Pandell's higher education took place in Ontario, the province whose capital, Toronto, later became the base of his legal career. Toronto grew into the industrial centre of Ontario in the late nineteenth century, and this period forms part of the setting for WeirFoulds, one of the city's oldest law firms.
Pandell began his university studies at the University of Toronto, where he completed two years of undergraduate work in 1983. The university was founded in 1827 as King's College, a royal charter institution linked to the Church of England. It was secularised and renamed the University of Toronto in the mid-nineteenth century and remains one of Canada's largest public research universities.
He received a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Ottawa in 1986. The university's law faculty was established in 1953 and today includes civil law and common law sections, the two legal traditions recognised in Canada. The LL.B. was the degree awarded to common law graduates until 2010, when the Senate approved a change to the Juris Doctor designation.
Pandell later earned an MBA from the University of Western Ontario in 1993. The school that awarded it dates its origins to 1922, when business classes began within the Faculty of Arts, and it became a separate faculty in 1950. It was renamed the Richard Ivey School of Business in 1995 after a gift from the Ivey family.
Pandell was admitted to the Ontario bar in 1988. He later became a partner at WeirFoulds LLP in Toronto. The firm traces its origins to 1860, when Theodore H. Spencer began practising law in the city, and it was known as Mason, Foulds during the 1930s. Today it is considered one of Canada's oldest law firms, with practice areas including litigation, corporate, property and government law.
As a partner, Pandell advises on corporate and commercial matters, including shareholder and partner disputes, commercial agreements, the purchase and sale of businesses, and corporate reorganisations. His principal area is commercial real estate, particularly land acquisition and development and the purchase, sale and financing of retail, commercial and industrial properties. His clients have included major retailers, among them Wal-Mart, and his work includes drafting joint venture, site plan, cost-sharing and easement agreements. He also works with litigators, environmental lawyers, tax counsel and mergers and acquisitions teams on related transactions.
Within the firm he has led the corporate group, which encompassed the corporate, real estate and leasing practices, and he currently chairs the firm's Corporate Team. He was formerly a full-time instructor on the real estate component of the Bar Admission Course.
