Lexpert puts the spotlight on Ontario’s leading insolvency and financial restructuring lawyers based on the results of our latest annual peer review. The full list of the province’s most recommended lawyers and law firms in the field can be accessed in our practice area rankings.
Our survey covers the practice of restructuring and insolvency litigation, which includes acting for and advising lenders and other creditors, debtors, trustees, receivers and other participants in corporate insolvencies and debt enforcement, collection and recovery. The practice also involves bankruptcy, receivership or similar court-supervised insolvency proceedings or private enforcement remedies.
Most recommended insolvency and financial restructuring lawyers
Law firm: Torys LLP
Year called to the bar: 1999
David Bish is a partner at Torys LLP. He devotes his practice to all aspects of bankruptcy, insolvency, proposals, windups, liquidations, reorganizations, restructurings, receiverships and security enforcement. Bish is also involved in corporate governance issues in distressed circumstances and boasts extensive experience in cross-border matters. He is regularly engaged in commercial financing, private equity and M&A transactions. Bish is a trusted advisor to a wide range of parties, including leading corporations, financial institutions, distressed investors, and professional services and business advisory firms. He is a member of numerous legal and professional organizations in the field of bankruptcy and insolvency law, including the Insolvency Institute of Canada and International Insolvency Institute’s “Next Gen” Leadership Program (Class I). Bish speaks regularly at conferences on insolvency and restructuring law. He has authored numerous articles and contributed to various publications, including by the Insolvency Institute of Canada and the Canadian Bankruptcy Reports.
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Law firm: Torys LLP
Year called to the bar: 1995
Scott A. Bomhof is a partner at Torys LLP. He specializes in corporate restructuring and insolvency. Bomhof has represented clients in court proceedings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act and the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and plans of arrangement under the Canada Business Corporations Act. He also boasts extensive experience in sales proceedings, debtor-in-possession and interim financing loans, receiverships and out-of-court transactions involving negotiated workouts, recapitalizations, debt exchanges, refinancings, distressed investments and acquisitions. Bomhof has been lead counsel on several complex Canadian and cross-border proceedings. He has published articles on restructuring and insolvency issues in Canadian Bankruptcy Reports, Credit and Banking Litigation Quarterly and Commercial Insolvency Reporter. Bomhof is a member of Insolvency Institute of Canada, OBA’s Insolvency Section, Turnaround Management Association, INSOL International, Canadian Insolvency Foundation and Commercial List Users’ Committee.
Law firm: Stikeman Elliott LLP
Year called to the bar: 1983
David R. Byers is a partner and co-chair of the national litigation and dispute resolution group at Stikeman Elliott LLP. He is highly experienced in complex commercial litigation, appearing before all levels of trial and appellate court in Ontario. Byers is an expert in product liability, securities, insolvency, insurance and domestic and international arbitration. He has appeared as a panelist and speaker on a wide variety of litigation issues. Byers is a past director of The Advocates’ Society and a member of the Insolvency Institute of Canada and Litigation Counsel of America. He has co-authored the Canada chapter in the International Comparative Legal Guide To: Class & Group Actions 2014 and the industry publication Creditors’ Remedies in Ontario.
Law firm: Goodmans LLP
Year called to the bar: 1994
Robert J. Chadwick is a partner at Goodmans LLP. He devotes his practice to banking, corporate and commercial, restructuring, mergers and acquisitions and private equity law, with a focus on insolvency and reorganization. Chadwick is an expert in cross-border and international transactions. He has served as an advisor in major Canadian and cross-border corporate matters and restructurings. Chadwick has participated in significant financings and acquisitions for diverse clients. He has also advised several boards of directors of companies in Canada.
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Law firm: Chaitons LLP
Year called to the bar: 1982
Harvey G. Chaiton is a partner at Chaitons LLP. He practises in the areas of bankruptcy and insolvency, with an emphasis on receiverships and corporate restructurings, including insolvency litigation. Chaiton has appeared before all levels of court in Ontario, the Federal Court of Canada and the Supreme Court of Canada to argue cases on diverse issues in insolvency matters. He has extensive experience advising Canadian and international financial institutions, indenture trustees, private equity firms, asset-based lenders, equipment lessors, unsecured trade creditors, debtors, receivers, monitors, liquidators and trustees in bankruptcy in Canadian and cross-border corporate restructuring, receivership, bankruptcy, liquidation, and enforcement proceedings. Chaiton is a director of the Insolvency Institute of Canada and a member of INSOL International and American Bar Association.
