• Lawyers
  • Christopher A. Brown
  • Will Cascadden
  • Shabnam Datta
  • Colin Galinski
  • Mark Holthe
  • Allyson Marta
  • Catherine McAteer
  • Jonas McKay
  • Craig Natsuhara
  • Janet Nystedt
  • Kristin Smith
  • Scott Sweatman
  • Jamie Taylor
  • Stephen Torscher
  • Shana Wolch
  • Michael Wolpert
• Articling Students
• Manager of Administration
• Business Immigration Paralegals
• Directory

Contact information

T 604.630.2080
E ssweatman@spectrumhrlaw.com

More about Scott

• Education
• Acknowledgements
• Memberships/Professional Affiliations
• Publications
• Professional Activities
• Media Appearances

Scott Sweatman

Pensions, Employment Benefits and Executive Compensation

Since 1990, my expertise has included pensions, benefits, executive compensation and related tax law. I help clients establish and sustain pension, benefit and deferred compensation plans, providing counsel on regulatory compliance, governance and funding issues, as well as the impact of mergers and acquisitions on these plans. From a tax perspective, I work with clients to develop executive and deferred compensation plans, and advise them on issues around stock options, retiring allowances, profit sharing and corporate reorganizations.

I also assist national and multi-national clients, as well as multi-employer plan sponsors, with provincial, federal and Income Tax Act compliance. For over fifteen years I worked as a senior consultant with two major multi-national actuarial and accounting firms. With this experience, I am uniquely positioned to provide strategic legal consulting advice in tandem with professionals from the actuarial and accounting professions.

Between October 2007 and November 2008, I had the honour to serve, along with my partner, Chris Brown, as Co-Chair of the Alberta-British Columbia Joint Expert Panel on Pension Standards. As part of this government-appointed industry panel, I worked with five of Alberta and B.C.'s leading experts in pensions and benefits to review pension legislation in the two provinces and make recommendations to both governments for fundamental reforms to pension legislation. I believe significant pension reform will occur across various Canadian jurisdictions in the coming years and that my background and experience on the Joint Expert Panel has provided me with insight that will help Spectrum HR Law prepare our clients for the new regulatory environment.

Along with my other partner, Michael Wolpert, I am also honoured to serve on the Alberta and British Columbia Joint Advisory Group which was established by the Alberta and British Columbia governments to help the respective governments implement new pension standards legislation based, in part, on the Joint Expert Panel recommendations.

I am the past national and regional chair of the Canadian Pension & Benefits Institute, past chair of the Pension, Benefits and Compensation Section of the Canadian Bar Association (British Columbia), past chair of the Corporate Counsel Section of the Canadian Bar Association (British Columbia), former member of the Pension Advisory Council to the British Columbia Government, and former member of the Trustee Act Modernization Committee of British Columbia.

I was honoured to be recognized in the 2012 edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada in the area of Employee Benefits Law.

Before joining Spectrum HR Law, I was associate counsel at a leading national law firm, practicing in both Vancouver and Calgary. I have been practicing law since 1987.