Meet Joseph M. Hentz

As a lawyer and an accountant, I am able to provide a range of in-depth advice to clients and recommend a strategy that will achieve their goals. I understand the issues and challenges confronting business leaders, government officials, and other professionals. I work with these leaders to develop innovative solutions and a comprehensive plan to address the challenges they face.

Throughout my career, I have sought opportunities and challenges to develop the skills and attributes required to succeed as a trusted business advisor. The experiences afforded through two deployments to Kandahar, Afghanistan as an infantry officer have had a profound impact on my values and perspective. The austere and difficult conditions in which I thrived taught me the importance of team work, integrity, and earning the trust of those you work alongside.  I strive to follow these same principles when working with clients and their other advisors.

• Partner, Lerners LLP (2020 - present)
• Associate Lawyer, Lerners LLP (2015 - 2019)
• Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CMA) (2015 - present)
• Student, Lerners LLP (2013-2014)
• Infantry Officer, Canadian Armed Forces (2002-2017)

• Acted for various cooperatives advising in governance, finance and acquisition matters.
• Acted for various entrepreneurs raising private capital to fund growth
• Acted for shareholders in the sale of shares of a high-tech company for over $42 million dollars
• Assisted various farm clients with the purchase and sale of farmland
• Represented a client in the biochemical industry in a negotiation and preparation of an industrial lease
• Acted for various private lenders with respect to private mortgages
• Acted for various agribusinesses in the acquisition of competing businesses and assistance with expansion plans
• Assisted various business owners with succession planning
• Acted as corporate counsel to various Canadian subsidiaries of multi-national corporations

• Speaker, "Tricks and Traps of Farm Succession Planning", Hensall District Co-operative, February 2019
• Speaker, "Managing Legal Problems on the Farm", Family Farm Planning Seminars, January 2019
• Presenter, "Dividing the Farm Business: Butterfly Transactions", Canadian Association of Farm Advisors, educational seminar, June 2018
• Presenter, "Corporate Governance and Directors' and Officers' Liability: Understanding the Risks of Limited Liability", Ontario Co-operative Association "Best Practices for Co-operative Business" educational seminar, April 25, 2018

• Selected by peers for inclusion in Best Lawyers in Canada for Corporate Law
• Campaign Star, International Security Assistance Force (Afghanistan), Canadian Armed Forces (2006 and 2009)
• Commemorative Decoration for 12 years of honourable military service, Canadian Armed Forces (2013)
• Recipient of three Commander’s Commendations for outstanding leadership, Canadian Armed Forces

• Ontario Agribusiness Association
• Canadian Association of Farm Advisors
• Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario
• Ontario Bar Association
• Canadian Bar Association
• Middlesex Law Association

• Admitted to Ontario Bar (2015)
• Certified Management Accountants of Ontario, Professional Program (2012-2015)
• Juris Doctor with specialization in business law, Western University, Faculty of Law (2014)
• Army Operations Course, Canadian Army Command and Staff College (2011)
• Master of Public Administration, Royal Military College of Canada (2011)
• Bachelor of Arts, Honours, University of Western Ontario (2006)