John Mather is a Partner at DMG Advocates practicing commercial and public litigation.
John is adept on his feet in any setting. His favourite place to be is in court or a hearing room. John regularly appears before the Ontario Superior Court and Court of Appeal, as well as courts in British Columbia and Saskatchewan. He has acted in numerous domestic and international arbitrations, including in New York and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
John’s commercial litigation work focuses on contractual disputes, shareholder claims, product liability, class actions, commercial real estate and leasing matters, franchise and automobile dealer claims, procurement litigation, and media and defamation. John also acts on urgent matters involving fraud, including successfully obtaining Mareva orders and other extraordinary relief.
John’s public litigation work focuses on public inquiries, regulatory or government investigations and defence of regulatory proceedings.
John’s clients include leading automobile manufacturers, restaurant franchisors, telecommunications providers, newspaper publishers, oil and petrochemical producers, steel manufacturers, technology companies and professional service firms, as well as government agencies, and non-profit organizations.
In 2022-2023, John served as Commission Counsel to Justice Rouleau of the Ontario Court of Appeal at the public inquiry investigating the federal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act in response to the Freedom Convoy protests in January/February 2022. From 2019-2022, John acted as Associate Commission Counsel to then-Associate Chief Justice of Ontario Frank Marrocco at the Collingwood Judicial Inquiry, an extensive public investigation into alleged conflicts of interest and other concerns surrounding two major transactions by the Town of Collingwood.
