Experience at Every Level of Canada's Courts and Tribunals

Members of the Litigation Group are regularly retained to act in a wide range of proceedings, from injunction applications to complex trials and appeals at all levels of provincial and federal courts. Members of the group appear regularly before securities regulators, energy regulators, municipal boards, the Competition Tribunal, the Trade-mark Opposition Board, the Patent Appeal Board, the National Transportation Agency, the CRTC (Canada's communications regulator), liquor licensing boards, human rights commissions, arbitration panels, commissions of inquiry and the governing bodies of various institutions and professional disciplines.

Regulatory Expertise

Stikeman Elliott is well-known for its expertise in providing regulatory advice in a range of industries. The firm acts regularly for clients in regulatory proceedings arising from both competition and securities investigations, as well as in a broad range of other regulated industries, such as electricity, oil and gas, insurance, telecommunications, food & drug and transportation. We offer extensive advocacy experience before all levels of trial and appellate courts in Ontario, the Federal Court of Canada, and the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as various administrative tribunals, including the Competition Tribunal and the Ontario Securities Commission.

Trusted by Business

Members of the Litigation Group have acted as counsel to significant public and private corporations in a wide variety of sectors of the economy, major Canadian and foreign financial institutions, all levels of government (including provincial regulators), and a variety of charitable institutions. Members of the group have represented trustees, receivers, monitors, creditors or debtors in most of the major insolvency and restructuring matters that have arisen in recent years. Stikeman Elliott's appointment as Canadian legal representative for the Institute of London Underwriters testifies to its experience in insurance and negligence actions, from the defence of medical negligence claims to the prosecution of auditors' negligence suits.

Canada's Cross-Border Specialists

The Litigation Group has extensive experience with legal issues that transcend Canada's borders. Whether it is an international insolvency or the defence of a class action commenced as a follow-on to class actions outside Canada, Stikeman Elliott litigators have earned a reputation as cross-border specialists who work effectively with lawyers and experts from other jurisdictions. In December 2012, 14 of our group members were listed as Canadian leaders in Lexpert's Guide to the Leading U.S./Canada Cross-Border Litigation Lawyers in Canada.

Helping Clients Avoid Unnecessary Litigation

Recognizing that most clients wish to avoid litigation, the Litigation Group regularly advises on the appropriateness of Alternative Dispute Resolution (international, domestic, ad hoc or institutional) and on the different forms of ADR that should be considered. Members of the group can also advise clients on how to arrange their affairs to avoid litigation, before problems arise.

Involved in the Legal Community

The Litigation Group is a committed participant in Canadian legal education. Members of the group teach advocacy in the law schools of Western Ontario, Queen's, McGill and Montréal Universities as well as École du Barreau du Québec. They have also served on several Canadian Bar Associations' provincial continuing legal education committees and as Directors of The Advocates' Society. Many members have published articles on a variety of litigation and advocacy topics and have presented papers and spoken at national and international conferences.

Our Clients

Some of our litigation clients include:

AbitibiBowater AIG Air Canada Baffinland Iron Mines Barclays Bank Briggs & Stratton Corporation British American Tobacco Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Canadian National Railway Canadian Real Estate Association Canadian Recording Industry Association Devon Canada ESBI Alberta Future Foam Groupe Polygone Infineon Technologies ING Canada Insurance Bureau of Canada Kuwait Airways Laurentian Bank of Canada LG Display Liberty Mutual

Lloyd's of London Magna Maritime Life Assurance Company Mazda Canada Neo Material Technologies NVIDIA Corporation Ontario Energy Board Ontario Power Authority Royal Bank of Canada Siemens Sony Corporation TeleZone Tim Horton's  Timminco TJX/Winners Toronto-Dominion Bank Toronto Transit Commission Towers Watson TransCanada Pipelines Ultramar Universal Music Wyeth

Recent Group Activities

Firm receives Law Firm of the Year recognition from Corporate INTL
Stikeman Elliott was selected as Commercial Litigation Law Firm of the Year - Canada by Corporate INTL magazine. The awards recognize firms who have shown excellence in both expertise and client service and are chosen through a combination of detailed research and review by an independent awards panel.

