Tamara Farber

Miller Thomson

Partner

40 King Street West, Suite 6600
Ontario, ON, M5H 3S1

+1 416 595 8520

Litigation Star

English


Jurisdiction:

Ontario

Practice area:

Environmental
Real estate


Lead Environmental Partner Tamara Farber focuses on the environmental aspects of business and real estate transactions, as well as civil litigation related to these issues. Her experience spans areas such as contaminated land, spills, consultant negligence, environmental issues in insolvencies, stewardship, insurance, environmental diligence, site decommissioning, waste management, site assessments and audits, remedial planning, brownfield redevelopment, and compliance with regulatory matters like orders and charges. With a strong background in environmental sciences, Tamara navigates real estate and business transactions involving environmental issues in business risk language. She has represented diverse clients, from private companies to government bodies, appearing in various courts and tribunals. Her clients include companies in various jurisdictions seeking Canadian legal advice, buying and selling Canadian assets with environmental issues. 

Tamara’s contributions extend well beyond the courtroom. At Miller Thomson, she has served as leader of the firm’s National Environmental Law Group, chair of the National Administrative/Environmental Law Practice Group, and was a member on the firm’s Executive Committee. She has written and presented many papers on provincial and federal environmental issues including brownfield redevelopment, environmental insurance, directors’ and officers’ environmental liabilities, environmental compliance approvals, expert retainers, transactional advice relating to environmental matters, cross‑border environmental issues, condominium redevelopment of contaminated lands, and the intersection of insolvency and environmental matters. She has also appeared as a guest lecturer at Ontario law schools. She maintains close ties and involvement with several community organizations including United Way, and UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. 

Tamara is a certified specialist in environmental law by the Law Society of Ontario. She is actively involved in the Ontario Bar Association – Environmental Law Section and American Bar Association, Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources. She has garnered several accolades and has been recognized as a leader in environmental law by Chambers Global, Chambers Canada, American Lawyer 500 Leading Lawyers in Canada, Lexpert, and Best Lawyers in Canada.

Updated Dec 2025

  • Represents various insurers in environmental litigation claims, on coverage, liability and damage issues on both defence and subrogation side;

  • Environmental spill/disaster management adviser to insurers on municipal and provincial civil claim and regulatory issues;

  • Represents insured claims involving allegations of professional negligence in environmental claims;

  • Represents clients in large area contamination claims and overlap of insolvency with environmental matters;

  • Represents several big box developers in identification of Brownfield opportunities and related transactions.

  • Mining
  • Oil and gas
  • Real estate

  • LL.B., Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, 1993
  • B.Sc., (environmental sciences), University of Toronto, 1990

  • Ontario (1995)