Corporate Vision Leighton B. U. Grey KC operates as King’s Counsel at Grey Wowk Spencer. Born in Regina and growing up in the Kensington community of north Edmonton, he is a status Indian whose greatgrandfather was once the Hereditary Chief of the Carry The Kettle or Jack Band. His grandmother and great-aunt were survivors of the infamous Brandon Indian Residential School. Leighton’s father is a Treaty Indian who spent over two decades helping Indigenous youth transition out of urban gangs and was the founder of The Spiritkeeper Youth Society. Having excelled in sports and academics, Leighton graduated with honours from Queen Elizabeth Composite High School in 1985. He achieved the highest mark in the province on the Social Studies departmental final examination and was awarded the Alexander Rutherford Scholarship. He also played bantam and midget AAA hockey with the Canadian Athletic Club. From 1985–1989, he attended Augustana University in Camrose before transferring to the University of Alberta, where he completed his BA (with Distinction), majoring in English Literature and History. In 1988, he was awarded an essay prize in Ethics and received the Louise McKinney Scholarship, which is granted to Alberta students in the top 2% of provincial GPA. Leighton also received the prestigious Legal Studies for Aboriginal People scholarship from 1989–1992a - an award granted to only 10 students annually. He received early acceptance to the University of Alberta Faculty of Law in 1988 and graduated in 1992. He later pursued post-graduate degrees in Business Administration (2017) and most recently completed his Ph.D. in Philosophy during the 2020 pandemic. Beginning his legal career with the Federal Department of Justice, Leighton completed his Articles of Clerkship in 1993 before taking a hiatus to play minor league professional hockey with the Daytona Beach Sun Devils. In 1995, he resumed full-time legal practice, founding his own practice in 2005. Having conducted hundreds of trials before Alberta courts, Leighton has long been regarded as one of Alberta’s leading criminal trial lawyers. He has served as a mentor and principal to eight articling students, two of whom became Partners at GWSLLP. Also a qualified Mediator, Arbitrator, and a member of the ADR Institute of Canada, Leighton served as an Adjudicator for Law Society disciplinary hearings from 2015–2020. He was appointed King’s Counsel in 2010, then became Alberta’s youngest lawyer to hold that prestigious title. Among his accolades are the 2013 Stars of Alberta Volunteer Award, the 2015 Legal Aid Society Access to Justice Award, and the 2019 Alberta Civil Trial Lawyers Association Gary J. Bigg Justice & Humanitarian Award. Leighton was deeply involved in the original Indian Residential Schools (IRS) Class Action from 2004–2016, representing hundreds of claimants through the ADR process that formed part of the broader settlement and ultimately led to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report. In 2024, Leighton was named one of Canada’s Top 50 Lawyers - an honour reserved for the most exceptional legal practitioners in the country. With over 140,000 lawyers across Canada, fewer than 0.5% are selected for this distinction, providing third-party recognition of his professional excellence. In addition to his legal practice, Leighton also has a podcast called GreyMatter. More than 350 episodes have been published where he invites guests to be interviewed on the show, and releases weekly commentaries on salient topics in politics, culture, history, the arts, economics, and religion. GreyMatter is available on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Rumble, and Podbean. When asked about his career highlights, Leighton places emphasis on a particularly notable case which took place in 2023 when the firm was lead counsel in Ingram v. Alberta. The case successfully challenged all of the Covid-19 lockdown orders that restricted the rights and freedoms of five million Albertans. “Alberta is the only province in Canada where such a constitutional challenge to government authority was successful,” Leighton tells Best Civil Law Firm 2026 - Alberta A full-service law firm with a team of highly trained professionals, Grey Wowk Spencer LLP practices in a variety of areas in law, customising its approach to match its clients’ needs to ensure they receive the best possible service and attention. Leighton B.U. Grey KC, the firm’s Founder, tells us more about the company and its ethos. From business contracts to criminal cases to constitutional rights to family law, as a full-service law firm, Grey Wowk Spencer LLP (Grey Wowk Spencer) covers a wide variety of legal services and can assist with any legal situation. With a mission to take a genuine interest in its clients, understand their objectives, and meet or exceed their expectations, Grey Wowk Spencer is dedicated to several core values. These values include working hard, providing superior legal services on a timely, effective and efficient basis, and maintaining the highest standards of professional integrity for its clients. Regarding the firm’s internal culture, it aims to foster an enjoyable working environment, based upon open communication and mutual respect, and encourages initiative, imagination, innovation, teamwork, and loyalty. The company also employs 10 guiding principles to ensure that it can give its clients the best possible service and achieve the best possible outcome. These principles also serve as the practice’s unique selling point and help to differentiate it from competitors within the industry. • Belief that there exists an enduring moral order. That order is made for mankind, and we are made for it. Human nature is a constant, and moral truths are permanent. • Adhere to the inherent value of custom, convention, continuity, and law. • Belief in the principle of prescription, such that modern people stand upon the shoulders of giants, able to see farther than their ancestors only because of the great stature of those who have come before us. • Guided by the principle of prudence, which is chief among virtues for advocates. • Pay attention to the principle of variety. • Chastened by the principle of imperfectability. • The knowledge that personal freedom and property are closely linked. • To uphold voluntary community rather than involuntary collectivism. • The need for wise restraints upon power and human passions. • Understanding that permanence and change must be recognised and reconciled in a vigorous and just society. Representing people from all walks of life, the firm offers guidance and legal representation to those going through divorce, those who have suffered personal injury, those charged criminally, those in need of a will or to probate an estate, those who need assistance with a real estate transaction, and in class actions, we represent plaintiffs who have suffered loss of employment through Covid 19 policies, and indigenous peoples who have suffered Indian Residential School related abuses. Jan26010
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