Ontario

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. 

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

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 the first publicly-funded university in Canada to be restructured pursuant to an insolvency statute 
• Counsel to PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. as Receiver and Manager of Bridging Financial Inc. and its Funds
• Litigation counsel to the constructors of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, an $8+ billion project, one of the largest infrastructure projects in Canada’s history
• Counsel for Grant Thornton Limited as Trustee in bankruptcy of AP Private Equity Limited and Aiden Pleterski, a 23-year-old self-proclaimed crypto king who was, along with his company, adjudged bankrupt following the obtaining of a Mareva Order.
• Counsel to BDO Canada Limited as court-appointed monitor in the CCAA restructuring of Eve & Co Incorporated, Natural Medco Ltd., and Eve & Co International Holdings Ltd.
• Lawyers for FTI Consulting Canada Inc. as court-appointed monitor in the CCAA proceedings of the Just Energy Group
• Counsel to A. Farbers & Partners Inc. as court-appointed receiver of Pure Global Cannabis Inc. and its related entities
• Counsel to Ernst & Young Inc, as court-appointed Monitor of the Country Fresh Foods Group
• Counsel to Ernst & Young Inc., as court-appointed Monitor in the restructuring of the Carillion Group in Canada
• Counsel to debtor company AgMedica and its subsidiaries, the first licensed cannabis producer to file for CCAA protection in Ontario
• Counsel to Alvarez & Marsal Canada Inc., as court-appointed Monitor of Lydian International Inc. and its subsidiaries, including as foreign representative for recognition proceedings in Jersey, Channel Islands
• Counsel to Ernst & Young Inc., as 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 Grant Thornton Limited as court appointed Receiver of the Comsale Group of Companies in a Canadian receivership proceeding with foreign recognition in the US and Malaysia
• Counsel to the Province of British Columbia in the 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 in 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 largest single creditor in the global insolvency proceedings of the Nortel Networks group of companies, allocating US$7.3 billion in sale proceeds among 40 insolvency estates in 19 countries
• 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
• Counsel to Fraser Papers Inc. and its Canadian and US affliates in a restructuring pursuant to the CCAA and Chapter 11 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.
• Counsel to the court-appointed Monitor in the restructuring of Stelco
• 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
• 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, including an 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 significant landlord in various retail restructuring proceedings including Target, Sears Canada Inc. and BCBG
  
  

Firm overview