These are the top technology transactions law firms in Toronto based on the results of our comprehensive annual peer survey. Check out the complete list of Ontario’s most recommended tech lawyers and law firms on our practice area rankings.
In our survey, the practice of technology law involves working with investors, start-up or later stage enterprises, venture capital investors, technology lenders and technology-oriented investment dealers in matters such as private and public financings, stockholder and employment matters, strategic alliances, partnerships and joint ventures, stock exchange listings and mergers and acquisitions. The practice often necessitates working closely over a long period with a technology business at all stages, from initial business and financial start-up plans to an IPO and extends beyond high-end matters, including corporate governance.
Most frequently recommended technology transactions law firms
Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
Year established: 1856
Number of lawyers: 5
Number of ranked lawyers: 2
Partners: David Feldman, Robert Percival
Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP (Blakes) is one of Canada’s largest full-service law firms, providing legal advice to leading domestic and international businesses. It has offices in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary and Montréal, and international headquarters in New York, London and Beijing. The firm handles transactions of all sizes and levels of complexity, whether an issue is local or multi-jurisdictional, or practice-area specific or interdisciplinary. Blakes boasts a national technology practice team with specialized industry knowledge and deep understanding of transactional complexities and provides legal guidance at all stages of technology strategy. The team includes experts across the major industries in Canada, including oil and gas, power, financial services, telecommunications and retail. Many of the group’s lawyers are cross-trained in several legal areas such as corporate, commercial, intellectual property and communications law and are considered to be among Canada’s top thought leaders in their respective fields. They advise companies of all sizes, from domestic and international players in the technology sector to Canadian start-ups pushing new boundaries in emerging technologies.
McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Year established: 1855
Number of lawyers: 40
Number of ranked lawyers: 3
Partners: Benjamin T. Aberant, John W. Boscariol, Shane C. D’Souza, Stephen Furlan, Daniel G.C. Glover, Heidi Gordon, Robert O. Hansen, Martha Harrison, Christine Ing, Matthew S. Kelleher, D.J. Lynde, Alfred Macchione, Ian Mak, Steven Mason, Patrick McCay, Shevaun McGrath, Lisa Melanson, Matthew D. Peters, David Tait, George S. Takach, David E. Woollcombe
McCarthy Tétrault LLP is one of Canada’s largest full-service law firms, offering expert legal services to clients in Canada and around the world. The firm delivers integrated business, litigation, tax, real property and labour and employment offerings through its offices in Toronto, Montréal, Québec City, Calgary, Vancouver, New York in the US and in London, UK. The firm’s technology practice covers a wide range of tech transactions that spans several industries, including software, hardware, e-commerce, fintech, aeronautics, biotechnology, life sciences, IT services, data management and security. The team’s lawyers act for an array of clients, from large and small technology developers, manufacturers and vendors to the major corporations, financial institutions and private-public partnerships that use and distribute technology or purchase enterprise-wide licensing agreements and mission-critical systems.
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Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
Year established: 1862
Number of lawyers: 30+
Number of ranked lawyers: 5
Partners: Chad Bayne, Joanna Fine, Andraya Firth, David Jamieson, Adam Kardash, Simon Hodgett, Celine Legendre, Mark Longo, Ted Liu, André Perey, John Salloum
Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP is one of Canada’s largest full-service firms with offices in Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal, Calgary, Vancouver and New York in the US. It boasts a roster of more than 400 lawyers that provide expert legal services to both domestic and international clients. The firm is recognized for its extensive expertise in business. It specializes in a wide range of industries, including agribusiness, clean tech, energy, fintech, food products, gaming, health, hospitality and leisure, infrastructure, life sciences, mining, real estate investment trusts, retail and venture capital. Osler’s technology practice team serves counsel to many of the leading vendors and largest purchasers and mid-sized and emerging enterprises offering technology-related products and services. The group’s areas of specialization include IT contracting, outsourcing and complex services arrangements, privacy and corporate and commercial matters.
