Dean is a partner with Carfra Lawton LLP in Victoria, B.C.; a law firm he and the late James Carfra, Q.C. began in 1985. Throughout his career Dean has developed a practice with a preferred focus on insurance law and civil proceedings in which he has represented a wide range of individuals, businesses, professionals, elected officials, and Not-for-Profit organizations in complex proceedings.  Dean has appeared in all levels of court in B.C. and in the Supreme Court of Canada. Best Lawyers Canada has recognized Dean for his expertise in Insurance Law.  Dean was a co-founding member of Risk Management Counsel of Canada (RMC).  

Dean is a credentialed mediator and member of Mediate B.C. in which capacity he has successfully mediated hundreds of disputes as counsel and mediator involving litigated private and public law issues. He was President of the Victoria Bar Association (VBA) in 2003 and member of the VBA executive from 2002 through 2004, and from 2014 to present has been an ex-officio member of the executive of the VBA in his role as Bencher of the Law Society.

In 2013 he was elected a Bencher of the Law Society of British Columbia for Victoria County and has been active in many Law Society Committees and working groups, including Credentials (member), Governance (member), Practice Standards (member and Vice-Chair), Lawyer Education Advisory (member and Chair), Act and Rules (member), Recruitment and Nominating Advisory (member), Truth and Reconciliation Advisory (member and co-Chair), Ethics (member), Discipline (member), Alternate Fee Review Working Group (Chair), Executive Committee (member and Vice-Chair), and Finance and Audit (member and Chair). He has also sat as Chair and Bencher panel member on Law Society discipline hearings, and review boards, and has conducted numerous lawyer discipline conduct reviews as a subcommittee of the Discipline Committee. In 2018 he was appointed representative for the law societies of the western provinces in the Federation of Law Societies’ Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action Advisory Committee. In 2018 Dean was elected 2nd Vice-President of the Law Society for 2019. In 2020 Dean became 1st VicePresident of the Law Society, and will become President in 2021.  

Dean has a strong interest in legal education having been a mentor and principal to many students and young lawyers.  He has been active as a speaker and author in Continuing Legal Education Society of B.C. (CLEBC), Canadian Defence Lawyers (CDL), Canadian Bar Association BC Branch (CBABC), and RMC seminars and publications; and has presented provincially and nationally at industry based seminars. He has been a sessional lecturer in civil procedure and insurance law at the University of Victoria Faculty of Law; and a guest judge at annual PLTC moot court presentations; and at UVIC advocacy sessions.  In 2014 he was appointed a Law Society Bencher representative to the Board of the CLEBC, serving in that role until December 2018.

• Mediate B.C - 2007
• University of Victoria: LL.B. - 1980
• Called to the Bar of British Columbia - 1981
• Simon Fraser University,Vancouver, B.C.: B.A. Hons. - 1976
• Ministry of Education, TQS-4 - 1976

• 1st Vice President, Law Society of British Columbia - 2020
• 2nd Vice President, Law Society of British Columbia - 2019
• Bencher, Law Society of British Columbia - 2014 to present
• Past-President, Victoria Bar Association
• Board Member, Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia (CLEBC) - 2014 to 2018
• Canadian Bar Association - 1977 to present
• Mediate B.C. - 2007 to present
• Board Member, United Way of Greater Victoria - 2008 to 2014

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