Ontario

Firm overview

Lax O’Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb (LOLG) is Canada’s premier counsel firm. The firm’s lawyers handle the most complex commercial disputes and public law cases. They carry a robust trial, arbitration and appellate practice across the country and in the Supreme Court of Canada. 

LOLG is regularly engaged as trial and appellate co-counsel by peer law firms, and as court officers in large and sensitive litigation mandates. The firm also acts as counsel in class actions, securities litigation and administrative law matters, as well as infrastructure, franchise, employment and health law disputes. 

LOLG also has one of Canada’s leading restructuring & insolvency practices. The firm’s insolvency counsel are ranked among the top nationally and have material roles in Canada’s largest and most complex insolvency proceedings and restructurings. 

LOLG’s practitioners are leaders at the bar, holding positions on the Chief Justice of Ontario’s Advisory Committee on Professionalism and the Supreme Court Advocacy Institute, and fellowships in elite trial organizations. Its associates are of the highest caliber, recruited primarily from judicial clerkships at the Supreme Court of Canada, provincial Courts of Appeal and the Commercial List of the Superior Court of Justice. LOLG’s partners are among the most consistently recommended counsel in Canada and represent clients in Canada, the United States, and from overseas.

Firm overview

Smart & Biggar is widely recognized as Canada's leading firm for intellectual property law. With offices across Canada, and over 100 lawyers, patent agents and trademark agents, we are the largest firm focused purely on IP and related specialty areas.

We specialize in asserting and defending our clients' IP assets to maximize their return on investments and preserve competitive advantage. Intellectual property rights - from patents, industrial designs and trademarks, to trade secrets, confidential information and copyrights - are critical business assets that need to be aggressively protected and enforced. 

In high-stakes litigation, we know what it takes to win and we routinely handle Canada's most commercially important and technically complex intellectual property cases. Our lawyers possess a rare combination of successful trial and appellate experience combined with a deeply sophisticated understanding of technical subject matter and analytical expertise - resulting in victories at all levels. From start-up companies in emerging growth sectors to multinational corporations across a broad range of industries, we draw on our vast technical and legal experience to provide creative, effective and cost­efficient enforcement and litigation strategies tailored to each client's unique situation and needs. 

Smart & Biggar has received Benchmark's Award as Canadian IP Litigation Firm of the Year for five consecutive year. Our Practice Group has vast experience and success in all areas of IP litigation, including: 

• Patent Litigation & Enforcement

• Pharmaceutical Litigation
• Trademark Litigation & Enforcement
• Trademark Oppositions & Cancellation Proceedings
• Industrial Design Litigation & Enforcement
• Copyright Litigation & Enforcement
• IP Crime & Anti-Counterfeiting

We know what it takes for our clients to win in high stakes IP litigation. 

Some of our representative recent victories include: 

Largest reported damages award in Canadian history for patent infringement at $645 million 

The Dow Chemical Company et al v Nova Chemicals Corporation 

Success in the Supreme Court of Canada - Abolishing the "Promise Doctrine" for patents 

AstraZeneca Canada Inc v Apotex Inc. 

Trial victory to protect Captain Morgan "trade dress" to block competitors and protect brand value 

Diageo Canada Inc v Heaven Hill Distilleries Inc. 

Precedent-setting decision on copyright infringement netting damages of $12 million 

Nintendo of America Inc v King 

Unprecedented site-blocking order requiring Internet Service Providers to impede access to piracy services 

Bell Media Inc. et al v Goldtv.biz et al. 

For over 100 years, we have remained devoted to protecting our clients' intellectual property and technology assets. Whether we are advising an innovative company on patent strategy or infringement issues, providing counsel on brand protection and enforcement, or handling the IP aspects of a corporate transaction, we provide clients with solutions to protect, enforce and leverage their IP. 

Last updated March 2020

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.

Firm overview

Thornton Grout Finnigan LLP (“TGF”) focuses its practice in two areas: (i) commercial litigation; and (ii) insolvency and restructuring. Representative mandates reflect the breadth and depth of the team, and the creativity involved in resolving some of the most complex legal issues in Canada.

TGF is a mix of senior restructuring and litigation lawyers with a full range of experience gained by years of practice, both inside and outside full-service law firms, combined with talented and energetic younger lawyers who thrive in the entrepreneurial environment of a specialty firm.

