Ranked in Band 1 for Litigation: General Commercial - Canada
Chambers Canada: Canada's Leading Lawyers for Business 2022
When disputes raise the stakes and the risks are high, clients retain Blakes. Our multidisciplinary Litigation & Dispute Resolution team is armed with the skills and insights required to achieve results that matter. We work alongside our clients through every stage of a dispute, from fact-finding and risk evaluation through final resolution and enforcement, at trial and appellate levels, in court, at the negotiating table, and before tribunals and government agencies. We collaborate, we strategize, and we optimize.
Our lawyers take a client-first approach to each unique situation. Disputes are not treated as litigation files but as business problems to be resolved in the most creative manner. Our complete range of advanced risk-management strategies helps clients avoid many disputes altogether. With all the litigation advice and expertise needed under one roof, our lawyers leverage best practices across industries and take swift action to produce the most favourable outcomes.
Canadian and international clients rely on our practical business advice and formidable courtroom skills to resolve their high-stakes commercial disputes in virtually every court in the country, including the Supreme Court of Canada, where our litigation lawyers regularly appear on cases at the forefront of developments in Canadian law.
Blakes also has four decades of class actions experience, with some of the top litigation lawyers in Canada on the team. We have defended clients in hundreds of class actions across the country, including many notable cases that have been successful at trial and on dispositive applications and motions.
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Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. and its Chief Investigative, Reporter Kevin Donovan, in successfully representing them in a new precedent-setting case on openness and privacy before the Supreme Court of Canada, relating to unsealing the Barry and Honey Sherman estate files for public view
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Hydro-Québec in successfully securing its rights to develop and modernize its power transmission network, the largest in North America, in front of the Supreme Court of Canada
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Labatt Brewing Company Limited against claims asserted for approximately C$1.4-billion in anti-trust class action proceedings brought against the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, Brewers Retail Inc., Labatt and two other major brewers, in the Ontario Court of Appeal
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Bell Canada in obtaining an injunction compelling Québecor Inc. to restore the broadcast signal that Groupe TVA had unlawfully interrupted during the Stanley Cup playoffs. More than 425,000 Bell subscribers fell hostage to this interruption perpetrated by Québecor Inc.
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CHC Casinos Canada Limited and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation in defending class actions arising out of a cyber-attack against Casino Rama. This was the first contested certification hearing relating to a cyberattack against an Ontario company
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The Toronto Star in the landmark constitutional challenge to the application of freedom of information laws to Ontario judicial tribunals
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The appointing creditors to ATB Financial at all levels of the precedent setting receivership of a junior oil and gas producer, Redwater Energy Corporation, including in an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada
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ADAG Corporation Canada Ltd. in an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada to challenge a trial verdict requiring it to transfer ownership of the SaskOil Tower in Regina, Saskatchewan, to long-term tenant SaskEnergy
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Celestica Inc. and its former officers in their successful appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada to uphold the limitation period for bringing a statutory secondary market securities class action
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Coast Capital Savings Credit Union defending challenges before the Supreme Court of British Columbia and Court of Appeal to complete their continuance from provincial to federal regulation
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The City of Greater Sudbury in the first reported case in Ontario to address the judicial review of a public procuring entity’s decision to debar a bidder pursuant under a City procurement by-law
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A client in an ICC arbitration and the successful settlement of a dispute between Canadian and Panamanian companies in connection with a coal mine in Colombia (Xira Investments Inc. v. Andean Coal Corporation)
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Morneau Shepell Ltd., Plan Administrator in litigation brought by Morneau and by the Sears Canada estate against shareholders, officers and directors for wrongful conduct in connection with the liquidation of Sears Canada
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Cannabis clients before the Ontario Divisional Court during a judicial review process who were waiting for their licenses
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Suncor in the Alberta Securities Commission in an application to set aside or limit a shareholders rights plan adopted by Canadian Oil Sands, in which the ASC granted Suncor’s application and significantly limited the rights plan
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Station Mont-Tremblant (formerly Intrawest, now Alterra) in challenging the termination of rental pool agreements for more than a thousand condominium units managed by Station Mont-Tremblant for the benefit of the unit owners; Success for Station Mont-Tremblant meant that it preserved tens of millions of dollars of rental revenues
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Air Liquide in a high-value arbitration related to operations at a processing facility, with Blakes client successful on all issues
Members of our Litigation & Dispute Resolution group are recognized as leading lawyers in the recent editions of following publications:
- Benchmark Canada: The Definitive Guide to Canada’s Leading Litigation Firms and Attorneys
- Chambers Canada: Canada’s Leading Lawyers for Business
- Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business
- Legal Media Group’s Guide to the World’s Leading Lawyers
- The Best Lawyers in Canada
- The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory
- The Legal 500 Canada
- The Lexpert Guide to the Leading US/Canada Cross-Border Litigation Lawyers in Canada
- The Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada
- Who’s Who Legal
