Ken McEwan focuses on complex corporate-commercial litigation, class action litigation, commercial arbitration, and administrative law at the trial and appellate levels, including the Supreme Court of Canada. He received the designation of King’s Counsel from the Attorney General of British Columbia in 2004.
Mr. McEwan is Benchmark Canada’s British Columbia litigator of the year for 2020 and trial lawyer of the year for 2022. During the same period, he has also been named one of Canada’s top 50 trial lawyers, and a finalist for both Canadian class action litigator of the year and Canadian competition litigator of the year.
In 2022 Chambers Canada ranked Mr. McEwan in Band 1 for dispute resolution describing him as a “force”, and noting “He’s nonstop, very determined and focused, really, really good at what he does.” Best Lawyers recognized Mr. McEwan as Vancouver’s 2019 Corporate and Commercial Litigation Lawyer of the Year. Mr. McEwan has been named in Lexpert’s 2019 Guide to the leading 100 U.S./Canada cross-border litigators, as well as being named in the 2023 Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada. He is rated by Lexpert as most frequently recommended in corporate commercial litigation, and is recognized in class actions, director and officer liability, and securities litigation. He is listed in the Legal Post Best Lawyers in Canada in the areas of securities law, corporate commercial, and class action litigation. Mr. McEwan is listed in Who’s Who Legal: Commercial Litigation for 2023 and Who’s Who: Legal Product Liability for 2019, with the former stating, he is “one of Canada’s most distinguished silks and litigators.” Martindale- Hubbell has given Mr. McEwan a ranking AV-Preeminent.
Mr. McEwan is the president of the International Society of Barristers, director of the Canadian Foundation of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and a Director of the Advocates’ Society, as well as chair of its national standing committee. He has been appointed by the Law Society of British Columbia as the civil litigation representative to the Committee on Relations with the Judiciary. He was appointed by the Attorney General of British Columbia to the Supreme Court Rules Revision Committee where he served until 2016.
Mr. McEwan is the author of the fourth edition of Sopinka on the Trial of an Action, published in 2020. He is an adjunct professor of law at the University of British Columbia Law School, teaching its advanced trial advocacy course. He is a past president of the Sopinka Cup Society, and contributes regularly to both the Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia and the Advocates’ Society. He chairs a panel of the British Columbia Inns of Court project which was established to foster professionalism among young lawyers. Outside the courtroom, Mr. McEwan also acts as both arbitrator and mediator of commercial disputes. He is a co-author of Commercial Arbitration in Canada: A Guide to Domestic and International Arbitrations which has been cited as authority in judgments across Canada. He is a contributing author to A Practitioner’s Guide to Commercial Arbitration, published by Irwin Law in September 2017. He is listed in Expert Guides – Commercial Arbitration for 2018. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the Western Canada Commercial Arbitration Society.
Updated April 2023
