Brendan has also been ranked by Chambers Global in dispute resolution, and recognized by Precedent magazine with its Precedent-Setter award for excellence in the first 10 years of law practice. His broad advocacy practice is focused on commercial litigation, and administrative and regulatory proceedings.
Brendan argues cases before all Ontario and Federal courts, as well as administrative tribunals.
Brendan is particularly experienced in professional and securities regulation, class actions, intellectual property litigation, judicial reviews and appeals, contractual disputes and commercial arbitrations. He has frequently been retained to advise and represent government agencies, such as police services, industry regulators, and professional discipline tribunals.
He has regularly acted in public law cases, including Charter of Rights litigation, government liability and aboriginal law, and acts occasionally in selected criminal matters.
He is Adjunct Professor of Law at Osgoode Hall Law School, where he has taught Administrative Law since 2008. Previously, he lectured at Queen’s University Faculty of Law.
Brendan regularly speaks and writes at professional conferences on a variety of subjects.
Prior to joining Stockwoods, Brendan served as a law clerk to Mr. Justice Iacobucci of the Supreme Court of Canada.
He holds a B.A. (Hons.) in Classics, University of Toronto, 1998, and an LL.B. from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.
Brendan is a member of The Advocates’ Society, Toronto Lawyers’ Association, and Ontario Bar Association.
Recent examples of his pro bono work include representing journalist Stevie Cameron in successfully resisting subpoenas to produce documents and/or testimony before the Oliphant Commission into the relationship between Karlheinz Schreiber and Brian Mulroney; representing the Parkdale Residents’ Association in litigation against the City of Toronto arising from the City’s failure to send notices of rent reduction to rooming house tenants in Parkdale; and acting as co-counsel to Attawapiskat First Nation in its challenge to the imposition of third-party management by the Federal Government.
Brendan has been with the firm since 2002.
- Toronto Police Service v. Staff Inspector Steven Izzett
An ongoing, highly publicized prosecution of a senior Toronto police officer alleged to have destroyed evidence and sexually harassed an inferior officer within the Intelligence Unit of which he was the commanding officer. - Ontario Racing Commission v. Ontario Harness Horse Association
Represented the Commission in a major challenge to its jurisdiction to shift purse monies between different Ontario race tracks, which it did in an effort to encourage competition and the economic viability of racing. - Isomers Laboratories Inc. v. MainMast International Inc.
Action on behalf of a well-known cosmetics manufacturer against a potential Chinese distributor who, it is alleged, wrongfully registered the client’s trade-marks in China. This litigation seeks to use the Ontario Courts to compel the distributor to assign the rights to the Chinese trade-marks.
- Ontario Securities Commission v. Sextant Capital Management Inc.
Acted for the OSC, successfully prosecuting the Respondent hedge fund and its principals for an estimated $100M fraud. The fraud involved the investment of the vast majority of the funds invested into an Icelandic company specializing in glacier water, of which the hedge fund manager was an undisclosed principal. - Chippewas of Rama v. Ontario
Acted as co-counsel for the Chippewas of Rama First Nation at trial and on appeal, in their action against the Ontario Government for their claimed 35% share of the net revenues of Casino Rama, located on their reserve lands. - Belle River District Minor Hockey Assn. v. City of Windsor
Acting as co-counsel to the City of Windsor and the neighbouring Town of Tecumseh in a class action seeking to recover tens of millions of dollars in charitable gaming license fees collected since 1969. - Pennyfeather v. Timminco Inc.
Acting for a defendant, Photon Consulting, in this securities class action, which alleges that the defendant Timminco misrepresented information concerning its silicon production methods, leading to a wrongly inflated market price. - Minister of Education (Alberta) v. Access Copyright
Acted as counsel before the Supreme Court of Canada for an intervener group composed of a coalition of professional writers’ organizations, on this important appeal concerning the scope of the “fair dealing” exception to copyright, and whether it permits teachers to copy works at large for their students without compensation to copyright-holders. - Canada Post Corp. v. Spring Global Mail.
Acted for Spring, a consortium of the Dutch, British and Singaporean postal services, which provides international mail delivery services world-wide. Canada Post sued Spring, alleging that these services violated its monopoly rights and were illegal. After a lengthy battle in the courts, Parliament was persuaded to amend the Canada Post Corporation Act to protect Spring’s business in 2010. - Market Regulation Services Inc. v. Northern Securities Inc. et al.
Acted for Market Regulation Services, then the regulator of the TSX and numerous other Exchanges, in this major challenge to its jurisdiction. The challenge alleged that the TSX had failed to properly “spin off” its regulatory functions to RS as part of the demutualization process in the early 2000s, and that therefore no effective regulatory authority existed.
- Co-Author, Making and Writing Effective Tribunal Decisions and Reasons, Fundamentals of Administrative Law and Practice, Canadian Institute, 2004 (delivered and republished in updated form in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009)
- Co-Author, CEO in the Crosshairs: Representing Chief Executive Officers in Regulatory Proceedings (paper), presented to The Advocates’ Society Fall Convention, 2004
- Author, Protecting Commercial Confidentiality With Sealing Orders After Sierra Club, 2003 (IX: 2 Commercial Litigation 463)
- Author, Liability of Certifying Officers Under Sarbanes-Oxley and Bill 198: Preserving Actual Knowledge, 2003 (VII:4 Corporate Liability 443)
- Adjunct Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School (Administrative Law), 2008 to present
- Adjunct Faculty, Queen’s University Faculty of Law (Administrative Law), 2006-2007
- Panelist, Panel Discussion on Expert Witnesses after the Goudge Report, Association of Law Officers of the Crown Conference, 2011
- Panelist, Panel Discussion on Concurrent Civil and Regulatory Proceedings, Canadian Institute Conference on Securities Litigation and Enforcement, 2011
- Speaker, Lecture on Witness Preparation and Cross-Examination Pitfalls, Ontario Securities Commission Enforcement Branch Training, 2011
- Panelist, Panel Discussion on the Crown’s Duty to Consult Aboriginal Communities, Osgoode Professional Development Conference on Crown Liability, 2011
- Speaker, Presentation on Emerging Issues in Police Liability to Employees, Canadian Institute Conference on The Law of Policing, 2010
- Panelist, Panel Presentation “Recent Developments in Administrative Law”, Conference of Ontario Boards and Agencies, 2009
- Panelist, Panel Discussion on Disclosure Issues, Osgoode Professional Development Conference on Prosecuting and Defending Professional Discipline Cases, 2009
- Instructor, Legal Ethics First-Year Bridge programme, University of Toronto Faculty of Law, 2006-2009
- Member, The Advocates’ Society
- Member, Ontario Bar Association
- Member, Toronto Lawyers’ Association
- Ranked in Dispute Resolution – Ontario by Chambers Global (Band 4), 2012
- Precedent-Setter Award, Precedent Magazine, 2011
- Lexpert Rising Stars - Leading Lawyers Under 40, Lexpert Magazine, 2011
