Office buildings in Toronto’s Financial District are photographed on along Adelaide St. West on Sept 28, 2023.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Addario
Criminal Law | White-Collar Crime
Toronto | 10 lawyers
Defence counsel Frank Addario’s eponymous firm practices criminal, regulatory and constitutional law, representing clients during investigations, at trial and on appeal. The team has acted in dozens of high-profile cases. Most recently, partners Samara Secter and associate Rebecca Amoah argued a successful case at Ontario’s Court of Appeal on how the tort of abuse of process interacts with criminal law in a case arising from turf wars in the cash-for-gold business between “Harold the Jewellery Buyer” and their client Jack Berkovits’ Omni Jewelcrafters.
Bennett Jones
Energy & Natural Resources (Mining, Oil & Gas)
Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, New York | 500+ lawyers
Bennett Jones—founded in 1922 by future prime minister R.B. Bennett—has been involved in almost every major energy development project in Canada in the past 20 years, from oil and gas to renewables, advising in areas including litigation, financing, real estate, labour, regulatory and Indigenous law issues. In September, Bennett Jones acted as legal adviser to First Majestic Silver Corp. on its $1.3-billion acquisition of Gatos Silver mines in Mexico.
Blakes
Banking & Finance | Competition | Antitrust & Foreign Investments | Corporate & Commercial
Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, New York, London | 721 lawyers
Blakes is one of Canada’s oldest firms—founded in 1856—and consistently ranks No. 1 in the broad area of corporate and commercial law. On the banking side, a team from Blakes led by partner Cheryl Satin advised RBC on its $13.5-billion purchase of HSBC Bank Canada, the largest bank acquisition in the country’s history, which closed in the spring. Its competition, antitrust and foreign investment team also has a track record in high-value, multijurisdictional merger-clearance filings, and advises on foreign direct investment filings, antitrust inquiries related to price-fixing cartels, and abuse-of-dominance cases.
Borden Ladner Gervais
Construction | Cyber Security & Data Protection | Transportation
Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal | 792 lawyers
BLG—created in 2000 through the merger of five storied firms—is one of the country’s largest full-service business firms. Its 73-lawyer construction law group handles all aspects of the industry, including infrastructure, P3s and large commercial projects, as well as related disputes. BLG’s 45-strong cyber, privacy and data protection group has extensive experience in cyber-risk and crisis management. With a multidisciplinary team of 63 lawyers, BLG says it’s the only firm in Canada with a fully integrated national transportation practice, recognized for its work in disputes, regulatory, environmental and transactional aspects of all modes of transportation.
A newbie’s guide to corporate law
Cassels
Cannabis
Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto | 345 lawyers
Cassels’s 33-strong cannabis team offers a broad range of commercial advice, from IP to securities law, regulatory issues, financing, restructuring and insolvency, branding and celebrity endorsements. Jonathan Sherman chairs the group, whose clients include Canopy Growth, TerrAscend and Avant Brands.
Clyde & Co.
Insurance
Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal | 122 lawyers
Clyde & Co.’s Canadian wing is part of a global firm with 60 offices on six continents, and is a key part of its international insurance and construction practices. Clyde & Co. launched in Canada in 2011 through a merger with Nicholl Paskell-Mede. Since then, it has become a leader in coverage, litigation, corporate and regulatory matters for domestic and international insurers, as well as earning a reputation for professional defence. Montreal litigator Carolena Gordon serves as the firm’s senior partner.
Dentons
Media, Entertainment & Sport
Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal | 600+ lawyers
Dentons says it has the largest media and entertainment law practice in Canada. Its 20-lawyer team is integrated across the firm, with sports and entertainment-focused experience in areas such as tax, cross-border transactions, IP and regulatory issues. Its sports group, helmed by partner Jim Rossiter, has led more than 20 acquisitions and financings of NHL teams and arenas in the U.S. and Canada. “The deals we love are the ones no one has worked through before,” the firm claims in its promotions for the group.
Epstein Cole
Family Law
Toronto | 25 lawyers
Epstein Cole, founded in 1978, is the largest family-law firm in Canada, with an international reputation for handling sophisticated and difficult matters ranging from complex trust, property and support issues to international child mobility and abduction cases. The firm’s lawyers have argued cases up to the Supreme Court of Canada, including, most recently, one about the best interests of the child and, notably, on the case that led to legalized same-sex marriage.
Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
Administrative & Public Law
Vancouver, Surrey, Calgary, Tsuut’ina, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, London, Johannesburg | 950+ lawyers
Canada’s biggest law firm, Fasken also has one of the country’s largest teams devoted to political law. Led by Guy Giorno, former chief of staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, it assists with lobbyist registration, lobbying compliance and responding to enforcement proceedings, conducting due diligence audits, developing corporate policies and assessing public-sector conflicts of interest on clients’ behalf. Throughout its various practice groups, Fasken partners and associates focus on administrative and regulatory law, along with tribunal work, in areas such as labour and employment, media and telecom, real estate, municipal, environmental and trade law.
Gowling WLG
Environment
Vancouver, Calgary, Waterloo, Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal | 788 lawyers
Gowling WLG’s Canadian environmental law and climate change group is known domestically and internationally for its work on climate issues, environmental negotiations and litigation, due diligence and risk assessments, regulatory compliance, waste management, and transportation of dangerous goods. Its climate and environmental group, which includes 30-plus lawyers (many of whom practise in Canada’s North) also counts a variety of Indigenous organizations among its clients.
