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

Crawley MacKewn Brush LLP is one of Canada’s top corporate commercial and securities litigation law firms. Based on extensive peer and client reviews, the firm and the firm’s partners are ranked nationally among the best of their peers by the leading legal ranking services.

Corporate Commercial Litigation
Our corporate commercial litigation practice specializes in managing complex high-stakes litigation. We are business litigators who act for plaintiffs and defendants in all manner of corporate and commercial litigation matters including disputes arising out of mergers and acquisitions, breach of contract suits, director and officer liability claims, oppression remedy matters, business tort claims, fraud and cyber-fraud investigations and claims, wrongful dismissal actions, professional negligence suits, corporate governance and accounting issues, and corporate investigations. Crawley MacKewn Brush LLP also has significant expertise litigating professional negligence claims involving securities industry professionals and accountants.

Securities Litigation
Crawley MacKewn Brush LLP is the largest dedicated securities litigation team in Canada. We are ranked in Band 1 (the highest level) for securities litigation by Chambers and are the only boutique law firm in the top Band. Our securities litigators are client-focused and business-minded, providing representation for market partic-ipants in a wide range of disputes and regulatory investigations. We have successfully represented clients in some of the most significant and high-profile securities law cases in Canada.

Our securities litigation practice includes primary and secondary market liability claims, claims arising out the restatement of a company’s financial statements, claims arising out of alleged fraud, claims against investment dealers and advisors in respect of allegedly problematic investment products, strategies and tax shelters, and claims against investment funds, fund managers and traders arising out of allegedly problematic trading strategies. Our firm has particular expertise with investment loss litigation. We have represented clients in cases that range from suitability claims to more complex trading in options, commodities, derivative products and leveraged investing.

Our securities regulatory defence practice includes investigations and enforcement proceedings brought by the OSC and CIRO. We have significant experience with cross-border investigations involving the SEC and other US regulators.

Awards and Rankings
In addition to being awarded Securities Litigation Firm of the Year by Benchmark every year since 2017, Lexpert ranked Crawley MacKewn Brush LLP in 7th position out of 20 law firms for Commercial Litigation in Toronto in 2024. Based on extensive peer and client reviews, Crawley MacKewn Brush LLP is ranked in Band 1 for Securities Litigation by Chambers Canada. Our firm has also been selected as an Excellence Awardee for Liti-gation & Dispute Resolution Boutique Firm of the Year by the Canadian Law Awards.

Partners

Robert Brush: +1 416 217 0822  |  rbrush@cmblaw.ca 

Michael Byers: +1 416 217 0886  |  mbyers@cmblaw.ca

Dana Carson: +1 416 217 0855  |  dcarson@cmblaw.ca

Alistair Crawley: +1 416 217 0806  |  acrawley@cmblaw.ca

Linda Fuerst: +416 217-0853  l  fuerst@cmblaw.ca

Melissa MacKewn: +1 416 217 0840  |  mmackewn@cmblaw.ca

Kate McGrann: +1 416 217 0850  |  kmcgrann@cmblaw.ca

Matthew Scott: +1 416 217 0870  |  mscott@cmblaw.ca

Clarke Tedesco: +1 416 217 0884  |  ctedesco@cmblaw.ca

Updated March 2025

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 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 leading global investment organization in commercial litigation arising out of an attempt to establish a new Canadian bank.
• 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:

• Acting for a former Member of Parliament charged with breach of trust.
• Acting for the former Chairman and CEO of CannTrust charged with insider trading, securities fraud, and making materially misleading statements.
• Acting for corporate clients in workplace safety prosecutions involving fatalities under the Canada Labour Code and Occupational Health and Safety Act.
• Acting for clients in relation to all allegations of criminal wrongdoing, including white-collar crime, cross-border prosecutions, sexual offences, cyber/tech crimes, fraud offences, serious violent offences, drug offences, and national security matters.
• 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:

• Representing the Government of Canada in the Public Order Emergency Commission.
• Representing a long-term care home in connection with the Government of Ontario’s public inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic .
• Acting for the Privacy Commissioner in a significant action against Facebook Inc arising from the Cambridge Analytica data breach.
• Acting for the family of Soleiman Faqiri on a high-profile Coroner’s inquest arising out of Soleiman’s killing at an Ontario correctional centre.
• 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.

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.

Firm overview

Lax O’Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb (LOLG) is Canada’s preeminent business litigation firm. LOLG supplies only one thing: litigation solutions to the most difficult commercial problems. Its trial and appellate lawyers have unparalleled experience in bet-the-company litigation across the country.

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 practice business litigation including class actions, insolvency, securities, insurance, trusts, infrastructure, breach of contract, franchise and select public law matters in which substantial commercial interests are at stake. 

LOLG 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 also has a dedicated insurance litigation practice. The firm is engaged as leading counsel advising policyholder clients on insurance claims and litigating coverage disputes against major insurers.

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.