Richard Steele

Richard Steele, partner at Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP, is a senior employment and labour lawyer with extensive experience advising employers on complex workplace and labour relations matters. His practice focuses on employment and labour litigation, union and collective bargaining issues, and strategic workforce management.

Richard regularly appears before all levels of court in Alberta and the Federal Court of Canada, as well as before administrative tribunals including the Alberta Labour Relations Board, the Alberta Human Rights Commission, the Canada Industrial Relations Board, and the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board.

Richard advises employers on termination and layoff strategy, collective agreement negotiation and interpretation, employment and independent contractor agreements, workplace policies, restrictive covenants, and human rights and occupational health matters. He also has significant experience conducting and supervising independent workplace investigations and representing employers in grievance arbitrations and unfair labour practice proceedings.

• Historic settlement in workplace sexual misconduct class action against City of Leduc – Counsel for plaintiff class in successful settlement agreement for systemic sexual abuse, harassment, and assault against female city employees, including firefighters. Terms include the highest per‑person monetary compensation in a Canadian workplace misconduct class action. Approved July 4, 2023.
  
  
• $40 million employment-related dispute – Co‑counsel in a $40 million claim and counterclaim alleging misappropriation and misuse of confidential information, unfair competition, wrongful solicitation, breach of fiduciary duties, conspiracy, defamation, and oppression.
  
  
• $5.5 million breach of contract dispute – Counsel in a $5.5 million claim involving breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duties, misappropriation of confidential information, inducing breach of contract, wrongful solicitation of employees, customers, and suppliers, and interference with contractual and economic interests.
  
  
• Discrimination and human rights disputes – Counsel representing an employer in two human rights complaints alleging discrimination based on gender, equal pay, and retaliation, heard before the Alberta Human Rights Commission, the Court of Queen's Bench, and twice before the Alberta Court of Appeal.

• Arbitration
• Commercial
• Commercial disputes
• Dispute resolution
• Government and regulatory
• Insurance
• Labor and employment

• Construction and materials
• Energy
• Financial services
• Government and public policy
• Industrials
• Insurance
• Oil and gas

• Bachelor of Arts (cum laude), Brigham Young University, 1993
• Bachelor of Laws, University of Alberta, 1996
• Certificate of Workplace Investigation Fundamentals, University of Alberta, 2024

• Law Society of Alberta
• Canadian Bar Association
• Calgary Bar Association