Joan Young is recognized as one of Benchmark Canada's Top 100 Women in Litigation and a Litigation Star, and heads McMillan's commercial litigation team in British Columbia. A highly skilled courtroom advocate with an impressive record of trials, petitions, contested motions, and appeals, Joan was admitted as a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America in 2024. She is consistently ranked as a leader in her field by leading legal directories, including Chambers Canada, Best Lawyers, Lexology/Who’s Who Legal, The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, and Martindale.
Joan is one of McMillan's foremost class action lawyers, with a practice concentrated on complex commercial litigation and regulatory matters spanning competition/antitrust, regulatory compliance, public law, consumer protection, product liability, and privacy. Trusted by the world's leading companies for her skilled and effective handling of high-stakes litigation, her recent experience defending class proceedings includes matters involving tires, search advertising, airbag sensor controls, fuel pumps, electric vehicle batteries, device manufacturer privacy breaches, opioids, roll-on/roll-off car carriers, capacitors, forged steel, the "Bridgemark" securities secondary market claim, wire harnesses, spark plugs, ECUs, ignition coils, Gmail, diesel engine emissions defeat devices, optical disk drives, and ramen noodles. Joan also has a proven track record advising and defending private sector clients on the impact of public and administrative law decisions before administrative tribunals, quasi-judicial bodies, and on judicial review in the Supreme Court of British Columbia and the Federal Court.
Joan is recognized by peers as a leading litigation expert who "consistently exceeds expectations," is "very thorough and sharp," and has a "notable number of fans among clients."
