In-House Counsel

  • September 04, 2026

    Ontario court upholds law shielding public officials from legal action

    Ontario’s top court has upheld a law that extinguished a developer’s potential claims against the province over its Greenbelt land designation, ruling that the constitutional protection of the superior courts’ core jurisdiction does not create an individual right to sue the government.

  • September 04, 2026

    Is an EAP enough to meet duty to protect employee psychological health?

    Workplace mental-health conversations have acquired a favourite word. Employees are urged to become more resilient — to practise mindfulness, access counselling and build the capacity to absorb stress. There is nothing inherently wrong with that advice. The legal problem begins when resilience is offered as the answer to a workplace problem the employer itself has a duty to control.

  • September 04, 2026

    When your business partner freezes you out: What shareholders in Ontario can do

    Business relationships do not always break down cleanly. In closely held companies, disputes tend to begin gradually.

  • September 03, 2026

    Ottawa rolls out ‘national framework’ aimed at guiding the building of data centres in Canada

    Ottawa has unveiled what it calls “a nationally recognized baseline” of five principles — backed by major U.S. and Canadian artificial intelligence and other technology industry players — to help municipal governments and communities assess proposals to build AI data centres in their localities.

  • September 03, 2026

    Employers’ association calls for Canada Labour Code changes

    The association Federally Regulated Employers – Transportation and Communications (FETCO) said it is urging the federal government to quickly make amendments to the Canada Labour Code provisions relating to collective bargaining in light of the U.S. trade dispute.

  • September 03, 2026

    Roland Hung named chair of Torkin Manes’ privacy and cybersecurity group

    Torkin Manes has named Roland Hung chair of its Privacy, Data & Cybersecurity Group in Toronto.

  • September 03, 2026

    Closing the loopholes: The HEAR Act of 2025 and the battle for merits-based art restitution

    In the early years of art restitution, after the signing of the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art in 1998, several museums in the United States launched pre-emptive strikes against claimants of looted artworks who expressed an interest in discussing or resolving their claim. Examples include the Toledo Museum of Art v. Ullin, 477 F. Supp. 2d 802 (N.D. Ohio 2006); the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston v. Seger-Thomschitz, 623 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 2010) and The Museum of Modern Art v. Schoeps, 549 F. Supp. 2d 543 (S.D.N.Y. 2008). The first two cases were dismissed in favour of the museums and in the latter case an out-of-court settlement was reached.

  • September 02, 2026

    B.C. Court of Appeal adopts open-access legal citation guide

    The B.C. Court of Appeal has issued a practice directive adopting the Canadian Open Access Legal Citation Guide (COAL), a free, publicly accessible legal citation guide, as its preferred method for civil and criminal filings in an effort to advance access to justice.

  • September 02, 2026

    Ottawa extends temporary excise tax relief on gasoline, diesel & aviation fuels to next year

    To help address Canadians' rising costs from global oil disruptions and U.S. tariffs, the federal government has extended to next year its temporary suspension of the federal fuel excise tax on gasoline, diesel fuel, and aviation fuel, including leaded and unleaded aviation gasoline.

  • September 02, 2026

    SOCAN sues AI music platform Suno over allegedly infringing music outputs

    Canada’s largest member-owned music rights organization, SOCAN, has filed a lawsuit against Suno Inc., alleging that its AI music-generation platform generated and streamed outputs that copy songs in SOCAN’s repertoire, infringing the performing rights in those works.

  • September 02, 2026

    When the estate freeze thaws: Familial breakdown, minority oppression and judicial remedies

    An estate freeze puts tax liabilities on ice, but heated family dynamics can melt away the tax benefits of the freeze.

  • September 02, 2026

    Geo-blocking, copyright and the right to make works available online

    In Anne Franks Fonds v. Anne Frank Stichting Case C-788/24, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the highest court of the EU, considered the right to make a work available on a website and the impact of technical protection measures implemented to restrict access to the work. The decision should be helpful to online content providers.

  • September 02, 2026

    How escalation actually works under Canada’s anti-money-laundering penalty regime

    One provision of Canada’s anti-money-laundering penalty regime is quoted more often than it is read. Section 4(2) of the Administrative Monetary Penalties Regulation provides that a series of minor violations identified on a notice of violation “shall be considered to be a serious violation” where the penalties total $400,000 or more. That sentence has appeared, in substantially that form, in law firm bulletins, compliance explainers and vendor guides published since the regime was overhauled in March 2026.

