Jeff W. Galway, Toronto

About Jeff

Jeff is a senior trial and appellate counsel with a national practice focusing on corporate/commercial, securities, constitutional, competition and pension law matters. A significant aspect of Jeff's practice involves defending class actions. He also regularly acts as counsel in regulatory and administrative/regulatory proceedings.

Jeff has appeared as counsel before courts in five Canadian provinces as well as before the Federal Court of Canada and the Supreme Court of Canada. He has also appeared before many administrative tribunals, including the Financial Services Tribunal, the Ontario Securities Commission and the Competition Tribunal.

In a recent survey of in-house counsel conducted by Acritas, legal research experts, one of Jeff's clients noted: "He does all of our high-value litigation, and he's just an exceptional litigation lawyer. He's an incredibly sound lawyer with legal skills and with practical advice." Other client comments about Jeff have included: "He's done extremely significant litigation for us. Just top-notch for decades" and "very knowledgeable about our business and a strong commercial litigator. Very practical and very thoughtful, which is what you want in a litigator."

Expand all

Select Experience

Acted for Marine Atlantic Inc. in connection with a judicial review application commenced in the Federal Court of Canada by Oceanex Inc. naming Marine Atlantic and the federal Minister of Transport as respondents. Oceanex challenged the rates established for commercial vehicles carried on Marine Atlantic's ferries between the provinces of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador
Acted for Labatt Brewing Company Limited in defending claims asserted for approximately C$1.4-billion in anti-trust class action proceedings in the Ontario Supreme Court brought against the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, Brewers Retail Inc., Labatt and two other major brewers. In March 2018, the Ontario Superior Court granted summary judgment dismissing the plaintiffs' claims against all of the defendants. The motions judge's dismissal of the action was subsequently upheld by the Ontario Court of Appeal
Acted as co-counsel for United States Steel Corporation (USS) in connection with a recently released decision of the Ontario Superior Court confirming claims by USS in the aggregate amount of over C$2-billion in the ongoing insolvency proceeding of U.S. Steel Canada Inc.
Acted for Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) in a case before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice where the applicant challenged the constitutionality of certain provisions of the Ontario Insurance Act that limit the amount of lost income that can be recovered before trial by a person injured in an automobile accident along with amendments to the Insurance Act granting exclusive jurisdiction to the Ontario Licence Appeal Tribunal to adjudicate all disputes relating to statutory no-fault benefits
Acted as co-counsel to Canadian Western Bank before the Supreme Court of Canada (Canadian Western Bank v. Alberta). Case raised division of powers, interjurisdictional immunity and paramountcy issues
Represented four underwriters in a securities class action relating to allegations of misrepresentation under Part XXIII.I of the Ontario Securities Act
Successfully acted on behalf of a Canadian trust company in obtaining early dismissal of class action alleging fraud in connection with the administration of a trust
Represented a large Canadian mutual fund manager in a securities class action involving allegations of market timing on the part of one of its clients
Acted as lead counsel to United Parcel Service of Canada (UPS) in its successful appeal before the Supreme Court of Canada concerning UPS's entitlement to claim rebates for tax paid in error

Awards & Recognition

Jeff is recognized as a leading Canadian lawyer in the following publications:

Benchmark Canada: The Definitive Guide to Canada's Leading Litigation Firms and Attorneys 2023 (Litigation Star – Commercial, Competition/Antitrust, Securities)
Benchmark Canada’s Top 50 Trial Lawyers 2023
The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2023 (Consistently Recommended: Class Actions; Repeatedly Recommended: Litigation – Corporate Commercial, Pensions & Employee Benefits – Employer)
Chambers Canada: Canada's Leading Lawyers for Business 2023 (Litigation: General Commercial – Ontario (Band 4))
The Best Lawyers in Canada 2023 (Class Action Litigation, Corporate Commercial Litigation, Directors and Officers Liability Practice, Employee Benefits Law, Securities Law) (Lawyer of the Year: Director and Officer Liability Practice)
The Legal 500 Canada 2023 (Commercial Litigation)
Who's Who Legal: Global 2022 (Commercial Litigation)
Who's Who Legal: Canada 2021 (Commercial Litigation)
Thomson Reuters Stand-out Lawyers 2021 – Independently Rated Lawyers (As nominated by senior in-house counsel)

Jeff received the Osgoode Professional Development Continuing Legal Education Contribution Award for his outstanding contribution to Osgoode's CLE programs.

Professional Activities

Jeff is an honorary overseas member of the Commercial Bar Association of the U.K. He is a frequent speaker on the subject of class actions and other litigation-related topics. For more than 15 years, he was an instructor at a program jointly sponsored by Osgoode Professional Development and The Advocates' Society on written advocacy and has been a guest lecturer at the Osgoode Hall Law School intensive trial advocacy program. Jeff was a member of the Canadian Bar Association and Auditing and Assurance Standards Board's Task Force updating the Joint Policy Statement on audit inquiries.