Sandra Forbes is a partner in the litigation group. She practises in the area of 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. She has also 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.
Sandra 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. She also is defence counsel in numerous class actions, including those involving vitamins, polyester staple, linerboard/corrugated paper, hydrogen peroxide, polyester and polyether polyols, airline cargo fees, carbonless sheets, DRAM, SRAM and liquid crystal displays. Further, Sandra has significant experience in securities litigation, including as a result of her involvement as co-counsel for Onex in its hostile take-over bid for Air Canada, her role as counsel in various aspects of the Chapters and Indigo merger proceedings and her role as one of the defence counsel in the Ontario Securities Commission's proceeding against RT Capital Management Inc. in relation to "high closing" trading activity. In addition, Sandra has significant experience in competition litigation. She was counsel for Agricore United in the proceedings brought by the Commissioner of Competition before the Competition Tribunal and acted for a target in the criminal investigation brought by the Commissioner of Competition into an alleged conspiracy in the Canadian carbonless papers industry. Sandra has also acted as counsel in many arbitrations, including the dispute between the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and the UK Beaverbrook Foundation concerning ownership of various works of art.
Sandra is a member of the firm's evaluation committee, a Director of the Advocates' Society and a member of its Executive, past Chair of the Society's Standing Committee on Advocacy and Practice (2003-2005), a regular contributing author to the
Supreme Court Law Review on the law of evidence, Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in Trial Advocacy, a member of the editorial board of the
Ontario Reports, a member of the Selection Committee for the David Mundell Medal for legal writing, Past Chair of the Enforcement Practices and Procedures Committee of the Canadian Bar Association National Competition Law Section (2004-2006) and a frequent speaker at conferences on various matters. Sandra presented a paper and lecture on "Damages in Competition Law" at the 2005 Law Society Special Lectures on the "Modern Law of Damages". She was selected by
LEXPERT Magazine, in its September 2002 issue, as one of Canada's top 40 lawyers under 40 in its feature article "The Top 40 Under 40" and, in 2005, was named by LEXPERT as one of "25 Litigators to Watch". She is recognized in the
PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook, recognized as 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, and has been recognized by Chambers Global's
The World's Leading Lawyers for Business as an "intense, hard-working litigation lawyer" in the competition/antitrust category.
Sandra obtained an LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School and completed her articles as a law clerk to the Honourable Mr. Justice Peter Cory of the Supreme Court of Canada. Sandra became a partner in 1994.