BRITISH COLUMBIA
Borden Ladner’s Vancouver office has been busy with the construction and infrastructure work that the firm continues to be celebrated for. “We see them very frequently on construction files,” notes a peer, elaborating, “They act for a large national contractor, so I’ll deal with David Miachika on these. I’ve also been spending over a year and half on a file with
Grant Mayovsky, who I find reasonable and good to work with.”
Robert Deane and Craig Chiasson uphold the office’s niche in arbitration work, often in the cross-border capacity and also often intersecting with infrastructure elements. “We see them all the time in infrastructure work,” testifies a peer. “Rob and Craig are our ‘frenemies.’ We use them as arbitrators occasionally and they use us.” While the unanimously revered Deane is an unquestioned authority on international arbitration, he is not exclusively relegated to this specialty; Deane triumphed at the Court of Appeal in a headline family trust law dispute, Pirani v. Pirani. The Court of Appeal held that the trial judge made clear legal errors in her approach and ordered a new trial. The case is currently under appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. Sarah McEachern is another Vancouver partner that gained considerable traction in the arbitration and construction sphere. “I view her as one of the real upcoming leaders in that office now,” asserts a peer, “as well as
Michelle Maniago for class actions and Allison Foord on some of the life insurance work.”
ONTARIO
In the Toronto office, David Di Paolo has emerged as the firm’s new leader in litigation with a securities element. Di Paolo, along with
Alex de Zordo of the firm’s Montréal office, acts for one of the defendants AIC in class actions in Ontario and in Québec related to allegations that some of the largest fund companies in Canada permitted “market timing” activity to take place in their funds resulting in alleged significant losses to unit holders of the funds. In Ontario, Di Paolo successfully opposed certification on the novel grounds that the proposed class action was unnecessary in light of settlements reached by the fund companies with the Ontario Securities Commission, which resulted in the payment of several hundred million dollars to unit holders. On appeal ultimately to the Supreme Court of Canada, the Court upheld certification. The action is proceeding to a common issues trial. (In Québec, the action was authorized as a class action after the Supreme Court’s decision in the Ontario action and is proceeding toward trial.)
Caitlin Sainsbury, another partner historically known for her securities work, has been building out an increased profile in the competition space as of late. Sainsbury led a team that scored for Amazon in September 2022 by obtaining a stay in favor of arbitration of the representative plaintiff’s claims for purchases on Amazon.ca. Said claims, valued at $12 billion, alleged that the client conspired with third-party sellers to fix the prices of their products on Amazon's platforms.
Hugh Meighen is making a name for himself among the stalwarts of the domestic and international arbitration community. “Hugh has construction experience, like many partners at BLG, and is very strong.”
Nadia Effendi is championed by peers as “a real force, a protégé of the great [Ottawa-based appellate guru] Guy Pratte and on her way to being one of the leading public law practitioners. She’s involved in a lot of inquiries and reviews, including some dealing with sexual misconduct claims among some of Canada’s armed forces and the non-profit that governs hockey.”
ALBERTA
BLG’s Calgary office houses some of the firm’s biggest luminaries in its construction practice. Jeffrey Vallis receives universal acclaim. “He’s frequently on the other side of us and he makes us work for our money,” quips one peer. Another raves, “He is a superb advocate in counsel and has done a ton of arbitrations in Alberta and Manitoba in particular.” Trish Morrison, also acknowledged as “excellent, just really first-rate,” leads the defense of a claim made by Dow Chemical Canada and ME Global Canada for damages in the amount of $210 million arising out of negligence and breach of contract related to the failure and forced shutdown of a boiler feedwater preheat exchanger, which is part of the process of cracking ethane gas into ethylene. Patrick Heinsen, who practices in the firm’s celebrated health law space, represents Alberta Health Services (AHS) against four unvaccinated doctors practicing in Alberta who have commenced a litigation against the client and its CEO concerning the implementation and constitutionality of AHS’s mandatory immunization program.
QUÉBEC
Anne Merminod, a quickly emerging star in the class-action space, acted with
Stephane Pitre in a novel privacy-related class action in which the plaintiff, an inspector working for the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, left his laptop on a train. The laptop contained certain personal information relating to individuals collected from securities brokers who were under inspection. Arguably the most prominent figure in Montréal, Mathieu Piché-Messier attends to a practice that balances commercial work with specialty cases of a more novel nature, especially where there is a media or celebrity element involved. Piché-Messier, has been counsel for Devas, a Mauritius-based entity and the plaintiff in a novel cross-border dispute stemming from arbitral award against the Republic of India, which the Republic had failed to satisfy. Devas has brought seizure applications in Québéc against several entities, including the Republic itself as well as its sovereign-owned airline, the Airport Authority of India, International Air Transport Association (based in Montréal.) Since their initial representation of Devas in 2021, the BLG team has seized before judgment USD $55 million in Indian assets from the four entities. The Montréal office also boasts firepower in its celebrated construction practice, with
Gabriel Lefebvre and the aforementioned Pitre being noted as standouts. A peer in the insurance capacity also notes, “BLG for sure has a few major players on the insurance side. I particularly like
Gilbert Houreni, who came from Robinson Sheppard and has been quite aggressive and has developed a following.”