Representative Mandates:

• Counsel to debtor Laurentian University of Sudbury in its CCAA restructuring, as the first insolvency proceeding involving a publicly funded university in Canada 
• Counsel to Ernst & Young Inc., the Monitor in the ongoing restructuring of the Carillion Group in Canada
• Counsel to Ernst & Young Inc. the Monitor of JTI Macdonald Corp. in its CCAA proceeding
• Court appointed litigation counsel to the Litigation Trustee of Cash Store Financial in pursuing nine figure damage claims against Cash Store’s professional advisors
• Counsel to debtor company AgMedica and its subsidiaries, the first licensed cannabis producer to file for CCAA protection in Ontario
• Counsel to the court appointed Monitor in the CCAA and Chapter 15 recognition proceedings (SDNY) involving Peraso Technologies Inc.
• Counsel to PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. as Receiver and Manager of Bridging Financial Inc. and its Funds
• Counsel to Grant Thornton Limited as court appointed Receiver of the Comsale Group of Companies in a Canadian receivership with foreign recognition proceedings in the U.S. and Malaysia
• Counsel to the Province of British Columbia in CCAA proceedings of Purdue Pharma L.P.
• Counsel to BDO Canada Limited as court appointed Receiver of Unique Broadband Systems Ltd. in Canadian receivership and Chapter 11 foreign recognition proceedings
• Represented the court-appointed Monitor in a CCAA and Chapter 11 proceeding of Pacific Exploration and Production Corporation, the largest privately-owned oil and gas producer in Latin America through the first Canada / US / Columbia cross-border insolvency proceeding, restructuring $5 billion in creditors’ claims
• Counsel to the court-appointed Monitor in the dual plenary proceedings under Chapter 11 and the CCAA of Performance Sports Group Ltd. and its affiliates, including a US$575 million sale transaction
• Canadian counsel to Square Two Financial Corporation and 17 affiliates in a CCAA and Chapter 11 restructuring of US$400 million of debt involving a stock sale in Canada and an asset sale in the US
• Canadian insolvency counsel to the Trustees of Nortel Networks UK Pension Plan and the UK Pension Protection Fund (the UK Pension Claimants) – the largest single creditor in the global insolvency proceedings of the Nortel Networks group of companies. TGF successfully obtained (i) a ground-breaking pro rata allocation of US$7.3 billion in sale proceeds among 40 insolvency estates in 19 countries, (ii) a CDN$600 million judgment following the disallowance of a claim by the Monitor
• Retained to resolve what had been described by the judiciary as “the longest running legal saga in Canadian history” and successfully ended the litigation through a creative application of the restructuring provisions of the CCAA
• Counsel to the court-appointed Monitor in the restructuring of the Canadian Abitibi-Bowater entities, one of the world’s largest publicly traded pulp and paper manufacturers
• Counsel to Fraser Papers Inc. and its Canadian and US affiliates in a restructuring pursuant to the CCAA and Chapter 11, successfully obtaining amendments to pension legislation to address the company’s pension liabilities 
• Restructuring counsel to Hollinger Inc. in the windup of Hollinger and its subsidiaries
• Litigation counsel to the court-appointed Chief Restructuring Officer and Litigation Trustee of Hollinger Inc., in successfully harvesting litigation assets in the estate
• Counsel to the court-appointed Monitor in the restructuring of Stelco, one of the largest integrated steel companies in Canada
• Represented GE Capital Aviation Services, Inc., a principal stakeholder and the largest creditor in the CCAA restructuring proceedings of Air Canada, Canada’s largest airline
• Counsel for the court-appointed Receiver of the Portus group of companies, recovering over 95% of the more than $800 million of investors’ money
• Counsel to the Agent and lead lender in a syndicate of lenders to Allen-Vanguard Corporation, a publicly traded international military defence corporation, during its restructuring pursuant to the CCAA and its recapitalisation as a private entity
• Counsel to the Insolvency Institute of Canada as intervener on an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada in Re Indalex, following a Court of Appeal decision that significantly changed the pension and restructuring landscape in Canada
• Counsel to a syndicate of European lenders in connection with a $75M breach of contract claim against a major North American air carrier
• Counsel to a committee of contesting bondholders in the proposed privatisation of BCE Inc., involving the world’s largest leveraged buyout with an enterprise value of $52 billion. This case drew international attention as it sped through three levels of court in less than 9 months, including arguing the appeal at the Supreme Court of Canada
• Represented the former principal of Lakeport Brewing Corp. in the successful defence of a $50 million officer and director liability case
• Represented the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) before a major municipal judicial inquiry
• Counsel to the court-appointed Receiver in the Norshield hedge fund scandal involving the tracing and attempted recovery of over $400 million in investor funds in several jurisdictions
• Counsel to United States Steel Corporation as the DIP lender and largest creditor in the CCAA proceedings of US Steel Canada Inc.
• Counsel to a landlord of various properties in the Target Canada restructuring, in completing a pre-emptive transaction for its properties outside of the court ordered sales process and in various other retail insolvencies. Also represent the landlord in other retail proceedings including Sears Canada Inc. and BCBG

Updated July 2021