Sandra Forbes is a partner in the Litigation and Competition & Foreign Investment Review practices. She specializes in corporate/commercial, 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, linerboard and vitamins industries.

Sandra was law clerk to the Honourable Peter Cory of the Supreme Court of Canada from 1990 to 1991.

Representative Work

• Acted as litigation counsel to the developer of Confederation Bridge in various matters confronting this public-private partnership, including an environmental challenge and construction-related disputes.
• One of the defence counsel in the Ontario Securities Commission's proceeding against RT Capital Management Inc. in relation to "high closing" trading activity.
• Counsel for Agricore United in the proceedings brought by the Commissioner of Competition before the Competition Tribunal.
• Acted for a target in the criminal investigation brought by the Commissioner of Competition into an alleged conspiracy in the Canadian carbonless papers industry.
• Counsel in the dispute between the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and the UK Beaverbrook Foundation concerning ownership of various works of art.
• Counsel for a defendant in a national class action alleging an international conspiracy in the air cargo industry.

Recognition

• Included in the Lexpert®/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada.
• Recognized in The Best Lawyers in Canada in the areas of Class Action Litigation, Competition/Antitrust Law and Corporate and Commercial Litigation.
• Recognized by LEXPERT® Magazine as one of Canada's top 40 lawyers under 40 in its feature article "The Top 40 Under 40".
• Named by Lexpert® as one of "25 Litigators to Watch".
• Recognized in the PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook.
• A recommended practitioner in corporate commercial litigation, competition litigation and class actions in both the Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory and The Best Lawyers in Canada.
• Recognized by Chambers Global's The World's Leading Lawyers for Business as an "intense, hard-working litigation lawyer" in the competition/antitrust category and by Leaders in their Field in Competition/Antitrust.

Articles and Publications

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.

Teaching Engagements

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

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.
• "Dealing with Difficult Judges and Opposing Counsel", The Advocates' Society Fall Forum, 2008.

Top of Page