Canadian Law Awards 2021 Excellence Awardees revealed

Gold Winners will be announced during the virtual event on May 20

Canadian Law Awards 2021 Excellence Awardees revealed

The Excellence Awardees for the Canadian Law Awards in the Case, In-House, Firm and Legal Profession categories have now been announced.

Hundreds of submissions from firms and legal departments across Canada were received during the recent nomination phase.  Excellence Awardees were determined via a rigorous, expert-informed process. The Canadian Law Awards editorial and research teams reviewed all the submissions and consulted third-party information to identify each category’s standouts. These successful submissions will be sent to the extensive independent external judging panel which will score the nominations against the criteria. Through an aggregation of judges’ scoring, a Gold Winner will be chosen from each category, a process which is independently verified through an audit by PwC.

On April 2, the Excellence Awardees for the Female Trailblazer category will be announced.

Following that, on April 16, the Excellence Awardees for all Deal Award categories will be announced.

The Excellence Awardees are listed here and are as follows:

CASE CATEGORIES

Class Action Team of the Year

Auger Garnier Frédérick, BGA Avocats, McCarthy Tétrault LLP - Brousseau v. Abbott Laboratories (Biaxin)

Bennett Jones LLP - Winder v. Marriott International Inc.

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) - Fortin v. Mazda Canada inc.

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG), Eric K. Gillespie, Murray Klippenstein and Kathleen Coulter - Good v. Toronto Police Services Board

Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP, Siskinds LLP - Boston Scientific Pelvic Mesh Class Action

Commercial Litigation Team of the Year

Arvay Finlay LLP, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG), Caza Saikaley S.R.L./LLP, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Gall Legge Grant Zwack LLP, Grant Kovacs Norell, JFK Law Corporation, Lawson Lundell LLP, MacKenzie Fujisawa LLP, McCarthy Tétrault LLP, NG Ariss Fong, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, Ratcliff and Company LLP, White Raven Law Corporation - Attorney General of British Columbia v. Attorney General of Canada (B.C.)

Attorney General of Quebec, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, Torys LLP, Vincent Karim and Ricardo Hrtschan - Hydro-Québec v. Matta

Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP, McCarthy Tétrault LLP, Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, Stikeman Elliott LLP, Woods LLP - 9354-9186 Québec inc. v. Callidus Capital Corp.

Dentons Canada LLP, Fillmore Riley LLP - Canadian National Railway Company v. John Doe

IN-HOUSE CATEGORIES

Banking & Financial Institutions Law Department of the Year

CIBC

Coast Capital Savings

National Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada

TD Bank

Construction, Infrastructure & Transportation Law Department of the Year

Aecon Group Inc.

Canada Lands Company Limited

IBI Group

Infrastructure Ontario (IO)

VIA Rail Canada Inc.

Energy & Resources Law Department of the Year

Ontario Power Generation

Plains Midstream Canada ULC (PMC)

Canadian Law Department of the Year

Alberta Health Services

Ivanhoe Cambridge inc.

Mastercard Foundation

TELUS Communications

Teranet Inc., Legal Services Group

*Gold winners of the three sector-specific law department categories will progress to also become finalists for this category. Gold winners will be announced at the event.

Law Department Leader of the Year

Beneva (La Capitale Insurance and Financial Services and SSQ Insurance) - Pierre Marc Bellavance, LL.M., ASC

Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. ("BRP") - Julie Morel

Detour Gold Corporation - Carl DeLuca

LifeLabs - Erica Zarkovich

Rogers Communications Inc. - Graeme McPhail

Starlight Investments - David Hanick

Law Department Innovation Award

CPP Investments' deal risk rating frameworks and app

IBI Group's process automation tools

Royal Bank of Canada's contest rules compliance and global brand portfolio management

Siemens’ Healthineers in Canada app

Teck Resources Ltd.'s business transformation program - RACE21TM

FIRM CATEGORIES

Atlantic Canada Law Firm of the Year

Stewart McKelvey LLP

Wagners

Ontario Law Firm of the Year

Barriston LLP

Beard Winter LLP

Lerners LLP

Torkin Manes LLP

WeirFoulds LLP

Prairies Law Firm of the Year

McDougall Gauley LLP

McKercher LLP

Pitblado Law

Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP

Quebec Law Firm of the Year

Langlois lawyers, LLP

Lavery, de Billy, L.L.P

Spiegel Sohmer

Western Canada Law Firm of the Year

Clark Wilson LLP

Farris LLP

Lawson Lundell LLP

IP Boutique Law Firm of the Year

Oyen Wiggs Green & Mutala LLP

Robic, LLP

Smart & Biggar

Litigation & Dispute Resolution Boutique Law Firm of the Year

Adair Goldblatt Bieber LLP

Crawley MacKewn Brush LLP

Jensen Shawa Solomon Duguid Hawkes LLP

Lax O'Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb LLP

Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP

Thomson Rogers

Best Use of Technology in a Law Firm

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG)

Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP

Davidson Houle Allen LLP

Gluckstein Lawyers

McCarthy Tétrault LLP

Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP

Litigator of the Year

Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP - Andrew I. Nathanson

Howie, Sacks & Henry LLP - Melissa Miller

Lax O'Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb LLP - Crawford Smith

McCarthy Tétrault LLP - Brandon Kain

Torys LLP - Sylvie Rodrigue

Managing Partner of the Year

Hull & Hull LLP - Suzana Popovic-Montag

Lavery, de Billy, L.L.P - Anik Trudel

Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP - Tom Curry

McCarthy Tétrault LLP - Dave Leonard

Nelligan O'Brien Payne - Mia Hempey

LEGAL PROFESSION CATEGORIES

The Bereskin & Parr Award for Diversity Initiative of the Year

Aird & Berlis LLP - ABDI

Dentons Canada LLP - Standing up against anti-Black racism

Harper Grey LLP - Life in Law

McCarthy Tétrault LLP - McCarthy Tétrault’s Anti-Racism Strategy

Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP - Race equity strategy

Ontario Regional Office of the Department of Justice (Canada) - The Department of Justice Ontario Regional Office's Commitment to Action on Diversity and Inclusion

Pro Bono Initiative of the Year

Dentons Canada LLP - Dentons helps employers put domestic abuse on the agenda

IMK s.e.n.c.r.l./LLP - Contestation of Bill 21

Nelligan O'Brien Payne - Free Employment Helpline

Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP - Norton Rose Fulbright and Zú partner to support growing businesses in Quebec’s entertainment industry