Fritz Gaerdes*

Fritz is an experienced litigation lawyer. Before he started a law firm with Susan Precious he worked for more than ten years as a litigation lawyer for one of Western Canada’s top ten law firms and for a leading immigration law boutique in Vancouver. Prior to that Fritz was the head of the strategic litigation unit of Lawyers for Human Rights, one of South Africa’s oldest national human rights organizations.

Fritz has dedicated almost twenty years of his legal career in South Africa and Canada to helping refugees, professionals, businesses and other individuals navigate legal processes and challenge government and administrative tribunal decisions. He also advises professional regulators on making reasonable and lawful decisions.

Fritz knows that government decisions and actions often have serious and long lasting consequences for the personal, family or professional lives of the individuals affected. He is committed to using the law as a positive force to help his clients avoid or overcome adverse consequences.

Some of Fritz’s most satisfying experiences as a lawyer have been those cases where he has helped clients to secure orders prohibiting their deportation to countries where they would be tortured or killed and also those cases in which he has helped clients unite with or remain with their family members in Canada. Fritz also tremendously enjoys helping clients attain or maintain the ability to earn a livelihood.

Many of the cases with which Fritz has been involved have not only helped his individual clients but have had a broader impact. Fritz has participated in many public interest cases, including the first case in which South Africa’s Constitutional Court considered whether refugee status constituted a protected ground of non-discrimination, the first case in which the Constitutional Court considered the right to culture, and the first case in which a South African Court recognized that unaccompanied foreign children are entitled to legal representation at state expense. Fritz also acted as counsel in the case that removed the statutory exclusion of disabled refugees in South Africa from receiving government assistance benefits.

When Fritz is not working he loves spending time with his wife, daughter and his dog, preferably in nature

Click below to read more about some of Fritz’s cases.