Consistently recommended technology transactions law firms
Bennett Jones LLP
Year established: 1989 (Toronto)
Number of lawyers: 9
Number of ranked lawyers: 4
Partners: Abbas Ali Khan, Paul D. Blundy, Duncan C. Card, Jeilah Y. Chan, Matthew Flynn, Dominique T. Hussey, Jesslyn G. Maurier, BarryJ. Reiter, Gary S.A. Solway
Bennett Jones LLP has a roster of more than 400 lawyers and business advisors in its offices in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. It is among Canada’s largest full-service business law firms. The firm also has international headquarters in New York and Beijing. Bennett Jones specializes in complex cross-border and international transactions and litigation. It advises foreign businesses and investors on Canadian ventures and investments and connects Canadian businesses and investors with opportunities across the globe. The firm’s technology law team provides a focused, industry-sensitive approach to the legal issues governing the development, protection, exploitation, use and enforcement of technology and the special legal issues affecting technology businesses. The group represents public and private sector clients who operate or rely on technology of all types. The team’s lawyers help clients protect and enforce underlying intellectual property rights, including the patents, copyrights, trademarks and confidential information. They also advise on the broad spectrum of issues governing business operations, regulation, financings, transactions and IPOs, and negotiate, draft and review agreements and licenses.
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Deeth Williams Wall LLP
Year established: 1994
Number of lawyers: 10+ (Information Technology)
Number of ranked lawyers: 2
Partners: Richard Austin, Michael Erdle, Thomas E. Feather, Amy-Lynne Williams
Deeth Williams Wall LLP is a Toronto-based law firm dedicated to helping clients develop, protect and commercialize all types of intellectual property and technology. The firm’s partners specialize in all aspects of intellectual property and technology law, with expertise in information technology, privacy and health care. DWW’s clients include Canadian and international leaders in the information technology, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, health care, financial services, oil and gas, franchising, consumer products and food and beverage industries. Its lawyers combine legal expertise with an in-depth knowledge of the client’s business. DWW’s goal is to ensure that the legal rights of its clients are protected, while adding value to their businesses.
Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
Year established: 2000
Number of lawyers: 9
Number of ranked lawyers: 2
Partners: Andrew C. Alleyne, John P. Beardwood, Christopher Ferguson, Daniel Fabiano, Andrew S. Nunes, Gabriel M.A. Stern, Berkley D. Sells
Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP is one of Canada’s largest full-service business law firms, with a manpower pool of more than 700 lawyers worldwide. It has domestic offices in Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal, Québec City, Vancouver, Surrey and Calgary. The firm also has international headquarters in London, Johannesburg and Beijing. Fasken specializes in complex business and litigation matters. It takes pride in having a diverse and inclusive workplace, and its community involvement, pro bono work and membership in respected legal organizations globally.
Fasken’s information technology team advises on a range of tech matters, from large systems implementations and outsourcing arrangements to Internet business models and new technologies. The team’s lawyers work with clients in a variety of transactions, including developing comprehensive RFPs and conducting a successful procurement, developing and implementing cloud and outsourcing strategies, addressing data security, privacy and CASL issues, creating governance, IT security, record retention and other critical policies. For technology providers, the team assists with developing commercialization strategies, implementing e-commerce strategies to comply with regulatory requirements, facilitating the use and exchange of virtual and crypto-currencies, managing IP portfolios, open source and the use of agile development, developing and implementing cybersecurity strategies, developing licensing and XaaS agreements, responding to RFPs and managing the Canadian side of cross-border investments to comply with regulations, expand assets or secure funding.
Gowling WLG
Year established: 1887
Number of lawyers: 20+
Number of ranked lawyers: 2
Partners: Brent J. Arnold, Nurhan Aycan, Peter W. Choe, Tania D’Souza-Culora, Shahrzad Esmaili, Chris J. Eustace, Brian R. Fraser, Kelly Gill, Henry A. Harris, Marek Lorenc, Stephen D. McKersie, R. Ian Mitchell, W. Ian Palm, Stephen A. Pike, David T. Woodfield
Gowling WLG is an international full-service business law firm that boasts a network of more than 1,400 legal professionals in 19 cities worldwide. The firm serves clients in key sectors, including energy, financial services, life sciences, natural resources, infrastructure, real estate and technology. It has logged more than 9,400 pro bono hours and has been repeatedly recognized as a top employer committed to diversity, inclusion and innovation. Gowling WLG’s 300-strong global tech team helps clients capitalize on new opportunities and overcome obstacles in the technology sector, from navigating the latest advances in blockchain to developing new AI or mitigating cyber risks. The group assists some of the biggest tech innovators in developing agile business strategies, enforcing and monetizing intellectual property, and investing, acquiring and divesting of corporate interests. The team also helps clients take full advantage of the emerging technologies that are changing the way the financial, energy, retail, manufacturing, insurance, mining, automotive and health industries operate around the world.
