Donald B. Hawkins

A Founding Partner of Scarfone Hawkins LLP, Don Hawkins has more than 40 years of experience working in commercial and residential real estate, and it’s taught him a thing or two.

“Clients know when you truly have their best interests at heart,” Don says. “I can be a grump and I sometimes get on their backs but they know they’re getting the straight goods from me.”

Don is careful to see files from the client’s point of view. Two priorities routinely stand out: clients are looking for excellent results that are achieved efficiently. As a business lawyer, Don is a firm believer that there has to be something on the table for both parties or positions will get entrenched and progress will stall. “My clients shouldn’t expect to take it all,” he says. “I negotiate hard for them but I also help them have realistic expectations.”

Don is proud of the developments he’s been involved in, which span from Mississauga to Parry Sound and Ellicottville to Kitchener-Waterloo. The most successful ones have been collaborative from the start, involving engineers, landscape architects, surveyors, planners, architects and accountants on the same team.

To Don, the size of a deal isn’t important. “The largest transaction I worked on was a $50 million land acquisition. But so what? Fifty million or 500 thousand, it’s the same thing. Just a few more zeroes. You still do the same quality of work.”