Top honours from Benchmark Litigation Canada
Stikeman Elliott is pleased to announce it has been awarded Securities Firm of the Year and Alan D'Silva, a senior partner in the Toronto office, was recognized as Securities Litigator of the Year, by Benchmark Canada 2013.

The firm was also recognized for its representation on the Case of the Year, Sharma v. Timminco, in which the firm represented Timminco with a team led by Mr. D'Silva and included: Patrick O'Kelly, Dan Murdoch, Lesley Mercer, Mark Walli and Ingrid Minott. In Benchmark Canada's "Definitive Guide to Canada's Leading Litigation Firms & Attorneys" Stikeman Elliott is cited as "one of the strong players" for Litigation. The firm received this top ranking in both Ontario and Quebec markets and partners Éric Azran,Louis P. Bélanger, David Byers, Kathryn Chalmers, Michel Décary, Alan D'Silva, Stephen Hamilton, Peter Howard, Katherine Kay, Adrian Lang, Guy Martel, Yves Martineau, Éric Mongeau and Ashley Taylor were each singled out as leading lawyers. David Brown and Hein Poulus were also cited as leaders in the B.C. market.

Ontario litigators successful in pro bono mandate
A recent decision in the Federal Court of Appeal upheld an earlier Federal Court decision directing the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to hear a complaint that the federal Aboriginal Affairs department discriminates against First Nations children through inequitable federal funding of child welfare and protection services on reserves. On behalf of our client, the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, Nick McHaffie and Sarah Clarke handled, on a pro bono basis, the judicial review applications that overturned the Tribunal's earlier dismissal of the discrimination complaint. For more information please see related articles by CTV News, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network and the Assembly of First Nations. 

Arbitration in Canada chapter available 
Peter Cullen, Douglas Harrison and Lev Alexeev recently co-authored the "Canada" chapter on Arbitration for Getting the Deal Through 2013, which discusses key issues regarding international commercial arbitration within Canada.
Reproduced with permission from Law Business Research Ltd. This article was first published in Getting the Deal Through - Arbitration 2013, (published in February, 2013; contributing editors: Gerhard Wegen and Stephan Wilske). For further information please visit www.GettingTheDealThrough.com.

Stikeman Elliott one of the top litigation law firms
Lexpert's 2012 Guide to the Leading U.S./Canada Cross-border Litigation Lawyers in Canada ranks Stikeman Elliott as one of the top law firms in litigation, recognizing 14 lawyers in the following categories: Competition, International Commercial Arbitration, Corporate Tax, Securities, Class Actions, Corporate Commercial, International Trade Regulation and Insolvency and Financial Restructuring, with the firm having the most lawyers recognized in the Class Action category.

Class Actions in Canada chapter available
David Byers and Adrian Lang recently co-authored the Canada chapter in The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Class & Group Actions 2013, which discusses important issues that arise in class actions for corporate counsel, cross-border legal practitioners and executives. This article appeared in the 2013 edition of The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Class & Group Actions; published by Global Legal Group Ltd, London. 

Competition litigation in Canada chapter published
Competition litigators Eliot Kolers and Danielle Royal co-authored the "Canada" chapter in The Private Competition Enforcement Review, published by Law Business Research Ltd., discussing private antitrust litigation activity in Canada.

Product Liability in Canada chapter available
Doug Harrison, Yves Martineau and Samaneh Hosseini recently co-authored the Canada chapter on Product Liability for Getting The Deal Through 2012, which discusses the most important issues that arise in product liability for corporate counsel, cross-border legal practitioners and executives. Reproduced with permission from Law Business Research. This article was first published in Getting the Deal Through -  Product Liability 2012, (contributing editors: Harvey L. Kaplan, Gregory L. Fowler and Simon Castley). For further information please visit www.GettingTheDealThrough.com.

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