Ontario

Firm overview

Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP is a Canadian law firm focused on serving the advocacy, advisory, and transactional needs of the country’s most dynamic business sectors.

Cassels brings a rare depth and breadth of experience to both the negotiating table and the courtroom. We offer recognized expertise in resolving complex legal issues, pride ourselves on developing inventive and effective means of solving problems and have a reputation for assertive and efficient settlements built on a track record of favorable motion and trail decisions – counsel know that we are ready, willing, and able to go all the way to court.

Our litigators represent clients at all levels of federal and provincial courts including the Alberta, BC, and Ontario Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. Cassels also boasts one of the country’s leading class action defence teams — we successfully defended the first-ever class action in Ontario and have maintained our position as a mar-ket leader with precedent-setting class action defence work ever since. As your strategic advisors, our approach to litigation focuses on two things – reputation and success.

Cassels offers one of the largest law practices in Canada, advising clients from start-ups to multi-national organizations — across the street and around the world — and we are consistently cited as market leaders by such authorities as Chambers, Lexpert, and Best Lawyers.

We are dedicated to staying on the leading edge of trends in law and business to offer practical and flexible solutions to any legal challenge.

At Cassels, your success is our priority.

Select Key Industries and Areas of Practice:

• Aboriginal
• Banking & Specialty Finance
• Blockchain & Digital Assets
• Business
• Cannabis
• Class Actions
• Competition & Foreign Investment
• Construction
• Employment & Labour
• Energy
• Entertainment & Sports
• Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG)
• Franchise
• High Growth &Venture Capital
• Hospitality
• Information Technology & Data Privacy
• Infrastructure
• Insurance & Reinsurance
• Intellectual Property
• International Trade
• Litigation
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Mining
• Municipal, Planning & Environmental
• Private Equity
• Product Liability
• Real Estate & Development
• Regulatory
• Restructuring & Insolvency
• Securities
• Securities Litigation
• Taxation
• Universities & Colleges

Firm overview

Paliare Roland Rosenberg Rothstein LLP is a litigation boutique with vast expertise and experience. They are routinely involved in high profile cases: complex commercial litigation or class actions, professional discipline or labour disputes or public inquiries, managing the most sensitive legal issues facing all businesses, individuals, labour unions, professional regulatory bodies, academic institutions and public interest organizations. Much of their work is referred from other law firms in Ontario, across Canada and internationally.

Main Areas of Practice:

Class Actions: Paliare Roland represents publicly and privately on leading cases. The team acts for defendants and plaintiffs bringing versatility and unique insights. They have acted as counsel on class proceedings at all stages of proceeding (certification including all levels of appeal; mediations; examinations for discovery;completion of common issues trials) and on cases involving usurious interest rates, product liability, Competition Act violations, institutional abuse, auditor’s negligence, franchise disputes, cases involving foreign exchange charges, breach of trust, breach of contract, pensions issues, and others.

• Class counsel to registered accountholders at BMO Nesbitt Burns and BMO InvestorLine. The class alleged that the defendants charged an undisclosed fee on currency conversions in the class members’ registered accounts. The court found in favour of the class on summary judgment (MacDonald v. BMO Trust Company, 2020 ONSC 93), and the case settled for $100 million (2021 ONSC 3726).
• Class counsel to pharmacist franchisees of Shoppers Drug Mart. The class alleged that the franchisor unlawfully withheld payments from generic drug manufacturers and improperly overcharged fees in other aspects of the franchise relationship. The class was partially successful on summary judgment (Spina v. Shoppers Drug Mart Inc., 2023 ONSC 1086).

Corporate Commercial Litigation: Paliare Roland has deep experience acting on virtually all aspects of corporate commercial litigation, applying a strategic, practical—and singularly effective—approach to resolving business disputes. They routinely represent both public and private companies, partnerships, shareholders, directors, officers, boards, special committees and professional advisors, arguing in the appellate courts, and before the Toronto Commercial List, arbitrators and mediators. They are also often asked to act on high-stakes litigation of critical importance to their clients.

Bankruptcy & Insolvency Litigation: Paliare Roland acts regularly in bankruptcy and insolvency matters, nationally and locally. The practice is independent of major financial institutions, permitting them to act as counsel to insolvency stakeholders, including unions and employee groups, tort claimants, court appointed officers, debtors, bondholders, and governments.

• Counsel to the United Steel Workers Union. Was in a lead position regarding the restructuring of Stelco and its legacy liability pension obligations and other post employment benefits including finding and sponsoring the ultimate Purchase of Stelco, Bedrock Industries.
• Insolvency Counsel to the provinces of Alberta and Newfoundland & Labrador in the ongoing CCAA restructuring of Imperial Tobacco Company Limited, Rothmans,  Benson & Hedges Inc., and JTI-MacDonald Corp.
• Court appointed representative for purchasers of preferred shares of Pace Financial Limited and First Hamilton Holdings Inc., in connection with the liquidation of those companies, resulting in settlements totaling in excess of 70% of the amount invested.

Employment Law: Paliare Roland provides advice and advocacy relating to all areas of the employment relationship for both employees and employers. Many of the important cases remain confidential.

Appeals & Judicial Review: In both public and private law, Paliare Roland has been involved in a vast range of prominent, precedent-setting appeals and judicial reviews. Respected for their deep expertise and experience in judicial review applications and appeals, they are frequently retained by trial and administrative counsel, regulatory bodies, unions and others to help advance or protect these interests before the courts on review.

