic and Disciplinary Appeals
Cross-Border Legal Services
German-English Litigation Services
Enforcement of Foreign Judgments
German-English Legal Translation and Notarization
