An experienced environmental lawyer with involvement across energy and infrastructure, mining and metals, and climate change, Tyson brings strategic acumen, skillful advocacy and technical insight to his work advising clients on the environmental, health and safety aspects of their most complex matters.
Tyson is a leader in the energy transition, having provided critical guidance on many of North America’s most high-profile energy projects. He has advised clients on the development, permitting and financing of more than 50 wind, solar, gas, hydro and energy storage projects, together representing over 7,000 MW in installed capacity. He also advises on major transmission and distribution projects, including electricity transmission lines and natural gas pipelines, and some of the world’s largest Carbon Capture, Storage and Utilization (CCUS) projects. Tyson gives strategic advice in navigating complex and often challenging environmental assessment and permitting processes, as well as on negotiations with regulatory agencies, Indigenous communities, local municipalities and other stakeholders.
On climate change matters, Tyson has decades of experience, having worked on some of the country's earliest carbon offset deals and emissions reduction funds. He now advises clients with responsibility for over 100,000 kilotonnes of GHG emissions as they transition to a low-carbon economy. He is regularly retained to advise on the development of carbon trading and compliance strategies, on agreements for the purchase and sale of emissions reduction and clean energy credits (in both compliance and voluntary markets), on the development and marketing of carbon offset and removal projects, and on climate change disclosure issues (both under evolving securities laws and voluntary reporting frameworks such as the GHG Protocol and the Task Force on Climate-Related Finance Disclosures). He is currently helping some of the country's largest companies in developing their strategies to achieve Net Zero GHG emissions.
In the mining and metals sector, Tyson acts for companies acquiring, financing, developing and operating major uranium, potash, coal and precious metals operations across the country. He regularly advises these clients on stakeholder relations and permitting, compliance and enforcement matters, including investigations and prosecutions under provincial and federal environmental laws. He has also worked with national and provincial industry associations on strategies to address environmental risks and seize climate change-related opportunities.
Tyson advises clients in many other sectors, including pulp and paper, water treatment, communications, iron and steel, chemicals and manufacturing. He provides advice on the full range of issues in the environmental and energy-regulatory fields, including environmental assessments, project permitting, contaminated sites remediation, endangered species protection, spills response and reporting and the inspection, investigation and defence of environmental offences. He also regularly advises on high-stakes, reputationally sensitive ESG issues for major financial institutions, investors and asset managers.
2016-2022 | Chambers Canada—Leading lawyer in environment |
2011-2022 | Chambers Global—Leading lawyer in environment |
2021-2022 | The Legal 500—Next generation partner in environment |
2020-2022 | Best Lawyers in Canada—Leading lawyer in environmental law |
2018-2022 | The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory—Leading lawyer in environmental law |
2016-2021 | Who’s Who Legal—Leading Canadian lawyer in environment and climate change |
2018 | Guide to the World’s Leading Energy and Environment Lawyers |
2017 | Lexpert’s Rising Stars: Leading Lawyers Under 40—One of Canada’s leading lawyers under 40 |
A former Fulbright Scholar at Stanford Law School, Tyson has published leading research on the Clean Development Mechanism in the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law and co-authored The Law of Climate Change in Canada, Canada’s leading text on the subject and winner of the Walter Owen Book Prize. Tyson has presented extensively on climate change issues, including at the University of Toronto Law School, McGill University Faculty of Law, Osgoode Law School, Stanford Law School and the United Nations Environment Program. Tyson is currently Canada’s national rapporteur at Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.
Tyson is a member of the Environmental Law and International Law Sections of the Ontario Bar Association, as well as the National Environmental, Energy and Resources Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association.
During his articles, Tyson was seconded to the legal department of Ontario Power Generation.