Securities Litigation: Paliare Roland acts for both investors and issuers in litigation involving public disclosure issues providing assistance to investors, investment advisors and other registrants in proceedings before the Ontario Securities Commission, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and the Mutual FundDealers Association also representing investors in negligence claims against investment advisors and dealers.

Constitutional Litigation: Paliare Roland has acted on many high profile constitutional cases and has long associations with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and other public interest organizations like Friends of the Earth, British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, Métis National Council, Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, Human Rights Watch and various specialised legal aid clinics.

• Counsel to the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples and individual litigants in Daniels v. HMQ, 2014 CanL1168707 (SCC) seeking a declaration that the Federal Government is constitutionally responsible for approximately 600,000 Métis and Non-Status Indians, under s. 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867.

Libel & Slander: Paliare Roland has expertise in defamation law including litigation strategies, media strategies and pre-publication review. Recently, they were counsel to the Liberal Party of Canada in a defamation proceeding brought by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Product Liability & Tort Claims: Paliare Roland acts for plaintiffs and defendants regarding product failure, negligence and economic torts. While these sensitive issues generally result in settlement, the firm has argued leading cases on international jurisdiction and insurance coverage, and act in class actions regarding product failures.

Professional Discipline & Regulation: Paliare Roland represents regulators and professionals in connection with complaints, investigations and discipline proceedings. They have extensive expertise in representing several regulators in the regulated health disciplines, including as lead discipline counsel for the College of Nurses of Ontario.

Judicial Inquiries and Inquests: Paliare Roland has brought their expertise in advocacy and commitment to the public interest to their work for judicial inquiries.

• Inquiry Counsel to The Honourable Mr. Justice Herman J. Wilton-Siegel who was appointed Commissioner of the City of Hamilton’s Red Hill Valley Parkway Inquiry.
• Counsel to the design-build-maintenance consortium (Rideau Transit Group and related parties) in the Ottawa Light Rail Transit Public Inquiry.

Updated April 2024

Firm overview

Baker McKenzie is a leading global law firm with offices in 74 cities worldwide. Protecting your business in today’s global market requires lawyers with an understanding of local, national, and broader issues. Our Canadian litigation team is integrated with more than 1000 other Baker McKenzie litigators across the globe. Our Canadian Litigation team includes a host of seasoned trial lawyers. We regularly act for clients in complex domestic and multijurisdictional disputes. Our cases frequently involve novel and precedent-setting issues. When providing advice we first do all we can to position our clients and help them avoid litigation. When we need to go to trial, we do so without hesitation. Our team has fought and won some of the most important cases in Canada. When it comes to appellate expertise our team has the experience to conduct appeals across a range of areas, including complex commercial, fraud, employment, labour, intellectual property and administrative/public law matters.

As part of an integrated global team we ensure that overall business objectives aren’t sacrificed to one-off wins, and that our clients reputation for fair dealing remains intact. With more than 60 years of experience in the Canadian market we are committed to helping clients fulfill their ambitions in an increasingly complex global marketplace. The quality of our work is reflected in the number of the leading global and Canadian multinationals that seek our advice on complex matters in a range of industries including financial services, retail, manufacturing, mining, post-secondary education, professional services, transportation, pharmaceuticals and energy.

Firm overview

Bennett Jones is consistently recognized for its expertise in domestic and cross-border litigation. The firm is known for its uncompromising strength in the areas of competition and antitrust, securities, class actions, energy, commercial, intellectual property, fraud, construction, restructuring/insolvency, employment, health, and professional negligence litigation and has prominent practitioners in alternate dispute resolution, including international commercial arbitration. We are committed to working with our clients to develop an effective and cost-efficient strategy to identify and achieve their unique goals in the prosecution and defense of business disputes.

With more than 100 lawyers practicing commercial litigation nationally, Bennett Jones litigators have significant experience in all aspects of dispute resolution, and have leading reputations before courts and tribunals. We represent some of Canada's largest corporations, including energy producers, and technology and telecommunications companies, and are skilled in conducting commercial arbitrations, including those involving issues in the oil and gas, mining and construction industries. Our litigation practice is supported by the considerable strength of our appellate advocacy and judicial review practice which provides clients and referring counsel with specialized and strategic advice on all aspects of cases on appeal or under judicial review.

We are frequently retained by major domestic and international corporations in the defense of class actions. Representing parties at every stage of the lawsuit, from pre-certification motions and applications through to trial, we bring to each phase coordinated strategies and effective communications to streamline the litigation process. We also advise clients on mitigating their class action risk and proactively monitor trends in prospective class action developments.

Recognizing that many disputes are settled prior to trial, our commercial and technical expertise provides another valuable set of skills to the negotiation and settlement of litigation. Our team approach ensures that we provide the most timely, effective and innovative support to our clients. Our lawyers' reputations, contributions to Canadian case law, and distinguished history of service have resulted in top rankings in all major legal directories for many of our litigators, in a multitude of litigation practice areas.

Firm Culture:

Bennett Jones reflects the integrity and professional excellence of the firm’s Founding Partners. After more than 100 years of service, the firm has produced some of Canada’s most accomplished legal and business leaders, fostering values that established it as one of Canada’s most successful business law firms. The firm prides itself on offering clients innovative, strategic and forward-thinking approaches to their most complex legal and regulatory challenges and opportunities. Bennett Jones promotes a diverse and inclusive work environment where mutual respect and independent thought lead client and colleague interactions. Bennett Jones is proud to have been recognized for 23 consecutive years as one of Canada’s Best Employers.

Updated April 2024