Formerly a prominent regional insurance defense firm, Vancouver-founded Whitelaw Twining has seen impressive growth in its near 45-year history. From establishing a strong corporate-commercial litigation practice, to expanding across Canada, to becoming part of DWF Group and its global network, our milestones reflect our continuing commitment to scale and innovate to better cater to our clients’ diverse needs and growing lines of business.
With offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Victoria, and with capabilities to serve further provinces and territories, our team of over 130 professionals pushes beyond standard litigation practices to deliver progressive and creative solutions in complex, high-stakes and multi-jurisdictional disputes. Our culture is one of collaboration, and we combine local knowledge with global resources to achieve success for our clients.
We work closely with each client to determine their particular needs and employ a results-driven approach to ensure strategic alignment with our clients’ long-term goals. Our team skillfully and tactfully advocates for our clients in the courtroom, before various regulatory bodies and tribunals and in arbitrations and mediations.
With an eye on data and analytics, we maintain metrics that assist us with and inform our clients of our ongoing evaluation and improvement of cost-efficiency, cycle times and general file-handling procedures.
We value being a good corporate citizen. Our lawyers actively participate in their local business and social communities. We support and enthusiastically volunteer with access to justice organizations and community outreach programs and devote time to lecturing at universities and hosting informational seminars on current industry topics.
Practice Areas:
Updated March 2023
Hunter Litigation Chambers has been consistently recognized as one of the premier firms in British Columbia practicing in the field of dispute resolution. The senior counsel have developed their reputations as leading litigation and arbitration counsel during their respective tenures at some of Canada’s leading corporate/commercial law firms. Randy Kaardal K.C., Bill Smart, K.C., and Claire Hunter, K.C., have consistently been identified in peer-reviewed publications as leading counsel in various litigation-related categories. Bill Smart, K.C. and Claire Hunter, K.C. are both Fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Randy Kaardal, K.C. and Claire Hunter, K.C. are both Fellows of the Litigation Counsel of America. Bill Smart, K.C. is a Fellow of the International Society of Barristers.
The firm’s experience is enhanced by Associate Counsel Martin Taylor, K.C., one of Canada’s leading counsel and adjudicators over the past 40 years.
Hunter Litigation Chambers has the depth and capability to handle the full range of commercial litigation, arbitration, product liability, aboriginal, administrative, labour and employment, public law litigation, and criminal and quasi-criminal matters. In addition to their trial level practice, counsel from the firm appear regularly in the British Columbia Court of Appeal, Supreme Court of Canada, and in the federal courts, including the Federal Court of Appeal and Tax Court of Canada. Our senior lawyers are experienced appellate counsel and often provide specialized appellate services to lawyers whose practices are primarily at the trial level.
The firm embraces a strong commitment to professional and academic excellence with many of its lawyers having clerked for justices of the superior courts of Canada, including the Supreme Court of Canada.
Commercial Litigation is a primary practice area for Hunter Litigation Chambers. All of the counsel in the firm practice in this area. In addition to the experience of our senior lawyers, our junior and intermediate counsel are developing strong reputations as competent and creative commercial counsel. The firm is able to assemble a team capable of handling commercial matters of any size and complexity.
Class Actions – Claire Hunter, K.C. has extensive experience in the field.
Products Liability – Counsel from Hunter Litigation Chambers have a history
of handling a variety of complex products liability matters involving failed or allegedly dangerous products. Our cases have involved aircraft components, oil field equipment, machinery, roofing materials and motor vehicles. In addition, we have acted for pharmaceutical companies and handled cases involving allegedly defective medical devices and other allegedly dangerous products including tobacco.
Arbitration – Randy Kaardal, K.C. and Claire Hunter, K.C. have acted as arbitration counsel in several commercial matters and also as litigation counsel in cases arising out of arbitration proceedings, including the leading case on judicial review of arbitral decisions.
Administrative and Public Law – The firm has a diverse public law practice, which includes acting for and against provincial and federal administrative tribunals and ministries in judicial review proceedings, administrative appeals, marketing board proceedings, constitutional challenges, and permit hearings.