  • September 01, 2026

    The hard truth about private equity’s entry into the law firm market

    Private equity is beginning to enter the legal industry with transactions such as Uplift’s acquisition of Dudley DeBosier Personal Injury, Trive Capital’s acquiring Massumi + Consoli, and Morgan & Morgan’s hiring of JPMorgan to explore a private equity sale.

  • August 31, 2026

    Can tariffs excuse performance of a commercial contract in Ontario?

    On Aug. 22, the United States imposed 50 per cent tariffs on a broad list of Canadian goods under s. 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which is a provision essentially unused for the better part of a century.

  • August 28, 2026

    Privilege under siege: Why traditional multi-factor authentication is not enough to protect client data

    Law firms have long served as trusted guardians of highly sensitive information, but the digital landscape is rapidly changing how that data is protected — and attacked. According to a recent legal services threat intelligence report, the legal sector in the U.S. experienced a 20 per cent year-over-year increase in cybersecurity incidents over the past 12 months.

  • August 28, 2026

    One win for employers, one for employees, and one for me

    It is not often that the Ontario Court of Appeal hands employers and employees each a win within the same week, but that is what happened this summer. And if you act for either side, or, like me, you spend much of your week mediating these disputes and nudging both parties toward a sensible number, the court just gave you two decisions worth reading.

  • August 27, 2026

    CRT can hear passenger compensation claims against airlines: B.C. Court of Appeal

    Airline passengers can pursue contractual claims for standardized flight-disruption compensation before the Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) and may assign those claims to third parties, the B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled.

  • August 27, 2026

    Counsel should check that trial transcripts filed on appeal aren’t AI-created fakes, lawyer advises

    As AI-generated court filings by self-represented litigants proliferate, appellate counsel should read trial transcripts that are ostensibly “certified” more closely than ever and do so earlier in the appeal process as they might be AI-created fakes, advises a senior family law practitioner.

  • August 27, 2026

    Will our courts move to a more traditional, less activist role?

    It has been a good week for those of us who long for a return to peace, order and good government (an apparent shrinking minority) in accordance with the long traditions of this nation.

  • August 26, 2026

    Purposefully vague ‘morality clauses’ in entertainment law contracts must be more defined

    The death of actress Hayden Panettiere has sent social media into a frenzy, sparking calls to boycott Neutrogena after her claims circulated that she lost her endorsement deal for speaking publicly about postpartum depression. The fallout shows how the fine print governing celebrity and influencer morality clauses has failed to keep pace with modern realities, with real consequences for both talent and brands. Morality clauses should be watched carefully by every entertainment lawyer in a digital age.

  • August 26, 2026

    Collapse of the U.K.’s Woodville a cautionary tale for Canadian law firms

    Woodville Consultants Limited, which called itself a litigation funder and has been widely and wrongfully described as such in the media, has collapsed and is in administration in the United Kingdom. Still, its demise raises serious questions for Canadian law firms who have or are seeking loans.

  • August 25, 2026

    Private school, public law? Addressing that question in M.E. v. Webber Academy Foundation

    The rules created by independent schools in Alberta are not subject to judicial review under the application of Highwood Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses (Judicial Committee) v. Wall, 2018 SCC 26 (Highwood). One of the authors participated as legal counsel in the Highwood hearing at the Supreme Court of Canada.

  • August 25, 2026

    Ontario court raises questions about good faith, non-binding letters of intent

    Businesses often assume that the non-binding provisions of a letter of intent (LOI) leave them free to walk away from a proposed transaction. A recent Ontario decision suggests the position may be less straightforward.

  • August 25, 2026

    Ottawa rolls out counter-tariffs, business loans & employment supports after U.S. trade talks end

    Following the collapse last week of tariff-related talks with the United States, Ottawa unveiled a multipronged package of retaliatory tariffs, loans and employment supports aimed at protecting and supporting Canadian businesses and workers after the Trump administration imposed a 50 per cent U.S. tariff on $27.6 billion of Canadian goods.

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