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Sandra A. Forbes

Sandra Forbes is a partner in the Litigation and Competition & Foreign Investment Review practices. She specializes in corporate/commercial, class action, securities, administrative and competition litigation and has appeared before all levels of court in Ontario as well as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal, the New Brunswick Court of Appeal, the British Columbia Supreme Court and the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada.

Sandra has appeared as counsel before the Ontario Securities Commission, the Competition Tribunal, the Ontario Energy Board, the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.  She has acted as counsel for defendants in numerous class actions alleging anti-competitive conduct, including in-the-air cargo, hydrogen peroxide, LCD panels, linerboard and vitamins industries.

Sandra was Law Clerk to the Honourable Peter Cory of the Supreme Court of Canada from 1990 to 1991 and is Past-President of The Advocates' Society.

Representative Work

  • Acted for Tenneco Inc., Tenneco Packaging Co. and Packaging Corporation of America in their defence of a class action alleging a price fixing conspiracy and Competition Act violations in respect of linerboard.

  • Acted for E.I. Dupont De Nemours and DAK Americas in their defence of multiple class actions across Canada alleging price fixing in the polyester staple industry.

  • Acted for the Beaverbrook (U.K.) Foundation which faced an arbitration against the Beaverbrook Art Gallery concerning the ownership of numerous valuable works of art acquired by the Beaverbrook (U.K.) Foundation between 1954 and 1965 and currently housed at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.

  • Acted for Agricore United in a proceeding brought by the Commissioner of Competition before the Competition Tribunal arising out of the acquisition by United Grain Growers of Agricore Cooperative.

  • Acted for Unisource Canada, Inc. in its defence of multiple class actions across Canada alleging a price-fixing conspiracy in respect of carbonless paper.

  • Acted for LG Electronics in its defence of multiple class actions commenced across Canada alleging price fixing in respect of the sales of Optimal Disk Drive products, including with respect to cross-border issues arising out of parallel U.S. class actions.

  • Acting for Sanofi Pasteur Canada in proceedings before the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board and the Federal Court concerning allegations of excessive pricing with respect to the vaccines Quadracel and Pentacel.

  • Acting for Chi Mei Optoelectronics in its defence of multiple class actions commenced across Canada alleging price fixing in respect of the sales of LCD panels, including with respect to cross-border issues arising out of parallel U.S. class actions.

  • Acted for Kemira Chemicals Canada Inc. in its defence of multiple class actions across Canada alleging a price fixing conspiracy in respect of hydrogen peroxide.

  • Acted for Sony BMG in connection with investigations by a number of prosecuting authorities in the United States, and parallel class actions in the U.S. and Canada relating to allegations that Sony had included illegal "spyware" in electronic products it had manufactured and sold.

  • Acting for Japan Airlines in respect of proceedings in Canada to implement and enforce insolvency proceedings conducted in Japan.

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Recognition

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  • Admitted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. This is an "invitation only" organization comprised of elite litigation counsel in Canada and the United States who are regarded by their peers as having achieved the highest standards of professional excellence and ethical conduct.
  • Named a Litigation Star in the areas of Commercial Litigation and Competition by Benchmark Canada: The Definitive Guide to Canada's Leading Litigation Firms & Attorneys.
  • Recognized as a leading business law practitioner in the area of Competition by Who's Who Legal: Canada.
  • Listed in the Lexpert® Guide to the Leading U.S./Canada Cross-border Litigation Lawyers in Canada, and in The Lexpert®/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada.
  • Recognized in the areas of Class Action Litigation, Competition/Antitrust Law and Corporate and Commercial Litigation by The Best Lawyers in Canada.
  • Recommended by PLC Which lawyer? in the area of Competition/Antitrust Law.
  • Honoured as one of the Lexpert® Rising Stars: Leading Lawyers Under 40.
  • Named by Lexpert® as one of "25 Litigators to Watch".
  • Recommended practitioner in Competition Law, Corporate Commercial Litigation, Competition Litigation, Securities Litigation, Public Law Litigation and Class Actions in The Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory. 
  • Recognized by Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business as an "intense, hard-working litigation lawyer" in the Competition/Antitrust: Litigators category.

Professional Affiliations

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Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers

Selection Committee for The Catzman Award for Professionalism and Civilty, awarded by The Advocates' Society (2009)

Selection Committee for the David Mundell Medal for Legal Writing (2005-2007)

Past Chair of the Enforcement Practices and Procedures Committee of the Canadian Bar Association National Competition Law Section (2004-2006)

Board Memberships

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  • Editorial Board of the Ontario Reports
  • Director of The Advocates' Society from 2000 to 2010 and President for the 2009-2010 term
  • Osgoode Hall Law School Alumni Board of Directors

Community Involvement

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  • The Advocates' Society (various projects to protect and improve access to justice)
  • smART Women, Art Gallery of Ontario(2007-2010)

Teaching Engagements

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Sandra is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in Advanced Advocacy and is a frequent participant in National Judicial Institute education programs for judges. Sandra is also an instructor for Advocates' Society Workshops on a variety of advocacy issues.

Speaking Engagements

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Sandra has given numerous papers and presented extensively at North American and international conferences. A selection of her papers and presentations includes:

  • "The Vitamins Class Action: Litigating in an International Forum", International Bar Association Anti-Trust Section Meeting, Italy, 2005.
  • "International Cartel Enforcement", Canadian Bar Association and International Bar Association Spring Competition Law Conference – "North America and the Globalisation of Antitrust", 2007.
  • Moderator, "Trial Judges – Do's and Don'ts", The Advocates' Society and American College of Trial Lawyers Spring Symposium, 2007.
  • "Being Sued in Multiple Jurisdictions", The Conference Board of Canada's Class Action Forum, 2007.
  • "Multijurisdictional Conspiracy Investigations and Parallel Class Actions", Canadian Bar Association National Competition Law Section Conference, 2007.
  • The New Administrative Law – "Standards of Review: Are we There Yet?" Law Society of Upper Canada, 2007.
  • "The Year in Review: The Most Important Evidence Law Cases of the Past Twelve Months", Osgoode Professional Development's 5th Annual Conference on Evidence Law for the Civil Litigator, 2008.
  • "Navigating the Minefield of Class Actions, Securities Litigation and Settlement", The Canadian Institute 20th Annual Securities Superconference, 2010.

Articles and Publications

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Sandra was a regular contributing author to the Supreme Court Law Review on the law of evidence from 1999 to 2007.  She was co-editor of "Peter Cory at the Supreme Court of Canada 1989-1999" for the Supreme Court of Canada Historical Society Series, 2001.  Sandra was co-author of "Canada: Recent Developments In Private Antitrust Litigation", for the Private Antitrust Litigation News in 2002, and co-author of a chapter on Foreign Class Actions for the American Bar Association Handbook on Class Actions in 2003.  In 2005, Sandra's paper and lecture on "Damages in Competition Law" were published as part of the Law Society Special Lectures.

Sandra Forbes
Sandra Forbes
Partner
Office:
Toronto
Tel:
416.863.5574
Email:
sforbes@dwpv.com
Bar Admissions:

Ontario, 1992

Education:

Osgoode Hall Law School, LL.B., 1990