Gord McKee is a Partner in the Litigation & Dispute Resolution Group and is certified by The Law Society of Upper Canada as a specialist in civil litigation. For more than 20 years, his practice has been devoted to civil litigation and alternative dispute resolution. Gord focuses on defending class action law suits and serious product liability claims.

Recently, Gord has defended clients in class actions involving pharmaceutical and over-the-counter medicines, medical devices, consumer fraud allegations, environmental contamination, Competition Act matters, conspiracy allegations and retiree benefits. In the product liability area, he has represented multinational manufacturers and distributors of a wide variety of products. He is lead counsel in Ontario and manages litigation nationally for some of the world's largest manufacturers of pharmaceutical medicines, medical devices, consumer goods, automotive parts and heavy equipment.

Gord has extensive expertise in cross-border and multi-jurisdictional issues and cases that involve complex scientific, medical or technical evidence. He is regularly asked to provide proactive advice to corporations on product warnings and recalls, litigation-related media issues and strategies designed to avoid litigation and class action suits. A representative sample of recent experience includes:

• Lead counsel in Ontario defending one of the world's leading manufacturers of life-saving cardiac devices in a national class action claiming more than a billion dollars in damages, alleging negligent design, manufacture and warning; also, Canadian national counsel managing related class actions in British Columbia and Quebec
• Lead counsel in Ontario defending product liability class actions claiming millions and, in some cases, hundreds of millions of dollars against multinational manufacturers of pharmaceutical and over-the-counter medicines, including gastro-intestinal medicines, contraceptive products and antipsychotic medications; also, Canadian national counsel managing individual claims and class actions in other provinces
• Lead trial counsel defending one of the world's leading manufactures of fire protection systems in some 20 claims and cross claims resulting from a large factory fire, including a product liability/environmental class action claiming C$80-million in damages; the class action was settled mid-trial, and subrogation claims against the Firm's client were dismissed following an eight-week trial
• Lead counsel for a multinational corporation in a class action arising out of changes to a retiree benefits program
• Co-counsel in Competition Act (antitrust) and price-fixing conspiracy class actions
• Lead counsel for a number of multinational manufacturers regularly defending serious injury and economic loss claims brought against them in Ontario and other provinces in Canada

Gord is recognized as a leading Canadian lawyer by Law Business Research's The International Who's Who of Product Liability Defence Lawyers 2009, which states, "McKee received more nominations than any other Canadian lawyer. With experience in the pharmaceutical and medical device, automobile and consumer products industries he is formidably talented, both in the courtroom and in relation to product warnings and recalls." Gord is also consistently recognized as a leading lawyer in other directories, including Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business 2010 (Dispute resolution: Class Action)," The 2010 Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada, The 2009 Lexpert Guide to Leading US/Canada Cross-border Litigation Lawyers in Canada, Legal Media Group's Guide to the World's Leading Product Liability Lawyers, The Canadian Lexpert Legal Directory - class action and product liability litigation, PLC Cross-border Life Sciences Handbook - highly recommended in product liability, and The Best Lawyers in Canada.

Gord has been invited to speak domestically and internationally at numerous professional and industry conferences on the subject of class actions, product liability and other litigation issues. He was for many years the editor-in-chief of the Federated Press Class Action Journal and has published articles in various professional publications. For many years, he has been a guest lecturer/trial judge at the Osgoode Hall Law School intensive trial advocacy program.

Gord is a member of The Advocates' Society, the International Association of Defence Counsel (vice-chair of international for the Drug, Device and Biotech Committee, vice-chair of journal for the International Committee), the Defence Research Institute (Steering Committee member and International Practice Subcommittee chair of the Drug and Medical Device Committee) and Canadian Defence Lawyers.