Ontario

Firm overview

Stockwoods LLP is one of Canada’s most experienced and highly-regarded boutique litigation firms. Our lawyers are routinely ranked among Canada’s very best commercial, regulatory and criminal litigators. Because of our broad strength and expertise across the litigation spectrum, our firm effectively advises and represents clients who face complex litigation exposure in different areas of the law.

Stockwoods’ high quality of judgment and advocacy, and its reputation for efficiency, has repeatedly been recognized by our peers – a major part of our practice comes from referrals from other leading lawyers in Canada and abroad. We are often engaged in cross-border and multi-jurisdictional matters.

Our clients include private and public companies, and their directors and officers; public agencies, regulatory bodies across a variety of industries (including energy regulation, professional regulation, policing, health and securities regulation); governmental bodies ranging, including government departments, municipalities and First Nations. Our lawyers have also acted as commission counsel and for parties at public inquiries.

Class Actions:

• Acting for TD Bank in defence of the FX conspiracy and SSA Bonds conspiracy class actions; for Bell Canada Inc. in defence of a class proceeding concerning inmate access to telephone services; for Apotex Inc. and certain natural health retailers and suppliers in a pharmaceutical liability class action.
• Defending the City of Windsor and Town of Tecumseh in class actions seeking to recover allegedly unconstitutional lottery licensing fees over a period in excess of 20 years.
• Acting for corporations and senior executives in secondary market securities class actions concerning the cannabis sector, the solar energy industry, and management of a major REIT, and in competition class actions in the tech and financial industries.
• Acting as Court Monitor and Court Counsel in relation to the administration of Canada’s largest class action settlement in the Indian Residential Schools matter, as well as the pan-Canadian settlements relating to blood tainted by Hepatitis C and the provincial settlement involving the contamination of the public water supply in Walkerton, Ontario.
• Acting for the Law Foundation of Ontario and the Class Proceedings Fund in matters arising from their public mandate to fund class actions litigation in Ontario, and as amicus curiae in a significant appeal concerning counsel fee approval.

Commercial/Civil Litigation:

• Acting for a former senior official of the Saudi government in complex worldwide Mareva proceedings.
• Acting as litigation counsel to senior officers, directors and special committees of boards of directors in internal investigations.
• Acting both for corporations and boards of directors, and for dissident shareholder groups, in disputes related to contested proxy fights.
• Acting for the Monitor in the Carillion Inc. CCAA proceeding.
• Acting for a major financial services firm in a series of actions relating to the establishment of a bank.
• Acting for a wind farm owner in an action asserting manipulation of a ROFR process in the energy industry.
• Acting for an institutional mortgage investor in a power of sale action relating to a development property.
• Acting for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in litigation supporting its journalists, and in defence of defamations and other claims against it.

Criminal and Quasi-Criminal Litigation:

• Representing a long-term care home in connection with the Government of Ontario’s public inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic .
• Acting for both corporate and individual clients on large-scale white-collar criminal investigations and prosecutions, including matters investigated by the RCMP Integrated Markets Enforcement Team and OSC Joint Serious Offences Team; 
• Acting for clients in relation to all allegations of criminal wrongdoing, including sexual offences, cyber / tech crimes, fraud offences, serious violent offences, drug offences, and national security matters.
• Acting for clients in criminal matters with multi-jurisdictional dimensions.
• Advising and acting in relation to matters involving searches of sensitive environments (e.g., law offices, media) and the intersection between privacy and electronic surveillance.

Intellectual Property Litigation:

• Acting for a major software-as-a-service provider in the packaging and logistics industry in cross-boarder proceedings enforcing its intellectual property and licensing terms against a major US firm
• Representing rights-holders in various trade-mark, copyright and patent disputes.
• Acting for the Weir Group PLC on numerous patent disputes concerning key technology used in the oil production sector.

Public & Administrative Law:

• Acting for the Privacy Commissioner in a significant action against Facebook Inc. arising from the Cambridge Analytica data breach.
• Representing a senior federal government official in an examination by the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner.
• Acting as counsel to parties and interveners in dozens of public law matters at the Supreme Court of Canada and the provincial courts of appeal, including the landmark 2019 Vavilov decision.
• Regularly representing public agencies in administrative litigation and judicial review applications/appeals.
• Regularly representing federally appointed judges in connection with the Canadian Judicial Council.

Securities Litigation & Enforcement:

• Acting for underwriters, banks, issuers and senior executives in significant complex OSC investigation, enforcement and settlement proceedings.
• Acting for CI Financial Ltd. in proceedings before the Ontario Securities Commission, brought to overturn a TSX decision refusing to enforce CI’s shareholder rights’ plan.
• Acting for OSC Staff in various high-profile matters including the fraud prosecutions of Weizhen Tang, the self-styled “Chinese Warren Buffett”, and previously of hedge fund manager Sextant Capital Management Inc.

Updated March 2021

Firm overview

Miller Thomson LLP is one of Canada’s leading national business law firms with close to 550 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, Markham, Vaughan, Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, 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, 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:

• Commercial contracts 
• Class actions 
• Constitutional challenges
• Employment and human rights 
• Real property disputes
• Environmental 
• Tax
• Antitrust
• Tort law
• Civil or extra contractual liability 
• Construction contracts, liens, claims
• Patent and trademark infringement
• Insolvency
• Professional liability claims
• Products liability claims 
• Defamation
• Injunctions
• Interim orders and other relief sought on an urgent basis
• Shareholder disputes
• Securities
• Regulatory
• Disciplinary
• Penal and criminal
• Directors’ and officers’ liability
• Breach of fiduciary obligations

Firm overview

Experienced. Strategic. Committed.

We are a renowned legal team

We succeed for our clients because we don’t stop until we find the right answer. Our team works collaboratively, leveraging diversity of style and expertise to produce better legal outcomes.

We have more experience, expertise, and success in appeals than any other lawyers in the province of Ontario.

We are strategic

We simplify the complex. We distill our cases down to their most important elements. We continually analyze the case from different angles, uncovering opportunities that tip the scales in your favour.

We are known throughout the profession and by the courts as exceptional advocates.

We are in your corner

We thrive on doing the impossible for our clients. Our job is to solve your problems and get you results, whether in or out of court. We listen to your needs. We’re committed to your case. We care about the outcome.

Updated March 2021

Firm overview

Waddell Phillips Professional Corporation is a boutique litigation firm located in downtown Toronto.

Its founding partners are Margaret L. Waddell, John Kingman Phillips and A. Julia P. Tremain – all highly experienced litigators, practicing in diverse areas. Waddell Phillips’ lawyers’ practices include civil and commercial litigation, class actions, family law, regulatory/administrative law, and human rights.

Both Ms. Waddell and Mr. Phillips are seasoned commercial litigators and class action lawyers. Ms. Tremain has a diverse family law practice that includes both separations, divorces and custody issues, but also child protection.

Margaret Waddell is recognized as a leader in the field of plaintiff-side class actions, who has acted on a variety of cutting edge cases across a diverse range of causes of action including securities fraud, consumer protection, product liability and defective medical devices, as well as human rights abuses. John Phillips has been counsel on precedent-setting cases in diverse areas of practice, and across the country. Julia Tremain came to the private practice of family law after years at the Office of the Children’s Lawyer, and remains one of its most trusted outside counsel.

Waddell Phillips is recognized for its fearless advocacy coupled with thoughtful and strategic advice for its clients. They know when and how to reach sensible solutions for their clients, but are decidedly determined and persuasive courtroom advocates when required.