Deborah Templer

Practice Areas

Deborah is recognized as a leading lawyer in Canada in complex product liability cases, with a national practice defending clients in multi-jurisdictional product liability and mass tort actions. Deborah has unique expertise in consumer class actions and government-initiated health-care cost recovery actions involving allegations of a failure to warn of addiction, of health-related risks, and of the risk of environmental contamination. She has led or assisted on the most significant consumer product liability cases in recent Canadian history, including mandates for Philip Morris International, Endo Pharmaceuticals, JUUL Labs, 3M Company, Molson Coors, Behr Process Corporation, and their respective Canadian affiliates. Deborah is regularly retained in bet-the-company litigation, where plaintiffs are seeking hundreds of billions of dollars in losses, including in the long-running Canadian tobacco, opioid, vape and, most recently, PFAS litigation.

Career

Ontario Bar, 2006

Professional Memberships

The Advocates’ Society, Ontario Bar Association, Canadian Bar Association, American Bar Association

Personal

Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of Pro Bono Ontario

Regular instructor on trial advocacy for The Advocates’ Society, Osgoode Hall’s Intensive Trial Advocacy Workshop, Toronto Metropolitan University’s LPP Trial Advocacy program, and is a sessional instructor for the University of Windsor Faculty of Law

Co-Chair of the American Bar Association’s Class and Derivatives Actions Sub-Committee