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.” One client offers a particularly glowing testimonial: “They are a powerhouse. When you need someone to go to battle for you, they are the best. They are innovative in their strategies, and relentless in practice. The reason I hired them is because they were on the other side of a dispute we had many years ago, and I was so impressed with how they handled that matter, I hired them. For difficult matters, they are the best. They have excellent knowledge of the law, very efficient, aggressive dispute resolution abilities, and an exemplary reputation that causes the other side of the dispute to take extra caution in remaining reasonable. They’re not cheap, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.“

Firm figurehead Howard Shapray is viewed by all Vancouver peers as “a dyed-in-the-wool litigator – as real as it gets.” Clients concur; “Howard is a very strong, articulate and results-oriented litigator. He exemplifies a knowledgeable well-spoken litigator that is never taken lightly by the other side, and because of that resolution to the dispute is achieved generally in a faster more economical manner.” Shapray leads a shareholder dispute concerning an alleged oppression and breach of contract over the failure to deliver free trading shares earned by a director and consultant to a public company. He also leads a multimillion-dollar shareholder dispute between operators of three of Canada’s leading restaurant chains. Another name partner, Stephen Fitterman is lead counsel for related Canadian, US and Taiwanese companies in a now national class action that alleges a price-fixing conspiracy in the international optical disk drive industry in breach of the Competition Act. Leave to appeal the class certification in British Columbia to the Supreme Court of Canada was obtained in 2018 and that appeal was heard in mid-December 2018. Francis Lamer leads an oppression proceeding involving an attempt to secure control of a public company that owns significant copper resources within British Columbia. Abbas Sabur, who joined the firm from Stikeman Elliott, is considered “a good scoop for Shapray Cramer,” in the eyes of peers, one of whom confirms, “Abbas has the drive, has the intelligence. He’s really intellectual, aggressive. I know someone who used him and was very impressed.” Sabur represent an alleged co-conspirator in a multimillion-dollar claim advanced by Equustek. The plaintiffs have sued their former distributors and others (including the client, an SRO and website consultant) for unlawful appropriation of trade secrets, alleging that the distributors designed and sold counterfeit versions of their products. Equustek alleges that its former distributor, Datalink Technologies, conspired with one of its engineers and others to design and manufacture a competing product using Equustek’s trade secrets and that Datalink went on to sell the products using Equustek’s trademarks and logos.