Law firm: Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP
Year called to the bar: 2004
Jane Dietrich is a partner at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP. She focuses on commercial restructuring, insolvency and related litigation. Dietrich has extensive experience representing stakeholders in formal and informal corporate reorganizations, enforcement of security and unsecured creditor remedies. She is a fellow, director and lifetime member of INSOL International and a member of the Insolvency Institute of Canada and International Insolvency Institute. Dietrich was also an adjunct professor of law at the University of Toronto, where she taught bankruptcy law for several years. She has written and presented on a range of insolvency-related topics, including at seminars arranged by the Law Society of Ontario, Ontario Bar Association, Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals and IWIRC.
Law firm: McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Year called to the bar: 1993
James D. Gage is a partner and the chair of the national bankruptcy and restructuring group at McCarthy Tétrault LLP’s Toronto office. He practises in the areas of bankruptcy, insolvency and restructuring. Gage has extensive experience advising creditors and debtors in informal work-out and restructuring matters and formal CCAA and other insolvency proceedings in both Canadian and international contexts. He also represents acquirers of and financiers to distressed businesses. His recent transactions include acting as lead bankruptcy counsel to Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc. and US Steel Canada Inc. in their restructuring proceedings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. He was also lead insolvency counsel to one of the largest creditors in Nortel’s global restructuring proceedings.
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Law firm: Lax O’Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb LLP
Year called to the bar: 1991
Matthew P. Gottlieb is a partner at Lax O'Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb LLP. His business litigation practice includes corporate and commercial disputes, insolvency and restructuring and fraud and securities litigation. Gottlieb has an extensive track record of success in complex, high-stakes disputes. He has significant expertise in trials, applications, tribunals and arbitrations and regularly appears at all levels of court in Ontario and other provinces, the Federal Court of Canada and the Supreme Court of Canada. Gottlieb has acted as counsel in many major proceedings, including those on behalf of Nortel Networks (UK), Sears Canada, Aon, Sleep Country Canada, KingSett Capital, Pfizer Inc. and several court officers. Gottlieb is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and International Academy of Trial Lawyers. He is a frequent instructor at many litigation related seminars held by the Law Society of Ontario, The Advocates’ Society and other legal organizations.
Law firm: Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
Year called to the bar: 1987
Pamela L.J. Huff is a partner and the national practice group leader at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP’s restructuring and insolvency group. She is also a member of the firm’s executive committee. Huff boasts extensive experience in all areas of insolvency practice, including both the litigation and commercial aspects of workouts, reorganizations, receiverships and other enforcement of security. Huff has acted as counsel to debtors, financial institutions, asset-backed lenders, debtor-in-possession lenders, secured and unsecured creditors, receivers, trustees and monitors in complex domestic and cross-border insolvencies. She has also acted for purchasers in significant acquisitions through insolvency proceedings and has expertise with aircraft financings and airline insolvencies. She has appeared in all levels of court across the country, including the Supreme Court of Canada. Huff is the immediate past president and continuing member of the board of directors of the Insolvency Institute of Canada.
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Law firm: Goodmans LLP
Year called to the bar: 2000 (ON); 2000 (New York)
Brendan O'Neill is a partner at Goodmans LLP’s corporate restructuring group and a member of the firm’s executive committee. He handles out-of-court restructurings and workouts, cross-border and transnational insolvencies and restructurings in Canada, US, UK, Europe and Asia. O’Neill also handles CCAA and CBCA restructurings, bankruptcy-based acquisitions, litigation, and near-insolvency investing scenarios. His clients include debtors, secured and unsecured lenders and creditors, official and unofficial creditors’ committees, monitors and other stakeholders. O’Neill is a frequent lecturer on cross-border insolvency and restructuring matters.
