Ontario

Firm overview

Bereskin & Parr LLP is a leading Canadian full service intellectual property law firm serving clients across all industries around the world. Founded in 1965, the firm has grown to be one of the largest IP firms in Canada with Offices located in major economic and technology centers. Bereskin & Parr is made up of more than 75 lawyers and patent and trademark agents, many of whom are recognized as leading practitioners in their specialized fields. The firm has established a depth of legal talent and systems to service clients in every aspect of patent, trademark and copyright law and IP litigation. The firm and its award-winning professionals are consistently ranked as the benchmark for IP law in Canada.

The protection of IP assets inevitably involves disputes over rights to that property. As a leader in IP law in Canada, Bereskin & Parr has extensive experience in litigation, and the management and effective resolution of such disputes. Our firm’s litigation group advises and acts in all types of IP cases, from simple disputes that require pragmatic negotiation, to major cases. We act for parties both large and small, from individual inventors and start-ups to international companies.

Our litigators have a wide variety of technical backgrounds in engineering, chemistry, biotechnology, electronics and computer-related fields, and are able to efficiently present complex technical cases. Members of the litigation group have expertise in the following areas:

Cannabis: Bereskin & Parr has the breadth of experience to help growers, retailers and marketers protect their intellectual property. Our professionals keep clients abreast of regulations as they are released.

Chemical: The firm has strong technical backgrounds in the chemical and biochemical fields, along with graduate and doctoral degrees in chemistry, biochemistry, organic chemistry and chemical engineering.

Cleantech: The professionals in the Cleantech practice group have engineering and scientific educational backgrounds, and industry experience related to clean and environmental technologies, as well as experience in advertising, packaging green and environmental products.

 
Electrical & Computer Technology: Professionals in this group are trained as engineers or in the related physical sciences, and have experience with technology companies in technical, business and legal roles, as well as in building and managing valuable patent portfolios for entrepreneurial companies.

Licensing & Transactions: Bereskin & Parr’s licensing and transaction professionals are well-equipped to handle a wide variety of matters, with technical backgrounds and knowledge in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, chemistry, computer science, electronics, entertainment and new media, as well as a deep understanding of national and foreign IP protection, and drafting and negotiating complex IP agreements.

Life Science: Bereskin & Parr’s specialized Life Sciences practice group brings together professionals with strong scientific backgrounds, which include graduate and doctoral degrees in immunology, organic and inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, molecular and human genetics, and experimental medicine.

Mechanical & Industrial Process: The professionals in this group have a wide range of academic and industry experience, with degrees in mechanical and civil engineering, metallurgy, physics, chemistry and nuclear engineering, and expertise in drafting, prosecuting and licensing mechanical and industrial technologies.

Medical Devices: Our Medical Devices practice group has multi-disciplinary expertise, allowing us to effectively protect our client’s medical technology inventions with highly technical aspects, including mechanical, materials, chemical, electrical and/or software.

Copyright & Digital Media: Bereskin & Parr’s Copyright & Digital Media practice group includes lawyers and agents who have educational backgrounds in technology and computer sciences, as well as in arts and communication and have experience working in the technology, entertainment, information and new media industries, and the educational sector.

Parents: The firm’s Parents practice group have expertise in a variety of scientific and engineering disciplines and other technical areas, and assist clients in evaluating inventions and designs, and preparing, filing and prosecuting patent and industrial design applications in Canada, the United States and worldwide.

Regulatory, Advertising & Marketing: The regulatory, Advertising and Marketing practice group provides comprehensive advice on issues relating to the promotion and sale of clients’ products and services, and is committed to keeping clients abreast of the regulatory changes that impact the way they market and advertise their products and services in Canada.

Trademarks: Bereskin & Parr’s Trademarks practice group in one of the largest and most experienced in Canada. This group advises clients on creating and managing worldwide trademark portfolios, trademark disputes, managing domain name registrations and dispute resolution, and coordinating its clients’ Canadian needs with an international strategy.

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

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

Firm overview

Singleton Urquhart Reynolds Vogel LLP is a Canadian law firm with offices in both Vancouver and Toronto. Since our beginnings, we have grown to a team of nearly 70 lawyers and over 100 employees. Last year, we expanded into the Toronto market, merging our well-known and respected Vancouver practice with the practices of senior commercial  litigation and senior  construction and infrastructure lawyers in Toronto. This combination of geography and experience formed a powerful national  platform from which to better serve our clients across the country.

We offer an extensive range of legal services in the areas of construction and infrastructure, commercial litigation, commercial real estate, corporate commercial, insurance defense, professional liability, product liability, workplace law, and business immigration.

Our core area of practice is construction and infrastructure law, with over half of the lawyers in the firm focused on this area. Our construction lawyers are recognized practitioners, litigators, solicitors, and engineers who have a wealth of experience to draw on.

We have a strong history of assisting clients with a variety of projects nationwide. We work on all matters in our space including large-scale infrastructure, institutional, industrial, and commercial projects such as highways, railways, tunnels, pipelines, mines, industrial facilities, schools and other education facilities, hospitals, manufacturing plants, commercial buildings, and condominiums.

Bruce Reynolds and Sharon Vogel were also co-counsel to the Ontario Government preparing a report and guiding the legislative drafting of Ontario’s Construction Act. As such, they are uniquely positioned to advise clients on the effects of the new Act.

A Client Focused Approach

At Singleton Urquhart Reynolds Vogel LLP we have developed our firm with a fundamental understanding that our clients deserve exceptional legal service that is delivered in a manner that is honest, creative, clear, relatable, flexible, and cost effective.

We provide solutions customized to our clients’ needs in various sectors including education, healthcare, government, and industry. We help our clients seize emerging opportunities and find solutions to complex legal problems.

Our lawyers have an impeccable sense of the challenges that can arise within their areas of expertise and are committed to working together collaboratively across disciplines to find the best solutions for our clients.

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

Canada  is  leading  the  world  in terms  of diversity, inclusion and pluralism. It is a strength that unifies our country and its  people, and  strengthens business relationships  creating opportunities for success.

At Singleton Urquhart Reynolds Vogel LLP,  we are committed to fostering a culture of diversity, inclusion and pluralism in the workplace that embraces the unique backgrounds, perspectives, experiences,  and talents  of individuals  at all levels  of the  firm  to ensure that we represent the communities we serve in Canada.

As the firm continues to grow, we are committed to consistently improving our diversity and inclusion policies to ensure they continue to reflect the culture and values of our employees and clients.

Community Involvement and Pro Bono Work

Beyond our commitment to our staff and our clients, our firm is also committed to the communities in which we have been able to grow and thrive. In that regard, we as a firm, and our individual members, are involved in a variety of community-oriented organizations.

We also encourage our lawyers to get involved with pro bono work by offering each lawyer credits every year for time spent providing legal services on pro bono  files that reflect their individual interests and commitments.

Our lawyers have participated over the years as instructors of various courses taught at the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia, and Stanford University. We are keenly interested in education as it relates to our practices and the development of future experts in law.