Rhonda Johnson
Rhonda Johnson
MBA, TEP(She/Her)
Counsel
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Rhonda Johnson focuses on trusts, estate planning and estate administration solutions for individuals, trustees, business founders and next generations, including helping clients with connections to Alberta, BC and NWT.

Her practice includes drafting and advising on trust structures, multiple wills planning, incapacity planning, wealth transfer strategies and legacy and multi-generational planning. She is active in STEP Canada and is currently Deputy Chair of the programming committee for STEP Canada's annual national conference. She is also currently on the editorial board of the Trusts, Estates and Pensions Journal.

Rhonda has been voted by her peers as 'Lawyer of the Year' for 2025, as published by Best Lawyers, for her work in Trusts and Estates in Edmonton, and is listed in The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory.

Rhonda enjoys helping clients find practical, lasting solutions to estate planning and administration issues, and gets satisfaction from the peace of mind it brings to her clients.

Rhonda cycles to work year round (up to temps of minus 15!) and enjoys any and all time outdoors. She is perennially interested in birds, how the brain works, and how we can build happy, healthy cities.

STEP Canada
Deputy Chair, Programming Committee
Estates, Trusts and Pensions Journal
Editorial Board Member
STEP Canada
Executive
2016 - 2021
"Repeatedly Recommended" Estate + Personal Tax (Estate + Tax Planning)
Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory
2025
Trusts + Estates "Lawyer of the Year" - Edmonton
The Best Lawyers™ in Canada
2025
Trusts + Estates
The Best Lawyers™ in Canada
2019 - 2025
Best Panel
STEP National Conference
2021
Volunteer of the Year Award
STEP Edmonton
2018, 2019
World Winter Cycling Congress
Organizing Committee Member
  • Co-presenter and Moderator, “Ssshh – I Have a Secret (Trust) for You! (And How to Fix Trust Mistakes!),” STEP National Conference, June 2024
  • Co-presenter, “Beautiful BC – Except When You Die: Estate Planning for Clients with Assets in BC and Alberta,” STEP Okanagan, April 2024
  • Moderator, “Privacy Issues for Fiduciaries,” STEP National Conference, June 2023
  • Presenter, “Alberta’s New Trustee Act,” CBA Alberta, Wills and Estates, 2023
  • Presenter and Moderator, “Estate Planning,” Legal Education Society of Alberta, 2023
  • Moderator, “Documenting Intentions – Honouring Mens Rea or Paving the Road to Hell?,” STEP National Conference, June 2022
  • Moderator, “Gift Wrapping the Pros and Cons of Inter Vivos Gift Giving,” STEP National Conference, June 2021
  • Co-moderator, “Conflicts of Law in Estate Planning across Canada,” STEP National Speakers Series, March 2021
  • Moderator, “The Intersection between Estate Law and Family Law,” STEP National Conference, 2020
  • Moderator, “The Battle of 2 Greats – Privacy v. Transparency,” STEP National Conference, 2019
  • Co-author, “Bringing Principles into Tune with Practice: Pour-Over Wills, Secret Trusts, and Fixing Trust Mistakes,” STEP Inside, Volume 23, No. 3, October 2024
  • Author, “Alberta’s New Trustee Act – Highlights and Practice Ideas,” Estates, Trusts and Pensions Journal, August 2023
  • Co-author, “Documenting Intentions: Honouring Intentions or Paving the Road to Hell?,” STEP Inside, November 2022
  • Author, “Another Cautionary Tale for Executors: Case Comment on Muth Estate,” Estates, Trusts and Pensions Journal, August 2020
  • Author, “Formalities and Intentions: Who Pours Over Whom? The State of Pour-Over Wills in Canada,” Estates, Trusts and Pensions Journal, August 2019
Education
STEP Canada, 2018, TEP
University of Alberta, 1990, LL.B.
University of Alberta, 1990, M.B.A.
University of Alberta, 1986, Bachelor of Arts, Honours English, with Honours
Admissions
Northwest Territories,2021
British Columbia,2010
Alberta,1991