Stikeman Elliott LLP
Year established: 1952
Number of lawyers: 10+
Partners: Samantha Horn, Martin Langlois, Jonah Mann, Wesley R. Ng, D’Arcy Nordick, Simon A. Romano
Stikeman Elliott LLP specializes in business law and represents clients within Canada and across the globe. The firm provides counsel and advise through its offices in Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal, Calgary and Vancouver, and international headquarters in New York, London and Sydney. Its primary practice areas include mergers and acquisitions, securities, litigation and dispute resolution, banking and finance, competition and foreign investment, tax, restructuring, energy, real estate, project development, pensions, and labour and employment.
Stikeman Elliott’s technology group supports some of the largest companies and technology end-users in Canada and around the world, along with the sector’s emerging start-ups, in range of transactions. These include mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, outsourcing, commercial relationships, litigation, intellectual property and technology infrastructure development transactions. The team has negotiated with virtually all major global technology providers, software companies and hardware manufacturers. Its clients include national and multinational companies with technology issues in traditional sectors such as financial services, energy and retail and in emerging industries such as e-commerce and social media.
Torys LLP
Year established: 1941
Number of lawyers: 10+
Number of ranked lawyers: 3
Partners: Adam S. Armstrong, Andrew Bernstein, David A. Chaikof, John Emanoilidis, Edward Fan, Mile T. Kurta, Konata T. Lake, Robbie Leibel, Eileen M. McMahon, Ebad Rahman, Joel Ramsey, Sylvie Rodrigue
Torys LLP is one of Canada’s largest full-service business law firms with offices in Toronto, Montréal, Halifax, Calgary and New York. It advises clients on a wide range of transactions, including banking and debt finance, board advisory and governance, capital markets, competition and foreign investment, consumer protection, corporate restructuring, intellectual property, litigation and dispute resolution, mergers and acquisitions, private equity and tax. Torys’ technology practice team works with start-ups, later-stage and growth companies, public companies, private equity firms, venture capital investors, lenders and technology-oriented investment dealers. It supports tech clients in all aspects of the creation, acquisition, use and commercial exploitation of their diverse work, including mergers and acquisitions, private and public financings, shareholder arrangements, partnerships, joint ventures and strategic alliances, venture capital and private equity fund formation, stock exchange and Nasdaq listings, litigation and dispute resolution, corporate governance, employment and consulting arrangements. The team also assists clients with licensing, distribution, contracting and outsourcing arrangements, intellectual property management, protection and enforcement, privacy matters, marketing and packaging of products, systems infrastructure, Internet and e-commerce matters and tax.
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Wildeboer Dellelce LLP
Year established: 1993
Number of lawyers: 10+
Number of ranked lawyers: 1
Partners: Jonathan Born, Rory Cattanach, Perry N. Dellelce, Nick Gray, Richard Lewin, Charlie Malone, Sanjeev Patel, Katy M. Pitch, Troy Pocaluyko, Michael Rennie, Rob Wortzman
Wildeboer Dellelce LLP is a Toronto-based corporate, securities and business transactional law firm. It consists of almost 60 legal professionals offering private and public clients services in corporate finance and securities, mergers and acquisitions, tax, corporate and commercial matters, structured finance and asset management, corporate governance and investor activism, debt products, commercial real estate, and executive compensation and incentive plans. The firm works across all traditional industries, including financial services, real estate, technology, life sciences and biotechnology, industrial and consumer products and mining and natural resources. It is also recognized for its work in new and emerging markets, including cannabis, fintech and esports. Members of the firm’s tech practice provide advice to both public and private clients in all sectors that develop, distribute, use or acquire technology. The team’s clients include financial service institutions, software developers and vendors, hardware and service providers, internet content companies, Internet service providers, multi-media and animation creators, technology investors, technology funds, telecommunications undertakings, e-commerce companies, new age technology companies and start-ups.