Randy Kaardal K.C., has broad experience in administrative and public law disputes and representing public bodies and professional regulatory tribunals. He has extensive experience before administrative tribunals and courts in judicial review proceedings. Claire Hunter, K.C. has an active marketing board practice and has acted in a wide variety of legal challenges to administrative decisions. Randy Kaardal, K.C., and Bill Smart K.C., have experience practicing before professional regulatory tribunals, including representation of both professional associations and their members.
Aboriginal Law – Counsel from Hunter Litigation Chambers have been in the forefront of the development of a body of Aboriginal Law in British Columbia, representing industry and government in responding to claims of Aboriginal rights and title.
Forestry Law – Nicole Gilewicz and Randy Kaardal, K.C. head the forestry law practice at Hunter Litigation Chambers. The Firm regularly represents licensees and other companies and individuals in matters before the Forest Appeals Commission, the British Columbia Supreme Court, and the British Columbia Court of Appeal.
Labour and Employment Law – The firm’s labour and employment practice is headed by Randy Kaardal K.C. who has over 35 years of experience handling labour and employment matters. The labour and employment practice is supported by Paul Heisler, who has over 20 years of experience handling all matters arising in the labour and employment field. Mr. Kaardal and Mr. Heisler, together with a talented group of associates, have been counsel on many of the leading decisions in British Columbia related to employment law, labour law, and human rights law. The firm’s labour and employment practice is broad-based, dealing with the full spectrum of issues arising out of the employment relationship in both union and non-union environments.
Criminal and Regulatory Law – Hunter Litigation Chambers has developed a broad-based criminal law and regulatory practice that includes prosecutions under the Criminal Code as well as various other federal and provincial statutes and regulations. The firm is also retained from time to time by the Crown to act on its behalf. Bill Smart, K.C. has over 35 years of experience appearing in trial courts on criminal law and regulatory cases and has been a member of faculty of the Federation of Law Societies National Criminal Law Program for the last 30 years.
Updated March 2023
Guild Yule LLP traces its origins back to 1924. For nearly 100 years we have maintained our reputation as a firm which offers the highest quality professional services. Known for our strength and experience in insurance coverage and defence, and related litigation matters, we work to maintain the values and standards set by earlier generations of counsel. We are comprised of a dynamic group of lawyers who practice law in a spirit of collegiality; proud of our past, committed to maintaining the trust of our clients, and continuing to earn the respect of our peers.
In addition to Benchmark Litigation, our work has earned us peer recognition in Lexpert, Martindale Hubbell and Best Lawyers in Canada publications.
We have considerable experience in a wide range of areas of litigation including the following:
Updated March 2023
Miller Thomson LLP is one of Canada’s leading national business law firms with approximately 525 lawyers. We consistently deliver the highest quality advisory and advocacy skills and expertise required by international clients doing business in Canada. We have more Canadian locations than any other national firm, allowing our lawyers to provide our clients with valuable local knowledge. More specifically, with offices in Montreal, Vaughan, Toronto, Waterloo-Region, London, Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver, we are uniquely positioned to provide ‘on the ground’ insight and knowledge from the country’s key economic hubs, and under both the common law and civil law systems in Canada.
Miller Thomson’s national advocacy practice comprises close to 200 litigators, organized around a comprehensive range of sub-specialties. Our expertise covers complex commercial litigation, class actions, construction litigation, environmental litigation, insurance defence, IP litigation, health litigation, securities litigation, shareholder disputes, tax litigation, insolvency, and labour & employment disputes, among other areas of litigation support. The national group has extensive experience acting for a wide range of clients in all industry segments in trial proceedings, court applications, arbitrations and appeals at the provincial and federal levels. These clients range from sole proprietorships and individuals to some of the largest and most recognized national and international corporations operating in Canada.
Our litigators look for opportunities for efficient and expedient dispute resolutions. In this regard, our litigators are experienced in mediation and arbitration proceedings of all types, whether required as part of the litigation process or undertaken pursuant to an agreement with the other side to a dispute.
The Group also draws on the firm’s discovery capabilities. Our litigators adopt procedures to drive greater case management and discovery efficiency, thereby mitigating the resource intensive, often costly document production phase of litigation.
We have extensive experience acting for clients in litigation concerning:
Updated March 2023