Shapray Cramer Fitterman & Lamer

Litigation boutique Shapray Cramer Fitterman & Lamer saw its genesis in Vancouver in 1992 and since then have attained a "very attractive position in the market," according to a peer, who elaborates, "meaning, they take on what they want, when they want, and what they want to take on are always hugely lucrative files that they can really sink their teeth into." While the firm's focus is exclusively litigation, within that realm the firm casts its net wide, attending to all manner of commercial, environmental, intellectual property, and even family law issues. Peers observe, "They continue to show up and attract good, solid commercial work. They have great mining clients, not just junior resource clients but actual mining clients. They just tick along and get these fascinating, novel, one-off interesting cases. They have their spot in the market and they enjoy it." Speaking to this, as well as its mining expertise, a peer notes, "They took over a mining dispute from another firm and got a $93 million win." The firm makes a leap into the "highly recommended" category this year on the strength of the firm's reputation and evidenced work. "This is not the kind of firm that you're going to run into on a daily basis, they are not like one of the big firms who 'do it all.' But for what they do, they are at the top of the game. Dynamite in a small package. And they have a nice mix over their now of seasoned seniors and ambitious youth."

Firm figurehead Howard Shapray is one of British Columbia's most celebrated litigators, excelling in his role as go-to counsel for high-stakes commercial litigation. "Howard is awesome," voices a peer. "If you want to go 'scorched-earth' style, there is no one better. But he is still very effective in settling cases as well." To this end, Shapray attends to ongoing litigation involving the administration of a very large trust, removal of the trustee for breaches of fiduciary duty and the rights of a beneficiary. A portion of the litigation has been resolved with the resignation of the trustee and the protector. Other issues are ongoing. He is also lead counsel in an arbitration involving contractual rights and responsibilities under a large, failed real estate joint venture. He successfully defended a damage claim of $52 million for allegations of breach of contract. He is also lead counsel for the plaintiff in a complex corporate conspiracy and breach of fiduciary duty case involving specialized technology used in the semiconductor industry. The case was settled prior to trial. Francis Lamer represented a large owner of shopping malls in a case where the client claimed and was awarded damages of in excess of $8 million for breaches of contractual warranties in relation to the purchase of development land. Lamer also represented a client in a matrimonial dispute involving commercial fraud in the Peoples' Republic of China by a husband against his wife. Stephen Fitterman secured a $3 million arbitral award for Wastech Services against Greater Vancouver Sewerage & Drainage District. The arbitrator concluded that Greater Vancouver had breached a duty of good faith contractual performance by exercising a discretion accorded it in the contract. Fitterman was lead counsel through the arbitration and co-counsel in relation to the appeal, which was heard in November 2017. He is also lead counsel for BenQ Corporation, BenQ America Corpation and BenQ Canada in class actions commenced in British Columbia, Saskatechewan, Manitoba and Ontario in relation to an alleged industry conspiracy to fix prices of optical disk drives in breach of the Competition Act and constituting various alleged torts. The BC class action was certified in 2016, appealed to the BC Court of Appeal in 2017, and is now the subject of an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. Abbas Sabur, who recently joined the firm from Stikeman Elliott, is considered "a good scoop for Shapray Cramer! Abbas is a great younger partner who likes the work that the firm gets and is ready for it. You don't come to a firm like Shapray Cramer if you want to hide out in the folds of 'big law' bureaucracy, you go there if you want to rock and roll! And Abbas is definitely poised for that challenge." Sabur represents a defendant who is one of several distributors and others that have been sued for unlawful appropriation of trade secrets, with claims alleging that the distributors designed and sold counterfeit versions of the plaintiffs' products. He also led the successful defense of a breach-of-contract and quantum meruit ^{claim over certain commissions alleged to have been owed arising from a client's acquisition of approximately $25 million worth of property acquired for development purposes. The case lasted three years, and Sabur prevailed following a 10-day trial, with all claims being dismissed.}