The Toronto office of Cassels Brock elicits accolades from peers and clients for its diverse array of litigation services on offer, most of which center upon business-centered litigation such as securities, insolvency and general commercial. “Cassels has one of the stronger securities teams in Toronto,” confirms one peer. Securities chair Lara Jackson is regarded by peers as “the next in line behind [celebrated senior securities partner]
Wendy Berman [who is currently on secondment to the Ontario Securities Commission]. She is a really good, confident lawyer.” Jackson is defending IBM against a claim by the Province of Ontario for breach of contract in respect of the delivery of a component of the Province’s Road User Safety Modernization Project. The claim involves complex contractual interpretation and factual issues involving a procurement process, technical requirements surrounding an enterprise resource planning system and the issue of whether the solution could be delivered as required using a commercial off-the-shelf integrated solution as specified in the RFP. Jackson also represents Royal Bank of Canada in two separate class actions commenced in Ontario and in the Federal Court alleging that the defendants conspired, agreed, or arranged with each other to fix, maintain, increase, decrease, control, or unreasonably enhance the price of supranational, sub-sovereign, and agency bonds during the class period. The actions were commenced in November and December 2017. Christopher Horkins, whose commercial litigation bucket contains elements of franchise law, securities and product liability, makes his debut as a future star in this edition of Benchmark Canada on the strength of vibrant peer review. “Chris is a smart, well put together, capable lawyer,” states one peer, who adds, “He is kind of a sleeper hit, who’s not someone who draws a ton of attention to himself and so probably doesn’t get the kudos that he deserves.”
