British Columbia

Firm overview

As Canada’s law firm, BLG provides high-value advice and advocacy to address our clients’ business challenges and problems. We go beyond legal to anticipate, consult and advise in a rapidly changing digital world.

We have extensive experience acting in specialized and complex deals and disputes. Vigilant, curious and collaborative, we harness technology and innovation to offer our clients exceptional service and value.

With over 750 lawyers across Canada, we serve clients throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Offering expertise in intellectual property, disputes and corporate transactional matters, our connectivity gives our clients the next-level service required to achieve success in complex and international matters. BLG advises businesses and institutions across all of their legal needs, including M&A and capital markets, complex disputes, financing, and trademark and patent registration.

At BLG, we regularly challenge our thinking to find better, smarter ways to enhance our services and find new ways to practise law. We recently announced a suite of innovative services called BLG Beyond that delivers value-driven, cost-effective solutions to our clients’ most pressing business challenges. Under the category of Managed Services, BLG Beyond offers Beyond eDiscovery, Beyond Leasing, and Beyond Lending. Under the category of Advisory Services, BLG Beyond provides Beyond IP Strategy and Beyond Consulting.

Fully bilingual throughout all practice areas and sectors, BLG excels in Canada’s common and civil law systems. Our five offices operate in Canada’s largest city centres. We offer our clients an established national presence and a global reach through our international network.

The firm continues to build a legacy of ‘firsts’: it was Canada’s first founded law firm, one of the first in North America to implement client service standards, and consistently receives legal industry recognitions for innovation in client service delivery and value.

International Work: We understand the needs of our international and domestic clients and the legal challenges that can affect their opportunities and operations in Canada or abroad. Whether seeking to do business in Canada or internationally, you require a legal partner that will help identify potential risks and provide guidance through any challenges that may arise.

With centuries of combined expertise, our International Group is peerless in our diversity and experience. Our multidisciplinary team of lawyers and intellectual property specialists provides efficient and effective advice to our business, individual and governmental clients.

We represent a diverse range of clients in over 30 languages from across the globe, including China, India, Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa).

We serve governments and private and public companies in numerous sectors. Our long history as Canada’s law firm combined with a global network of leading law firms enables us to resolve our clients’ most complex legal challenges, regardless of location.

Diversity: Diversity and inclusiveness are critical to the firm’s success. The principles of employment equity, diversity and human rights are an integral part of our culture. As Canada’s Law Firm, we work hard to ensure that everyone feels valued, respected and included. Our National Director of Diversity & Inclusion, in consultation with our D&I Council, proactively reviews all policies, processes and practices to eliminate barriers and support inclusion. BLG D&I initiatives include training and education, support for parental leaves, affinity groups, diversity-themed celebrations, and tracking and reporting on progress.

Our firm actively participates in and promote programs aimed at improving and celebrating diversity within the legal profession and the broader business community, including our robust Transgender Accommodation and Inclusivity Policy, BLG’s mental health strategy, unconscious bias training, and the development and continued growth of the Driven By Women™ initiative. BLG is a proud partners of Catalyst Canada, Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion, Canadian Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and Pride at Work Canada.

Clients & Community: Outside our walls, we contribute to communities across Canada through our pro bono program, our BLG Reads to Kids literacy program, and supporting our members’ charitable efforts through fundraising and volunteer initiatives. BLG supports nearly 200 different non-profit organizations annually, ranging from local charities and grassroots community initiatives to international charitable missions. The firm’s cross-practice and cross-country firm provides more than 20,000 pro bono hours of legal support to nearly 200 not-for-profits and vulnerable individuals.

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

Updated March 2022

Firm overview

Guild Yule LLP traces its origins back to 1924. For over 90 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.

Firm overview

McEwan Partners is a litigation boutique with a focus on complex corporate, commercial, and securities matters. Formed in the fall of 2017, the firm is headed by Ken McEwan Q.C., Bob Cooper Q.C., and Craig Dennis Q.C., three nationally- and internationally-recognized litigators. The firm’s lawyers share a dedication to exceptional advocacy, professionalism, rigourous legal analysis, and business-minded practicality.  Just six months after its inception McEwan Partners was the recipient of Benchmark Canada’s Litigation Boutique of the Year award for 2018, an honour repeated in 2019 and 2021. Benchmark has also recognized McEwan Partners as 2020 British Columbia Firm of the Year and 2021 BC Litigation Firm of the Year, and our partners are recognized as Litigation Stars or Future Litigation Stars.

Although our litigation expertise is broad, the firm’s primary focus is on business disputes. Most of our lawyers have experience in full-service corporate commercial firms, working closely with business lawyers on complex securities and corporate litigation and arbitration. We strive to understand our clients’ businesses and to deliver practical results tailored to their interests. 

