James Egan

James is Senior Counsel to EY Law based in Toronto, Canada. An immigration lawyer for thirty years, he was certified as a Specialist in Immigration and Citizenship Law by the Law Society of Upper Canada in 2012. James became a Canadian Partner of Ernst & Young in 1998, where he was the Founder and for many years the Managing Partner of Egan LLP (now EY Law), Canada’s largest immigration law firm. He also served as Leader of EY’s Global Immigration practice from 2005 through 2015.

James moved from Canada to London, United Kingdom, in the summer of 2012, taking on responsibility as Leader of EY’s EMEIA (Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa) immigration practice. He held that role through to the summer of 2015, when he was named Senior Advisory Partner for the EY Global Immigration practice, while continuing to be based in London. In this latter role, he was particularly focused on driving the immigration advisory and thought leadership offerings to clients throughout the world. He returned to Toronto to take up his current role in July 2018.

James is a former Special Assistant to the President of the Treasury Board of Canada, to the Canadian Minister of Economic and Regional Development & Science and Technology, and to the Minister of Justice of Canada. He served as the Editor and Principal Author of Canada’s Immigration & Citizenship Law Bulletin, a monthly Carswell Thomson Reuters Law Books publication, for more than five years.

Qualifications and Certifications

• BA (Hons.)
• MA (University of Manitoba)
• LL.B (University of Toronto)
• Member of the Law Society of Ontario
• Certified as a Specialist in Immigration and Citizenship Law by the Law Society of Ontario in 2012