Christopher McKibbin

Career

Chris McKibbin is a leading Canadian insurance lawyer whose practice focuses on fidelity, commercial crime and financial institution bond matters, as well as fraud recovery, complex non-fidelity coverage matters and the defence of insureds under E&O liability policies.

In recognition of his outstanding achievements in these fields, Chris is ranked by Chambers and Partners as one of 25 Canadian lawyers in Insurance: Dispute Resolution for 2025, following his selection in both 2023 and 2024. He was named by Lexpert® as a “Leading Lawyer to Watch” in Commercial Insurance Litigation in Canada in both 2018 and 2019, and has also been named to The World’s Leading Lawyers in Insurance and Reinsurance and Expert Guide: Insurance and Reinsurance.

Long considered the “go to” lawyer for fidelity insurance in Canada, Chris has provided over 20 years of quality service and excellent results for virtually every fidelity insurer. He has been involved in most of the significant fidelity coverage matters in Canada since 2003. He served as counsel for the domestic leads in the financial institution bond coverage litigation arising out of Scott Rothstein’s $1 billion Ponzi scheme. Chris also served as co-counsel for the successful insurers before the Court of Appeal for Ontario in the Iroquois Falls Community Credit Union decision, which is a leading decision in the fidelity area. He was also co-counsel for two successful fidelity insurers in Royal Bank of Canada v. Société Générale, an appeal arising from the $100 million King’s Health Centre fraud.

In his fraud recovery practice, Chris achieves results for clients as efficiently as possible. He secures Mareva and other injunctive relief, as well as Norwich orders to successfully trace stolen funds. In recent years, his fraud recovery practice has expanded to serve corporate clients on direct retainers, in addition to his long-standing insurer clients.

Chris has also developed a growing practice in complex non-fidelity coverage matters, especially in matters involving suspected fraud and/or media sensitivity, as insurers have come to trust him to bring the same detailed, thorough analysis to their other lines of business. He also conducts the defence of insureds under E&O liability policies, and is typically retained in complex multi-party litigation where insurers and their insureds benefit from his strategic approach and strong practical sense.

Chris frequently speaks and writes on fidelity insurance law and fraud recovery. In addition to editing FCL Fidelity Blog, he has also written for the Fidelity Law Journal, The Globe and Mail and numerous other Canadian and American publications. Chris is also a co-author of the third edition of Handling Fidelity Bond Claims, the leading North American reference work in the field, and serves as Co-Chair of the International Section of the ABA Fidelity & Surety Law Committee.

Professional Memberships

Law Society of Ontario

The Advocates’ Society

Metropolitan Toronto Lawyers Association

Canadian Defence Lawyers

American Bar Association – Fidelity & Surety Law Committee (Co-Chair, International Section)

Professional Liability Underwriting Society

Publications

“Tell Them The North Remembers: Canadian Courts Follow American Courts’ Lead in Interpreting Social Engineering Fraud Coverage” ABA Fidelity & Surety Law Committee Newsletter (Winter 2022)

“Securities Claims” in Michael Keeley, Robert M. Flowers, Megan M. Manogue and Robyn L. Sondak, eds., Handling Fidelity Bond Claims, 3d ed. (Chicago: American Bar Association, 2019)

“Kleptocurrency: Crime insurers face new challenges with cryptocurrency,” Claims Canada (May 2019)

“The Fidelity Recovery Playbook: Practical Strategies for Maximizing Recovery” (ABA FSLC 2018 Fall Meeting, Philadelphia)

“Tales From The Crypt: Cryptocurrency Is Here — How Will Crime Insurers Respond?”, XXIV Fid. L.J. 1 (2018)

“Social Engineering Fraud: Is Coverage Available Under Commercial Crime Policies?” Expert Guides: Insurance and Reinsurance (August 2018)

“Combating Insurance Fraud with Data Analytics” Claims Magazine (January 2018)

“Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench finds no Coverage for Social Engineering Fraud Loss under Crime Policy” Covered Events (Defense Research Institute, November 2017)

“Criminal Prosecution of the Alleged Defaulter: How do Parallel Criminal Prosecutions affect the Fidelity Investigation?” (ABA FSLC 2017 Fall Meeting, Boston)

“Online Crime presents New Challenges for Insurers” The Globe and Mail (September 5, 2017)

“Harsh, But Fair: The Termination Provision in Commercial Crime and Financial Institution Coverages” (ABA FSLC 2017 Midwinter Meeting, New Orleans)

“The Point of No Return: Terminating Employees for Dishonesty and Litigating Employee Fraud Claims”, Employment Update (November 2015)

“The Enemy Is Within: What happens when the Defaulter completes the Application for Fidelity Coverage?” ABA Fidelity & Surety Law Committee Newsletter (Fall 2015)

“Raza Kayani: Ontario Court of Appeal addresses Scope of Fictitious Payee Defence under Canada’s Bills of Exchange Act” National Banking Law Review (April 2015)

“Tell Tale Signs: The Red Flags of Employee Fraud” Employment Update (March 2015)

“The View from the North: recent developments in Canadian Fidelity Law”, ABA Fidelity & Surety Law Committee Newsletter (Fall 2012)

Awards