Our firm’s lawyers include former judicial clerks and members of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Society of Barristers, International Academy of Trial Lawyers, and Litigation Counsel of America. Our lawyers have delivered successful results for clients in trials and appeals across Canada, including significant victories at the Supreme Court of Canada. Our recent highlights including rankings among the top 50 trial lawyers in Canada, a 2019 Lawyer of the Year, 2019 and 2020 Litigator of the Year, and 2022 Lawyer of the Year in Product Liability Law for Vancouver.

In addition to all our lawyers acting as counsel, our senior lawyers also arbitrate and mediate disputes. Three are members of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and Ken McEwan, Q.C. is an author of Commercial Arbitration in Canada and contributing author to A Practitioner’s Guide to Commercial Arbitration.

McEwan Partners’ Representative Experience:

Administrative and Public Law: Craig Dennis, Q.C. represented the Mining Associations of British Columbia and Canada as interveners in the judicial review in Federal Court of the Taseko New Prosperity mine environmental assessment in Taseko Mines Limited v. Canada(Environment). Craig’s expertise in this area is reflected in his selection as the Best Lawyers in Canada “Lawyer of the Year” in Administrative and Public Law in Vancouver for 2018.

Class Actions: Our lawyers have expansive, precedent-setting experience in class actions across a wide range of disputes.  Lexpert and Best Lawyers recognize Ken McEwan Q.C. and Craig Dennis Q.C. as leaders in the area of class actions, and Best Lawyers named Ken McEwan Q.C. its class actions lawyer of the year in Vancouver for 2018. Ken does both plaintiff and defendant work.

Commercial: In Este v. Esteghamat-Ardakani et al, Ken McEwan Q.C. and Emily Kirkpatrick successfully upheld a ruling obtained at trial that the plaintiff’s claim amounted to an abuse of process due to the taking of inconsistent positions. Both at trial and on appeal in Maxam Opportunities Fund Limited Partnership v. 729171 Alberta Inc., Bob Cooper, Q.C. led a successful defence on behalf of a company against whom it was alleged that there existed an obligation to borrow funds from the plaintiff.

Competition/Antitrust: Ken McEwan, Q.C. successfully led the defence of Fortress Paper Ltd. and Fortress Specialty Cellulose Inc. against a claim alleging knowing assistance in breach of trust, breach of confidence, and inducing breach of contract in Sateri (Shanghai) Management Ltd. v. Vinall.

Constitutional:Our lawyers have appeared as counsel in leading constitutional cases before the Supreme Court of Canada, including Law Society of British Columbia v. Mangat, and British Columbia v. Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd.

Corporate and Shareholder: In Arkansas Teachers Retirement System v. Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., Ken McEwan, Q.C. and Emily Kirkpatrick successfully defeated a shareholder application to bring a derivative action against current and former directors and officers of Lions Gate. 

In Wigen v. Wynndel Logging Co. Ltd., Ken McEwan, Q.C. successfully defeated a minority shareholder’s claim alleging oppression and seeking leave to bring a derivative action

Insolvency and Restructuring: Owen James acted for the successful appellant in Century Services Inc. v. Canada (Attorney General), in which the Supreme Court of Canada for the first time directly interpreted key provisions of the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act.

In Kriegman v. Dill, Ken McEwan, Q.C. and David McEwan were successful for the appellant Trustee in Bankruptcy in registering the foreign judgment of a Washington State Court against the respondent.  In its decision, the Court of Appeal commented on issues relating to the possible application of Part XIII of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act as an alternative mechanism to deal with cross-border insolvencies.

Product Liability:Our lawyers, including Ken McEwan, Q.C. and Craig Dennis, Q.C., have acted in significant product liability cases on behalf of Daimler Chrysler, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M), Imperial Tobacco, and British American Tobacco, among others. Ken and Craig are consistently recognized in this area, with Ken having been recently described by Who’s Who Legal: Product Liability for 2018 as “incredibly skilled” and “a practitioner who consistently impresses clients with his encyclopaedic knowledge.”

Real Estate: In Bison Properties Ltd. (Re), Ken McEwan, Q.C. and Craig Dennis, Q.C. lead successful defences for separate defendants of a claim by bond investors and real estate purchasers in the redevelopment of the iconic Oak Bay Beach Hotel. The case concerned the interpretation of the Real Estate Development Marketing Act, breach of trust, knowing receipt and tracing of trust property, and the priority scheme under the Land Title Act.

Ken McEwan, Q.C. succeeded in setting aside part of a court order to wind up a strata corporation in Owners, Strata Plan VR2122 et al v. Bradbury in the Court of Appeal’s first opportunity to consider recent amendments to the Strata Property Act allowing for wind-up of a strata corporation.

Securities:In Aurizon Mines Ltd. v. Northgate Minerals Corporation, KenMcEwan, Q.C. successful upheld a standstill agreement and enjoined a take-over bid both at summary trial and on appeal. Extraordinarily, the time from the commencement of the action, through trial and appeal, and to the appeal judgment was 28 days.

Updated March 2022