About Dallas
Dallas is a senior partner at Beckett. He works in each of the Plaintiff Injury Group, Insurance Defence Group, and Sexual Abuse Department. He is also the firm's Managing Partner.
He has been certified as a Specialist in Civil Litigation by the Law Society of Ontario. The Certified Specialist Program is intended to recognize lawyers “who have met established standards of experience and knowledge requirements in a designated area of law and have maintained exemplary standards of professional practice.” In order to be certified, a lawyer must have demonstrated a mastery of substantive law, practices and procedures while concentrating in a specialized area of law. The Law Society explains that “this designation shows the public and colleagues in the legal profession that a lawyer is accomplished and has been acknowledged to be so by the Law Society of Ontario.”
Born and raised in Sault Ste. Marie, Dallas earned a Bachelor of Social Science with a double concentration in Political Science and Classical Studies from the University of Ottawa in 2000. He then earned his Bachelor of Laws in 2004 from Western University. He was called to the Ontario Bar in 2005.
Since then, Dallas has represented people from all over Ontario and several other provinces. He has helped survivors of sexual abuse as well as those injured in motor vehicle accidents, slip and falls, and other accidents.
Dallas helps clients with insurance claims relating to motor vehicle accident benefits, death benefits, health benefits, as well as short-term and long-term disability benefits. He has assisted clients in dealing with the Ontario Disability Support Program, the Canada Pension Plan Disability Program, and the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board. Dallas has appeared in all levels of court in Ontario (Superior Court of Justice, the Divisional Court, and the Ontario Court of Appeal). He also frequently represents clients in matters before the Financial Services Commission of Ontario and the Licence Appeal Tribunal.
From 2005 to 2009, Dallas was Lead Counsel to the Victims Group at the Cornwall Public Inquiry, which was established by the Province of Ontario to examine institutional responses to allegations of historical sexual abuse in Cornwall. Beckett was the only law firm approved by the province to act on behalf of victims of abuse. Dallas dealt extensively with the media, advocating for his clients and the rights of all survivors.
Since then, he has represented clients in all regions of Ontario and across Canada in cases relating to Catholic dioceses, other religious institutions, Children’s Aid Societies, and school boards, amongst others. He also represents survivors of abuses endured at Ontario’s training schools and other institutions where abuses have occurred. A formidable lawyer, Dallas also has experience representing clients against large corporations.
Dallas has assisted with submissions to the McMurtry Victim Compensation Review and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, through which Beckett, on behalf of its clients, sought to improve governmental and institutional responses to sexual abuse. Dallas is a member of the Canadian Bar Association, the Ontario Bar Association, The Advocates Society, and the Middlesex Law Association.
In the summer of 2016, Dallas attended Harvard Law School’s negotiation program, which helped to further refine his alternative dispute resolution skills. In his spare time, Dallas enjoys traveling.