Ontario

Stockwoods LLP is one of Canada’s most experienced and highly-regarded boutique litigation firms. Our lawyers are routinely ranked among Canada’s very best commercial, regulatory and criminal litigators. Because of our broad strength and expertise across the litigation spectrum, our firm advises and represents clients who face complex litigation exposure in different areas of the law.

Stockwoods’ high quality of judgment and advocacy, and its reputation for efficiency, has repeatedly been recognized by our peers – a major part of our practice comes from referrals from other leading lawyers in Canada and abroad. We are often engaged in cross- border and multi-jurisdictional matters.

Our clients include private and public companies, and their directors and officers; public agencies, regulatory bodies across a variety of industries (including energy regulation, professional regulation, policing, health and securities regulation); governmental bodies ranging, including government departments, municipalities and First Nations. Our lawyers have also acted as commission counsel and for parties at public inquiries.

Class Actions:

• Acting for TD Bank in defence of the FX conspiracy and SSA Bonds conspiracy class actions; for Bell Canada Inc. in defence of a class proceeding concerning inmate access to telephone services; for Apotex Inc. and certain natural health retailers and suppliers in a pharmaceutical liability class action.
• Defending the City of Windsor and Town of Tecumseh in class actions seeking to recover allegedly unconstitutional lottery licensing fees over a period in excess of 20 years.
• Acting for corporations and senior executives in secondary market securities class actions concerning the cannabis sector, the solar energy industry, and management of a major REIT, and in competition class actions in the tech and financial industries.
• Acting as Court Monitor and Court Counsel in relation to the administration of Canada’s largest class action settlement in the Indian Residential Schools matter, as well as the pan-Canadian settlements relating to blood tainted by Hepatitis C and the provincial settlement involving the contamination of the public water supply in Walkerton, Ontario.
• Acting for the Law Foundation of Ontario and the Class Proceedings Fund in matters arising from their public mandate to fund class actions litigation in Ontario, and as amicus curiae in a significant appeal concerning counsel fee approval.

Commercial/Civil Litigation:

• Acting for a leading global investment organization in commercial litigation arising out of an attempt to establish a new Canadian bank.
• Acting for a former senior official of the Saudi government in complex worldwide Mareva proceedings.
• Acting as litigation counsel to senior officers, directors and special committees of boards of directors in internal investigations.
• Acting both for corporations and boards of directors, and for dissident shareholder groups, in disputes related to contested proxy fights.
• Acting for the Monitor in the Carillion Inc. CCAA proceeding.
• Acting for a major financial services firm in a series of actions relating to the establishment of a bank.
• Acting for a wind farm owner in an action asserting manipulation of a ROFR process in the energy industry.
• Acting for an institutional mortgage investor in a power of sale action relating to a development property.
• Acting for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in litigation supporting its journalists, and in defence of defamations and other claims against it.

Criminal and Quasi-Criminal Litigation:

• Acting for a former Member of Parliament charged with breach of trust.
• Acting for the former Chairman and CEO of CannTrust charged with insider trading, securities fraud, and making materially misleading statements.
• Acting for corporate clients in workplace safety prosecutions involving fatalities under the Canada Labour Code and Occupational Health and Safety Act.
• Acting for clients in relation to all allegations of criminal wrongdoing, including white-collar crime, cross-border prosecutions, sexual offences, cyber/tech crimes, fraud offences, serious violent offences, drug offences, and national security matters.
• Advising and acting in relation to matters involving searches of sensitive environments (e.g., law offices, media) and the intersection between privacy and electronic surveillance.

Intellectual Property Litigation:

• Acting for a major software-as-a-service provider in the packaging and logistics industry in cross-boarder proceedings enforcing its intellectual property and licensing terms against a major US firm.
• Representing rights-holders in various trade-mark, copyright and patent disputes.
• Acting for the Weir Group PLC on numerous patent disputes concerning key technology used in the oil production sector.

Public & Administrative Law:

• Representing the Government of Canada in the Public Order Emergency Commission.
• Representing a long-term care home in connection with the Government of Ontario’s public inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic .
• Acting for the Privacy Commissioner in a significant action against Facebook Inc arising from the Cambridge Analytica data breach.
• Acting for the family of Soleiman Faqiri on a high-profile Coroner’s inquest arising out of Soleiman’s killing at an Ontario correctional centre.
• Representing a senior federal government official in an examination by the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner.
• Acting as counsel to parties and interveners in dozens of public law matters at the Supreme Court of Canada and the provincial courts of appeal, including the landmark 2019 Vavilov decision.
• Regularly representing public agencies in administrative litigation and judicial review applications/appeals.

Securities Litigation & Enforcement:

• Acting for underwriters, banks, issuers and senior executives in significant complex OSC investigation, enforcement and settlement proceedings.
• Acting for CI Financial Ltd. in proceedings before the Ontario Securities Commission, brought to overturn a TSX decision refusing to enforce CI’s shareholder rights’ plan.
• Acting for OSC Staff in various high-profile matters including the fraud prosecutions of Weizhen Tang, the self-styled “Chinese Warren Buffett”, and previously of hedge fund manager Sextant Capital Management Inc.