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Law firm: Stikeman Elliott LLP
Year called to the bar: 1994
Elizabeth Pillon is a partner at the litigation and dispute resolution group and the head of the restructuring and insolvency group at Stikeman Elliott LLP’s Toronto office. Her practice focuses on commercial litigation, with an emphasis on restructuring and insolvency matters. Pillon’s restructuring and insolvency practice involves Ontario-based restructurings, Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, receivership and bankruptcy proceedings and cross-border insolvency proceedings. She has represented debtors, monitors, receivers, trustees in bankruptcy, secured creditors and purchasers of assets from insolvent estates. Pillon has been appointed by the Court to act as representative and independent counsel in restructuring proceedings. She frequently appears before the Ontario Superior Court and the Ontario Court of Appeal. She has also appeared before the Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Québec Courts in restructuring matters. Pillon is a member of the Insolvency Institute of Canada, Turnaround Management Association, International Women’s Insolvency Restructuring Confederation, The Advocates’ Society and the International Insolvency Institute.
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Law firm: Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
Year called to the bar: 2000
Linc Rogers is partner at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP. He acts as a lead advisor to key stakeholders in some of Canada’s most complex domestic and cross-border restructurings, distressed acquisitions and distressed financings. Rogers has gained insights into cross-border mandates, having relocated to the US from 2004 to 2007 to assist in establishing the firm presence there. Upon his return, he developed a leading restructuring practice with a focus on cross-border matters. In addition to acting for a broad cross-section of domestic clients, Rogers is routinely retained by foreign-based lenders, corporations, and private equity and hedge funds to provide strategic and legal advice for some of their most complicated multijurisdictional mandates. He is also a leading contributor to continuing legal education. Rogers has published extensively in scholarly journals and trade publications for almost two decades. He speaks extensively on a variety of insolvency law topics. Many of his speaking engagements address diversity issues in the legal profession.
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Law firm: Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
Year called to the bar: 1991
Tracy C. Sandler is a partner at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, where she is a member of the executive committee. She has also served as the national chair of the insolvency and restructuring group and member of the operations committee. Sandler practises corporate and commercial law, with an emphasis on corporate recapitalizations, reorganizations, restructurings and related transactions, including acquisitions and divestitures. She has extensive experience in complex cross-border restructurings and insolvencies. Sandler advises major debtor corporations, boards, lending syndicates, bondholders, and private equity sponsors. She also regularly advises court officers. Sandler presents and writes on various commercial and restructuring matters. Sandler is a contributing author to the LexisNexis Practice Advisor Canada Insolvency & Restructuring module.
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Law firm: Thornton Grout Finnigan LLP
Year called to the bar: 1984
Robert I. Thornton is a founding partner at Thornton Grout Finnigan LLP. He has acted in leading roles in the restructurings of JTI-Macdonald Corp., Carillion Group in Canada, Performance Sports Group Ltd., Stelco Inc., Pacific Exploration, GuestLogix Inc., Coopers & Lybrand, Mobilicity, Hollinger, AbitibiBowater, Fraser Papers, Calpine and Air Canada and the reorganization of BCE. Thornton is the president of the Insolvency Institute of Canada and a fellow of both the American College of Bankruptcy and Insolvency Institute of Canada.
Law firm: Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
Year called to the bar: 2001
Marc Wasserman is a partner and the national chair of the insolvency and restructuring group at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. He practises corporate and commercial law, with a focus on corporate restructuring, financial services and private equity. Wasserman has been involved in many complex corporate recapitalizations, reorganizations, restructurings and related acquisitions, divestures, financings and governance matters. He is an expert in national, cross-border and international matters, acting for major debtor corporations, bondholders, equity sponsors, senior lenders, monitors and acquirers. Wasserman also regularly provides strategic advice and risk analysis on structuring of corporate and lending transactions.
Law firm: Bennett Jones LLP
Year called to the bar: 2009
Sean Zweig is a partner at Bennett Jones LLP’s bankruptcy and restructuring group in Toronto. He boasts significant experience representing all types of stakeholders in Canadian and cross-border restructurings. Zweig acts for insolvent corporations, creditors, bondholders, boards of directors and court officers in a variety of domestic and cross-border matters under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, the Canada Business Corporations Act and the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.
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