A Lot From the DOT: 23 Things for 2023 and Beyond

Jeffrey W. Lem is the Director of Titles for the Province of Ontario. In that capacity, he has responsibility for the Land Titles Act, the Registry Act, the Boundaries Act, the Land Registration Reform Act, as well as portions of other legislation relating to the almost 6.5 million parcels of land in the Province.

Jeffrey also serves the broader legal community as a bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada, where he was the vice-chair of the Professional Development and Competence Committee, and currently sits on the Proceedings Authorization Committee, the Real Estate Working Group, and the Alternative Business Structures Task Force.

Jeffrey is certified as a Specialist in Real Estate Law by The Law Society of Upper Canada and is the proud recipient of the Ontario Bar Association's Award for Excellence in Real Estate, the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyer’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Toronto Lawyers Association’s Honsberger Award for Dedication to the Profession. He has also received Martindale-Hubbell's highest rating (AV®), and has been recognized in the real estate field in The Canadian Legal LEXPERT Directory, The Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada, The Best Lawyers in Canada, Chambers Global Guide, and The International Who's Who of Real Estate Lawyers.

Jeffrey is currently an editor-in-chief of the Real Property Reports (and, before that, an associate editor of the Digest of Real Property Law). He is also the author of the real estate law and expropriation law volumes of Halsbury's Laws of Canada, the legal editor for Building Magazine, and a real estate law columnist for Law Times and Lawyers Weekly. He was the first Canadian member ever elected to the American College of Mortgage Attorneys, and is a former long-standing member of the Executive Committee of the Real Property Section of the Ontario Bar Association. Jeffrey and has written widely for various journals and magazines, including the Real Property Reports, Municipal World, Building Magazine, Toronto Real Estate News, Digest of Real Property Law and Digest of Municipal and Planning Law. Jeffrey was an instructor in the real property section of the Bar Admission Course for Ontario and the Director of the LL.M. Program for Real Estate Law at Osgoode Hall Law School, and currently lectures on real estate law at the Bora Laskin Law School at Lakehead University. Jeffrey is also a past president of the Association of Chinese Canadian Lawyers of Ontario, and speaks regularly for various continuing legal education organizations.

Jeffrey has a B.Comm, U of T (1984), a J.D., Osgoode Hall (1987), and an LL.M. Osgoode Hall (2002). He was called to the bar in Ontario in 1989 and has been a solicitor on the rolls in England and Wales since 2000. Before joining the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services, Jeffrey practiced real estate law as a partner in Toronto law firms.