Rick Dearden, a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, is a senior litigation partner in Gowling WLG’s Ottawa office, practising primarily in the areas of defamation and media law, administrative law, freedom of information and international trade law. He acts as counsel at all levels of courts in Ontario, the Federal Courts, the Supreme Court of Canada, and the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (a former Member of the Tribunal’s Advisory Committee). Rick has acted as counsel in leading defamation trials and appeals and freedom of the press cases under the Canadian Charter of Rightsand Freedoms. He acted as counsel for the Ottawa Citizen before the Supreme Court of Canada in the seminal cases of Cusson v. Quan and Grant v. Torstar which created the new “public interest responsible communication” defence to libel actions in Canada. Rick has been recognized by Chambers Global, TheBest Lawyers in Canada, Legal 500 Canada, the Legal Post’s Top 100 Canada-US Litigators, Who’s Who Legal: Canada and The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers. In 2022, Rick received The Advocates Society’s John P. Nelligan Award for Excellence in Advocacy.