Hicks Morley
Labour and Employment
Toronto, Waterloo, London, Kingston, Ottawa | 120+ lawyers
Hicks Morley is a labour and employment boutique firm that represents more than 1,000 employers in the public and private sectors across 19 industries. Its professionals provide legal advice in the HR area, courtroom and tribunal advocacy, negotiation, alternative dispute resolution, policy development and strategic planning. Managing partner Craig Rix is one of the top collective bargaining negotiators in Canada.
Lenczner Slaght
Dispute Resolution (Litigation, Arbitration & Investigations)
Toronto | 86 lawyers
Lenczner Slaght is a go-to firm for complex and bet-the-company litigation, with leading practitioners like Tom Curry, Peter Griffin and former Supreme Court justice Ian Binnie on the roster. Its lawyers litigate at every level of court in a wide range of areas. Its clients include governments, financial institutions, public authorities, corporations, boards and commissions. Last spring, managing partner Monique Jilesen represented the University of Toronto in its efforts to remove the pro-Palestinian encampment from its campus.
McCarthy Tétrault
Infrastructure Projects | International Trade | Real Estate | Technology
Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, New York, London | 792 lawyers
Recognized for its leading infrastructure, international trade, real estate and tech practices, McCarthy has been at the heart of some of Canada’s most significant deals and projects since it became Canada’s first national law firm in 1990. The firm offers expertise in project finance, procurement, zoning and planning, construction, and other critical areas of real estate and infrastructure law. Its international trade and investment group advises on a host of treaties, laws and regulations to help clients navigate complex trade and investment rules. The firm’s tech practice serves a wide range of leading-edge clients across sectors such as software, hardware, e-commerce, fintech, aeronautics, biotech, life sciences, IT services, data management and security.
Olthuis Kleer Townshend
Aboriginal & Indigenous Law
Toronto, Yellowknife | 51 lawyers
OKT has some of the deepest expertise in Aboriginal law in the country, including treaty rights, land claims, legislation, self-governance, human rights, business law and economic development, as well as litigation. OKT lawyers represented the Chiefs of Ontario in a historic $47.8-billion agreement last July between the chiefs, Assembly of First Nations, Nishnawbe Aski Nation and Indigenous Services Canada on long-term reform of the First Nations Child and Family Services Program. The firm prioritizes training Indigenous lawyers and hiring Indigenous people throughout the practice. Justice Harry Laforme, the first Indigenous Ontario Court of Appeal judge, is senior counsel.
Osler
Restructuring & Insolvency | Tax
Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, New York | 583 lawyers
Osler’s restructuring and insolvency team advises all players in complex business-critical matters, from purchasers of distressed assets and loans to bondholders, directors, senior executives, in-house lawyers and investors. Its top-ranked team also has extensive relationships with advisers in the U.S. to offer cross-border solutions. The firm, which has roots dating back to pre-Confederation days, has nearly 60 tax professionals offering integrated inbound and outbound cross-border tax advice to Canadian companies and clients with global operations.
Roper Greyell
Human Rights
Vancouver | 60 lawyers
Roper Greyell was started in 2006 and is now one of the largest labour and employment law firms in Western Canada. Its diverse stable of human rights lawyers offer strategic advice on all aspects of human rights legislation, Charter and employment discrimination claims, investigations of workplace bullying and harassment, as well as employee conduct. They also represent clients before federal and provincial human rights tribunals and commissions.
Rosen Sunshine
Health Care & Life Sciences
Toronto | 6 lawyers
Founding partners Lonny Rosen and Elyse Sunshine opened their health and regulatory boutique firm in 2011. The duo has practised together since 1999, and their small-but-mighty firm advises clients in the health and regulatory sectors, including professionals, health care providers, associations and regulators. The firm’s lawyers frequently handle cases of alleged misconduct and privacy breaches before tribunals and courts. Sunshine also serves as the independent complaints review officer for the Ontario Retirement Homes Regulatory Authority.
Silcoff Shacter
Immigration
Toronto | 3 lawyers
Silcoff Shacter represents clients in all areas of immigration and refugee matters, including work permits, student visas, sponsorships, citizenship and refugee claims. Its lawyers argue cases before the Immigration and Refugee Board (partner Maureen Silcoff is a former adjudicator there) and at all levels of court. Silcoff and partner Ronald Shacter, a respected immigration and refugee lawyer for more than 40 years, started their firm almost 14 years ago.
Smart & Biggar
Intellectual Property
Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal | 195 lawyers and patent & trademark agents
Canada’s largest IP firm has gotten much bigger over the past two years with its recent merger with former rival Bereskin & Parr and 2022 tie-up with Ridout & Maybee. The three venerable Canadian IP firms are now part of Australian publicly traded patent and trademark group IPH Ltd., which recently appointed Stuart Wood as its new Canadian regional CEO. The firm says it has filed more patent and trademark applications than any Canadian firm, with 10,000-plus applications each year.
Stikeman Elliott
Capital Markets | Mergers & Acquisitions | Private Equity & Investments
Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, New York, London, Sydney | 546 lawyers
Stikeman is frequently involved in some of Canada’s largest debt and equity offerings, with securities expertise in private placements for early-stage issuers through to complex multijurisdictional public equity and debt offerings. Its active M&A team, meanwhile, advises on many of the country’s largest transactions, both contested and friendly. Its go-to private equity team assists clients on the entire life cycle of private equity, from fund formation and structuring to negotiating acquisitions, co-investment arrangements and advising on exit strategies.
This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Blakes partner Cheryl Satin’s name.