Joseph A. Gill

Joseph (Joe) is a partner in the McKercher LLP Saskatoon office.  

Joe is a technology, capital raising, and tax partner with a particular focus on high growth technology startups, IT contracting for companies managing digital transformation, and tax structuring for private enterprises and professionals. 

Joe is Saskatchewan’s technology and startup lawyer, having assisted hundreds of prairie technology, innovation, and scientific startups through their critical formation stage and beyond. He works with founders throughout the startup life cycle, from the very early ideation stage, through concept development and formation, to growth, scale, and exit. His belief is that founders need the right legal setup to attract investment and proactively defuse legal bombs so they can focus on building and scaling their startups. Joe actively seeks out thoughtful founders who understand that the right advice from Day 1 will accelerate their startup towards investment and growth. 

Joe provides “cradle to grave” business planning focused on the stages of building, growing, scaling and exiting a business. He brings a unique business sense to his advice having co-founded a legal technology start-up that was a participant in Saskatchewan’s first pre-seed business accelerator program. He is counsel to dozens of start-ups in the software, technology, blockchain, and medical industries. Joe also serves as lawyer-in-residence for Co.Labs (a tech incubator in Saskatoon), the lawyer-in-residence for Cultivator (a tech incubator in Regina), a legal coach for Opus (a tech incubator operated by the University of Saskatchewan), and legal expert for North Forge (a tech incubator in Winnipeg). He is the Founder and Chair of the firm’s Technology and High Growth Startups Practice Group. He regularly presents to groups in the start-up ecosystem on legal issues such as formation, tax matters, employee incentive planning, privacy and cybersecurity, securing government funding, and raising capital (angels, venture capital, and private equity). He also provides ongoing advice to investment funds and regular investors active in the startup space. 

Joe is also a trusted advisor to many small and large businesses for managing their digital transformation projects. Whether the business is evaluating new software, integrating its’ systems with another party, or building a new digital strategy, Joe brings a common sense business approach to these deployments. He works intimately with business teams to ensure these projects deliver on the value they promise, while managing key risks for his clients. 

Joe is also a published tax lawyer, having written extensively on tax matters for organizations such as the Canadian Tax Foundation, the Canadian Bar Association, and the Law Society of Saskatchewan. He has completed the CPA Canada In-Depth Tax Course and was formerly an instructor for that course. In addition, he was formerly a sessional lecturer for a tax-focused class at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law. Joe advises several corporations and professionals (accountants, engineers, pharmacists, dentists) on tax matters and more general wealth planning. 

Joe is also a firm believer in taking an innovative and scaleable approach to legal services. His commitment to innovative legal solutions includes provision of a fixed-fee startup legal package to founders, drafting of template contracts for repeatable business use, and offering of flexible billing arrangements such as fixed-fee or success-fee arrangements. 

Presentations and Publications 

• “Legal at Scale – Key Issues for DeepTech Startups” (Opus Tech Incubator, July 2024), a presentation discussing key legal issues for tech startups through the ideation, pre-seed, seed, series A, and exit stages
• “Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Business: More Than Meets the AI” (Industry West Magazine, November 2022), an article examining current legal issues with artificial intelligence 
• “Startup Legal Issues” (University of Saskatchewan College of Engineering, May 2022), a presentation covering startup legal issues applicable to founders 
• “The Digital Transformation Playbook” (CBA Business Law North, May 2022), a presentation covering the contract lifecycle of managing significant IT projects 
• “Technology on Trial” (CBA Midwinter Meeting, January 2022), a panel and presentation on the use of technology in the legal profession 
• “Legal at Scale – Key Issues for Tech Startups” (Cultivator Tech Incubator, March 9, 2021), a presentation itemizing key legal issues for tech startups through the ideation, pre-seed, seed, series A, and exit stages 
• “Legal Best Practices for Cloud Service Arrangements” (Canadian Bar Association, March 17, 2021), a presentation discussing cloud service providers, legal diligence, and best practices for lawyers and clients 
• “Legal Issues for Video Game Startups” (Saskatchewan Interactive, November 12, 2020), a presentation discussing corporate, IP, and general legal considerations for video game developers and social media influencers 
• “Blockchain Legal Issues” (Runnymede Society, March 11, 2020) which provides an overview of the application of securities law, tax law, and anti-money laundering laws to blockchain and cryptocurrency ventures, as well as provides an overview of smart contract legal issues. 
• “Taxing the Digital Economy” (Paul Hill School of Business, Government Finance Class, September 25, 2019) which examines government efforts to tax digital goods and services and international compliance implications for digital service providers 
• “First Nations Tax Issues with a Business Focus” (Canadian Tax Foundation, 2018 Prairie Provinces Tax Conference) which provides an overview of business and tax structuring for First Nations looking to undertake economic development 
• “Cryptocurrency v Taxation: An Unstoppable Force meets an Immovable Object” (Canadian Bar Association, Saskatchewan BarNotes Publication, May 2018) an article which discusses the tax implications of cyptocurrency buying and selling as well as mining

Tax Experience 

• Personal and corporate tax advice (income tax, goods and service tax, and Saskatchewan provincial sales tax) as part of ongoing wealth planning as well as mergers and acquisitions 
• Disputes with Canada Revenue Agency (Notices of Objection) 
• Assisting non-residents with sales of Canadian property 
• Cross border tax advice in context of a $30 million acquisition of a Canadian natural gas operator by a U.S. acquirer 
• Acted for a private agri-business company valued at approximately $47 million dollars in structuring a tax-efficient reorganization to accomplish the exit of one of two founding shareholders 
• Counsel for a private holding corporation of a publicly-traded entity in structuring a divisive (butterfly) reorganization of publicly-traded securities 

Technology Experience 

• Drafting and negotiation of various software and technology agreements in the consumer (B2C), business (B2C), and enterprise spaces, including terms of service, end user license agreements, privacy policies, software-as-a-service (SaaS) agreements, software license agreements, intellectual property licensing agreements and cloud storage agreements 
• Drafting and negotiation of social media agreements including social media marketing agreements, referral agreements, and influencer agreements 
• Assistance with crafting and implementing privacy policies for SaaS and traditional businesses concerning collection and use of client data 
• Counsel to shareholders in the technology sector (minority and majority) concerning both external acquisition transactions as well as internal buy-out transactions 
• Assistance with vetting of potential cloud services providers 
• Business advisor to early stage technology companies 
• Counsel to several Saskatchewan-based insurers managing their ongoing digital transformation projects 
• Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Experience 
• Assisting firms with determining securities law compliance obligations for currency tokens, utility tokens, and investment/asset tokens, including navigation of regulatory sandboxes established by securities commissions 
• Assisting firms with money services business compliance with FINTRAC 
• Assisting firms and investors with tax law determinations respecting the buying and selling of cryptocurrency (both income tax and goods and services tax considerations) 
• General corporate and tax law planning concerning operating entities, intellectual property holding corporations, and management corporations 
• White Paper and Offering Memorandum reviews 

Privacy and Cybersecurity 

• Drafting privacy policies and assistance with integration of privacy by design considerations into software applications 
• Corporate local counsel assistance to cybersecurity breach counsel 
• Privacy impact assessments 
• Review of security protocols and considerations when retaining cloud service providers