Laura Wagner

Laura is Regional Co-Lead (Toronto) of BLG's Appellate Advocacy & Public Law Group and the Chair of The Advocates’ Society’s Commercial Litigation Practice Group.

 

Laura’s practice involves a broad range of complex commercial and civil litigation and administrative matters. She is experienced counsel with expertise in managing complex litigation, including contractual disputes, class actions, environmental litigation, hospital privileging matters, and energy-related litigation matters. Laura represents clients in matters before the Commercial List in Toronto as well as class actions and commercial matters in other courts. Laura also represents clients in judicial review applications and appeals to Divisional Court from administrative tribunals, particularly in the health law and energy sectors.

 

Laura is experienced in class actions defence. She is a key member of the BLG team representing Amazon in a proposed class action seeking unpaid wages and overtime on the basis of alleged misclassification of drivers, as well as a proposed consumer class action on behalf of subscribers to Prime. Laura is also lead counsel representing a financial institution in a proposed class action relating to non-sufficient fund (NSF) fees. Laura has been involved in other high-profile litigation, including representing a defendant development group in an action relating to a failed joint venture to redevelop the LeBreton Flats brownfield in Ottawa.

 

Laura also has experience raising constitutional issues before various levels of court and administrative tribunals. She advised the Canadian Civil Liberties Association when it intervened in the Ward v. Québec (Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de al jeunesse) appeal to the Supreme Court, considering important issues concerning the interplay between freedom of expression and the right to safeguard dignity. Laura was also a member of the BLG team retained to assist the Department of Justice as co-counsel to defend the constitutionality of the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act in the References re Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act. Laura was the lead partner acting as co-counsel for the Centre for Free Expression in its intervention before the Supreme Court in the Ontario (Attorney General) v. Working Families Coalition (Canada) Inc. appeal, considering the definition and content of the right to vote enshrined in s. 3 of the Charter. Laura represented Canadian National Railway Company in proceedings before the Canadian Transportation Agency and is currently representing CN in an intervention in the Court of the Drainage Referee considering the jurisdiction of the Agency to determine approval and apportionment of drainage works impacting federal railways, and whether the provincial Drainage Act is either inoperative vis-à-vis federal railways under the doctrine of federal paramountcy or it is inapplicable to federal railways on the basis of interjurisdictional immunity.

 

In 2010-2011 Laura served as a judicial law clerk to Chief Justice Warren Winkler, Justice Karen Weiler, and Justice Gloria Epstein of the Court of appeal for Ontario. She has appeared as counsel before all levels of court in Ontario as well as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal, the Federal Court of Canada, and the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board.

 

Laura is Repeatedly Recommended for Litigation – Regulatory & Public Law and Litigation – Corporate Commercial in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory and is ranked in the 2024 Lexpert Special Edition on Canada’s Leading Litigation Lawyers.

 

Year joined firm: 2018