Frank Friesacher practices primarily as a litigator focused resolve their legal disputes, representing their interests at all levels of the Alberta court system. Frank addresses a broad range of legal disputes, including in the fields of estate litigation, divorce and family law, employment law, and business litigation. In estate litigation, Frank deals with family maintenance claims brought against estates, as well as addressing issues of mental capacity and undue influence in wills and property transfers, including under a power of attorney. In the family law field, Frank has deep experience in spousal and child support, matrimonial property division, child custody and access, and separation agreements; his family law practice also includes drafting pre-nuptial and marriage agreements. In the employment law field, Frank has acted for both employers and employees to resolve disputes either through agreement or by recourse to the court system. Finally, in business litigation, Frank understands that small-to-medium businesses need expert and timely advice and representation to avoid disrupting operations and to ensure the viability and prosperity of the parties involved.
A member of the Law Society of Alberta since his admission to the bar, Frank has also been long active with the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) and completed his service on the Executive of the Alberta branch (CBA Alberta) from 2015-2021 including as President for the 2018-2019 term, where he represented the interests of its over 5,300 members and advocated for improvements in the administration of justice, for support for the rule of law in this province, and for adequate resources for the justice system. Frank remains active on CBA Alberta’s Agenda for Justice Committee, focusing on the Branch’s advocacy efforts. He is a member of the Legislative Review Committee, and he is a long-time coordinator for the Inns of Court, an Edmonton mentor project for junior lawyers dear to his heart.
Before commencing with the firm of McCuaig Desrochers LLP in 2000, Frank held a clerkship position at the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench and the Court of Appeal from 1999-2000. As a student-at-law he summered with ALRI (the Alberta Law Reform Institute) and served as Articles Editor for the Alberta Law Review, a wholly student-run organization. Before entering his legal studies, Frank obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and his Bachelor of Commerce (International Studies/German) with Distinction.
Frank became a partner at the firm in 2008, and uses his legal skills, training and broad experience to guide clients through the often-complex issues and decisions they face when encountering legal disputes. On 6 April 2022, Frank was appointed Queen’s Counsel in Alberta (now King’s Counsel after the demise of the Crown on 8 September 2022).
Frank is active in the province’s robust German community, having served on the executives for the German Canadian Associate of Alberta and the German Canadian Cultural Association of Edmonton, and including his long-term involvement with a local dance group, The Bavarian Schuhplattlers of Edmonton. He is an avid reader (especially the works of Haruki Murakami and John D. MacDonald, and he finds Moby-Dick the greatest novel ever written); a loping cross-country skier; a fair-weather cyclist; and a poor-weather frequenter of Edmonton’s profusion of locally-owned-and-operated cafés. He endorses the use of European date format, the semi-colon, and the series comma.
