Cris Best, BA, JD, LLM (Tax), has practiced tax law his entire career, starting with a tax law firm his second year of law school. He subsequently graduated with a Juris Doctor (JD) from Osgoode Hall Law School in 2011. While in law school he was a Senior Contributing Editor for TheCourt.ca and Research Assistant.

Cris finished all but one of the available Tax Law courses while completing his JD at Osgoode Hall Law School. He then completed Parts I & II of the Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA) of Canada In-Depth Tax Program. Finally, he returned to Osgoode Hall Law School to complete a Masters in Tax Law (LLM).

Cris has appeared before the Tax Court of Canada, Federal Court of Appeal and provincial courts. He lead the legal practice for multiple tax firms including as Director of Objections & Appeals at a Scientific Research & Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax consulting firm. He then co-founded and served as Legal Counsel for a SR&ED tax consulting firm.

Cris believes in ensuring taxpayers are treated according to the government’s published standards including CRA’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Accordingly, he was one of the lawyers who assisted Mr. Irvin Leroux pro-bono in his struggle to hold CRA to a duty of care obligation to taxpayers. 

He completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science at Simon Fraser University, receiving multiple scholarships for high academic achievement.

Prior to his legal career Cris was a Software Developer & Systems Analyst for a large multi-national corporation.

Cris was born and raised in Newfoundland.