The Vancouver pillar of Cassels Brock & Blackwell hosts a stable of litigators who have proven adept with a diverse spectrum of business disputes. This office recently made significant augmentations to its local bench with the additions of
Carey
Veinotte and
Jordanna
Cytrynbaum, who both decamped from their posts at local insurance-forward shop Whitelaw Twining to join Cassels in January 2022.
Cytrynbaum, a multi-faceted commercial litigator, is generating more notice in the rest of the market as well. “We’re seeing more of her, and she is building up a strong, high-profile litigation team.”
Veinotte, who has historically been active
in the securities capacity, has taken on an increasingly diverse portfolio. He was lead counsel for four teams of defense lawyers for numerous defendants in an 84-day trade secrets case, and he also argued the first-known application of
British Columbia’s
new Protection of Public Participation Act (PPPA). The PPPA allows an
applicant (Veinotte’s client, president
of the BC Teachers’ Federation) to make an application to strike out a claim as being contrary to the public’s right to hear expression in the public interest. The plaintiff is a school trustee who made Facebook posts critical of pro-LGBTQ school curricula. Veinotte’s client (and others) publicly criticized the plaintiff, who then sued for defamation. Mary Buttery, a commercial litigator with a specialty in insolvency matters, is a particular peer favorite. “Mary is such a rock star,” raves one peer.
Buttery defended Matthews Southwest in a lawsuit brought by a former development partner regarding a significant development in Squamish BC involving First Nations land, and regarding timing of payment under negotiated Unwinding Agreement, and involves the interpretation of development approvals and timing of same in British Columbia. Buttery also acted with Tom Isaac, a practitioner with a fluency with Aboriginal law matters, as counsel for the Métis Nation–Saskatchewan in respect of an action commenced involving land claims in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The Métis Nation is a proposed intervenor and has served application material.
