Skip Navigation

About James

Jim is senior trial and appellate counsel, with experience in a wide range of complex litigation matters. He has appeared as counsel in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario, as well as at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Jim has represented clients in numerous major corporate-commercial, class action, energy, contaminated site, regulatory offence, constitutional and product liability cases. He also advises clients on national and international compliance and foreign and domestic anticorruption.

In 2013, Jim was named Canada's Class Action Litigator of the Year in the Benchmark Canada Awards. In 2017, the Attorney General of British Columbia appointed Jim as Queen’s Counsel (now King's Counsel).

Jim is also consistently recognized as a leading litigation lawyer in a number of legal trade publications. For example, in Who's Who Legal: Life Sciences 2018, he was referred to as "the dean of the British Columbia product liability and class action bars." In Who's Who Legal: Product Liability Defence, he is recognized in 2019 as "a widely revered product liability practitioner, well versed in representing major corporations across various sectors in complex class actions," in 2021 as "one of the very best trial lawyers in all of Canada" and in 2022 as "Most Highly Recommended" and "internationally renowned as 'one of the best litigators' within the Canadian product liability community." In Who's Who Legal: Product Liability Defence 2022, he was named a Global Elite Thought Leader and "heralded by interviewees who laud the first-rate advice he delivers to domestic and international clients on a wide range of product liability defence matters."

In 2022, Chambers Canada: Canada's Leading Lawyers for Business reported that Jim "is extremely strategic and knowledgeable. He is also communicative, business-oriented and responsive."

In 2023, Jim was appointed by the Canadian Department of Justice to the Judicial Advisory Committee of British Columbia. Jim is a former governor of the Law Foundation and a former director of Ballet BC and The Law Court Inn.

Select Experience

Recent experience includes:

  • Acting as counsel for Kobe Steel Ltd. in a national class action alleging misrepresentations that metal products used in automobile manufacturing met certain specifications or standards

  • Counsel for several financial institutions in purported class actions

  • Acting for the Province of British Columbia in a purported class action alleging that the Province's regulation of fish farms had injured the aboriginal fishery; action was dismissed by the British Columbia Court of Appeal, and leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was dismissed

  • Counsel to Microsoft Corporation in a class action alleging breaches of the Competition Act and various other economic claims regarding the sale of software products throughout Canada

  • Acting as counsel to Lafarge Canada Inc. in a matter finally decided in the Supreme Court of Canada concerning the constitutional question of which level of government controlled the development of a concrete facility on the Vancouver waterfront; the Supreme Court of Canada upheld Lafarge Canada Inc.'s position and enabled the facility to be developed

  • Acting as counsel to Merck & Co., Inc. and Merck Frosst Canada Ltd. in purported class actions across Canada concerning various pharmaceutical products

  • Conducting international anticorruption investigations and due diligence for multinational clients in connection with allegations of improper payments to government officials

  • Acting as counsel to Hunt Oil in an action concerning an oil and gas tenure in northeastern British Columbia – Hunt Oil acquired the tenure only to find out that the Province of British Columbia had not disclosed that the tenure was in an area that was considered historically and spiritually significant by a local Indigenous group; the matter proceeded through an extensive litigation process and settled successfully for Hunt Oil on the eve of trial

  • Acting as counsel to Coca Cola Ltd. in the co-ordination of its Canadian litigation concerning Vitaminwater® class actions; these class actions have to be coordinated not only among various jurisdictions in Canada but also with other international jurisdictions

  • Acting as counsel to Syscon Justice Systems Canada Ltd., successfully defending a 10-week trial for a commission sought in the amount of C$17-million

  • Acting as an arbitrator for government and businesses

Awards & Recognition

Below are some of Jim's national and international recognitions as leading litigation counsel:

  • The Best Lawyers in Canada 2025 (Class Action Litigation, Corporate and Commercial Litigation, Environmental Law, Product Liability Law)

  • Who's Who Legal: Thought Leaders – Global Elite 2024 (Product Liability Defence, Life Sciences – Product Liability)

  • Who’s Who Legal: Life Sciences 2024

  • Lexpert Special Edition: Energy and Mining 2024

  • The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory (2023–2024: Class Actions; 2024: Litigation – Corporate Commercial, Environmental Law)

  • Who's Who Legal: Canada 2023 (Life Sciences, Product Liability Defence) Jim was named a Global Elite Thought Leader in Product Liability Defence and a Global Leader in Life Sciences – Product Liability.

  • Who’s Who Legal: Life Sciences 2022 – Jim was "heralded by interviewees who laud the first-rate advice he delivers to domestic and international clients on a wide range of product liability defence matters."

  • Benchmark Canada: The Definitive Guide to Canada's Leading Litigation Firms and Attorneys 2022 (A Litigation Star in British Columbia and a National Litigation Star in Class Actions, Competition and Environmental Law)

  • Chambers Canada: Canada's Leading Lawyers for Business 2022 – Noted as "extremely strategic and knowledgeable. He is also communicative, business-oriented and responsive" and "a highly responsive adviser with a great depth of experience."

  • Benchmark Canada Awards 2013 (Canada's Class Action Litigator of the Year)

Professional Activities

Jim is the author of A Guide to the British Columbia Class Proceedings Act (Butterworths, 1997) and is the co-author, with the Honourable Mr. Justice Mazko of the British Columbia Supreme Court, of the Class Proceedings Act, Annotated (The Continuing Legal Education Society of B.C., 2000 & 2002). He is a contributor to the British Columbia Supreme Court Class Action Manual (Supreme Court of British Columbia, 1999) and a contributing author to Litigating Conspiracy: An Analysis of Competition Class Actions (Irwin Law, 2006) and Government Liability: Law and Practice (Canada Law Book, 2007).

Jim is also a contributing editor of the Federated Press Class Action Journal and has written numerous articles and lectured extensively on class actions and environmental law throughout Canada, the United States and Europe.

Jim is a member of the Judicial Advisory Committee of British Columbia and a former governor of the Law Foundation of British Columbia.

Publications
Professional Appearances
  • Speaker : PFAS Contaminated Class Actions
    Environmental Class Actions in Canada, Blakes Business Class Seminar, May 16, 2024.
  • Co-chair : Cambridge Forum on Canadian Class Actions
    1st Generation, Cambridge Forums Inc., Vancouver, British Columbia, March 3-5, 2024.
  • Session Chair : Clearing the Chaff: the Effective Use of Pre-Certification Motions
    Cambridge Forum on Canadian Class Actions, 1st Generation, Vancouver, British Columbia, March 3-5, 2024.
  • Moderator and Speaker : How Judges Are Appointed Around the World
    International Association of Defence Counsel Mid-Year Meeting, Miami, Florida, February 21, 2024.
  • Speaker : The Best Way to Win Certification? Never Get There!
    Blakes Business Class Webinar, Best-in-Class: Canadian Class Actions 2022, December 14, 2022.
  • Speaker : Managing Adverse Foreign Judgments in Local Litigation
    International Association of Defense Counsel Mid-Year Meeting, Phoenix, Arizona, February 20, 2022.
Media Activities
  • Quoted : B.C. Court of Appeal denies securities class action due to residency requirement
    Article by Karunjit Singh, Law 360 Canada, May 1, 2024.
Education

Admitted to the British Columbia Bar – 1988
Harvard Law School PIL Mediation Training – 1999
Harvard Law School PIL Negotiation Training – 1997
LLB, University of Saskatchewan – 1987
BA, University of Saskatchewan – 1984

More insights

Save Profile

Select sections to customize your PDF

Cancel