The Toronto office of Torys has long held an enviable position as one of Bay Street’s crown jewels. “They have produced a long line of lawyers with reputations for fierce advocacy and they also have an equally long list of blue-chip clients,” testifies one Toronto peer. Another simply sums up the firm’s prestige and approach with, “Torys is just Torys, and they always have been and always will be.” This peer elaborates, “There’s a level of stature just in the brand and the culture that goes a long way.” Clients are quick to also sing the firm’s praises. “They are smart lawyers, who offer strategic advice,” extols one. “They are also very client focused and efficient. The folks I deal with are excellent strategists, tacticians and communicators (both in oral and written formats.)”
Linda Plumpton is an all-purpose commercial trial lawyer who regularly crosses over into the competition, class action and securities fields with equal facility. “She shows excellent judgment, with superior written and oral communications skills. Although I am an American, she is my go-to legal advisor.” Plumpton is representing Upsher-Smith Laboratories, a generic pharmaceutical company, in a proposed class action in the Federal Court of Canada against 54 defendants active in the generic drug market in North America. The claim seeks $2.75 billion in damages on behalf of anyone in Canada who purchased generic drugs in the private sector since 2012, as compensation for an alleged conspiracy to fix drug prices. “The last time I was against Linda, it was brutal,” confides a former opponent. “Outside of court, I said to her, jokingly, ‘Linda, did you have to be so rough on me in there?’ She just unflinchingly replied, ‘Advocacy is advocacy.’ And you know, she lives by that, and it works.”
Gillian Dingle enjoys a hard-earned rising profile as well. “She’s extraordinary,” summarizes a peer before going on to elaborate, “For someone of her vintage, she really stands up there with others who are much more senior to her in the Toronto bar. And she makes it look easy, shares that unique quality in that she’s a generalist. [She is a] Class act, [with] terrific judgment.”
William McNamara prevailed in his representation of Vienna Insurance Group in a complex contractual dispute between two reinsurers in the context of a global insurance program. The program concerned international mining conglomerate Vale, which experienced a failure of one of its flash furnaces at its smelter in Sudbury, Ontario, which significantly curtailed its production capacity. Vale made a claim under its business interruption insurance policy in 2011, and this clam was settled in 2021 for $140 million. The lead insurer turned to its reinsurers to pay their respective portions of the settlement and claims adjustment costs, one of which refused, asserting that it was not contractually required to follow any settlement and that the settlement with Vale was inappropriate. Following a 13-day trial, the court ruled in Vienna’s favor.
Andrew Bernstein, who is one of the firm’s key intellectual property partners as well as a commercial litigator, is representing Juniper Networks in a complex commercial dispute alleging breach of contract in connection with its acquisition of HTBASE, a developer of multicloud storage, and has also been brought in as co-counsel to NOVA on a judicial review it is bringing with respect to the addition to Schedule 1 of the CEPA “Plastic Manufactured Items” and related decisions. The client is one of the “Responsible Plastic Use Coalition,” which includes major petrochemical players and plastics recyclers, manufacturers and distributors across the country, and is seeking to quash the Liberal government’s decision to add “plastic manufactured items” to the list of toxic substances under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. David Outerbridge
is representing Tarion Warranty Corporation, Ontario's regulator of new home construction, in trial-level, appellate and administrative proceedings involving construction and regulatory disputes concerning alleged defective construction of homes and condominium developments.
While a smaller and more recently forged operation, the firm’s Montréal office has been swiftly gaining profile, a phenomenon largely credited to Sylvie Rodrigue, who launched Torys in Montréal and now splits her time between the firm’s two offices. “Sylvie is still a leader in class actions,” voices a peer. “She is regarded as a senior litigator and has a reputation where she will take charge.” A client extols, “Sylvie is an excellent client-relationship manager and a great communicator. She always had a response to the opposition, and she did an incredible job representing me.” Rodrigue’s work is not limited to class actions; she recently successfully represented Olympic champion Mandy Bujold and the Canadian Olympic Committee in a discrimination legal challenge against the International Olympic Committee before the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Switzerland; in a human rights case with a core issue of discrimination based on sex in violation of the Olympic Charter, Swiss law and International law. Christopher Richter, with Linda Plumpton in the Toronto office, acting for Live Nation together with its related entities and subsidiary companies in various class actions all across Canada concerning alleged competition and consumer protection violations in connection with secondary market ticket sales. These cases allege different causes of action arising from the same circumstances, including conspiracy to affect prices or the availability of tickets to events across Canada by allowing (or failing to prevent) the use of automated ticket purchasing software by ticket resellers. Julie Himo is representing Hydro-Québec in a high-stakes damages claim against a former well known Québec pilot who made an aerial attack on Hydro-Québec’s transportation lines, caused close to $30 million in damages and almost put the province in a total blackout situation in December 2014.
