Lenczner Slaght

Firm Details: 

Managing Partner: Monique Jilesen

Number of Partners: 30 (plus 11 counsel) Number of lawyers: 94

Languages: Albanian, English, Estonian, Farsi, French, German, Hebrew, Spanish, Ukranian

Firm Overview: 

Widely recognised as Canada’s leading litigation practice, Lenczner Slaght has successfully represented clients’ interests in some of the most complex, high-profile cases in Canadian legal history. Lenczner Slaght regularly provides advice and guidance to all levels of government, financial institutions, educational institutions, public authorities, corporations, boards, and commissions. The firm’s lawyers are distinguished by their depth of both courtroom and boardroom experience. Lenczner Slaght assists clients in navigating delicate and complex situations in order to make the right decisions. The firm also appears before all levels of the courts, arbitration panels, administrative bodies and regulatory tribunals. Every member of the firm is committed to ensuring that the highest quality of advocacy is delivered to its diverse group of private and public clients. In short, they are expert litigators.

Main Areas of Practice: 

Appeals: 

Practice includes a broad range of disputes in every aspect of commercial and professional activity. Well known and respected in the appellate courts and are frequently retained as counsel to provide opinions on and argue appeals.

Arbitration: 

Acts in both domestic and international arbitrations across a wide range of business sectors, including infrastructure, mining, oil and gas, technology and financial services.

Class Actions: 

Experience includes Canadian, cross-border and multi-jurisdictional cases involving shareholder and securities claims, negligence, product liability, medical malpractice, insurance, pensions and environmental liability.

Commercial Litigation: 

Wealth of experience in pursuing complex, high-profile and often highly confidential cases across the spectrum of business-related legal disputes, including corporate and securities matters, contract disputes, regulatory proceedings, competition matters, defamation, oppression, franchising matters and real property litigation.

Competition & Antitrust: 

Experience includes cases and class actions involving alleged breaches of the Competition Act, including misleading advertising, price fixing and conspiracy and all types of regulatory and criminal investigations.

Construction & Infrastructure: 

Acts for owners and developers, contractors and subcontractors, lenders and underwriters, and architecture and engineering firms in the full spectrum of construction matters, including insurance and liability claims, progress payments and holdbacks, liens, and claims relating to defects, omissions and other issues.

Defamation & Media: 

Acts as litigation or advisory counsel in libel issues arising across print, broadcast and digital media channels, representing both plaintiffs and defendants through libel trials, on appeal and before the Supreme Court of Canada.

Employment: 

Focuses on complex disputes, including terminations of executives, employee fraud, disputes involving departing employees who take confidential information to a competitor, employment law class actions, as well as employment strategy, policies and practices, restrictive covenants, and wrongful dismissal.

Injunctions: 

Represents individuals and organizations in high-profile, multi-jurisdictional matters, including all types of injunctive relief, including prohibitive, mandatory, and temporary Injunctions, as well as Mareva, Anton Piller, and Norwich Orders.

Insolvency & Restructuring: 

Acts not only for creditors and debtors, but also for court-appointed officers, offering clients substantial experience in commercial reorganizations and restructurings, personal property security matters, creditors' rights, receiverships, bankruptcies, and enforcement in secured transactions.

Insurance: 

Advises clients on the full spectrum of policy, coverage, and defence matters, with a proven record in litigating cases among and against insurers involving issues including trigger of coverage, allocation of defence and indemnity, covered/excluded claims, obligations among primary and excess insurers, reinsurance, drop-down matters and run-off coverage.

Intellectual Property: 

Represents national and multinational clients in all types of high-profile and technically sophisticated patent, trademark, and copyright matters in proceedings before the Federal Court, the Federal Court of Appeal, the Ontario Superior Court, the Ontario Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada.

Investigations: 

Acts as counsel to both private and public entities in a full range of services, from discrete independent investigations to hands-on crisis management and advice, and guiding enterprises through public, governmental, and regulatory scrutiny.

Product Liability: 

Represents manufacturers faced with claims involving alleged design and manufacturing defects, incorrect or incomplete labelling or instructions, breaches of the duty to warn and other liability issues. Also provides advice on risk management and insurance-related matters.

Professional Liability & Regulation: 

Provides representation or prosecution of various regulated professionals in diverse fields across a broad landscape of regulatory, civil and quasi-criminal matters. They defend professionals before investigative and disciplinary tribunals, as well as boards and committees of professional organisations, self-governing bodies and in civil proceedings.

Public Law: 

Acts as counsel for all levels of government and the public-sector bureaucracy relating to constitutional, human rights, judicial review, municipal, procurement and professional regulation matters. They advise clients facing public inquiries, legislative and parliamentary committees, and investigations by ethics and integrity commissioners.

Securities Litigation: 

Extensive experience in professional negligence claims, defending class proceedings alleging breach of public disclosure requirements, representing clients before securities commissions, and directing internal investigations.

Trusts & Estates Litigation: 

In complex, high-profile, and often volatile disputes where preservation of assets is a priority, the firm’s ability to quickly zero in on the heart of the issue, find the remedy, and advocate for its clients' best interests are unparalleled.