Nick Rodrigo is a partner in the Litigation, Class Actions, Corporate/Commercial and Corporate Finance & Securities practices. He has a well-rounded practice in general corporate and commercial litigation matters, with a strong focus in class action defence work, particularly in the securities and competition law fields. He has also acted in shareholder oppression and broker’s liability cases, obtaining a broad range of trial and appellate experience, including at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Class action defence work comprises the majority of Nick’s practice. He is currently working on several large securities class actions and in defending several competition class actions relating to allegations of international price-fixing conspiracies in a number of different industries.

In May 2006, Nick was second chair of the Davies team that succeeded in obtaining the dismissal of a major pensions class action before the Supreme Court of Canada in the case of Bisaillon v. Concordia University, and in 2009 acted on behalf of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce as an intervenor before the Supreme Court of Canada in the companion cases of Gaétan Plourde v. Compagnie Wal-Mart du Canada Inc. and Johanne Desbiens, et autres v. Compangnie Wal-Mart du Canada Inc. Nick again appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada in late 2009 to represent the respondents in the case of Farès Bou Malhab v. Diffusion Métromédia CMR Inc., a landmark appeal of a decision in which Davies had successfully obtained the dismissal on the merits of a class action based on group defamation.

In 2008, Nick was part of the Davies team involved at every level of Court, including the Supreme Court of Canada, that successfully argued the appeal concerning the $51.7 billion takeover and privatization of BCE Inc. by a consortium of private equity buyers. This celebrated case relates to the largest transaction of its kind in Canadian history and is widely considered to be one of the most important commercial cases ever heard by the Supreme Court of Canada.

In May 2008, Nick was part of a Davies team that succeeded in obtaining the final dismissal of a multi-billion dollar class action suit targeting pharmaceutical manufacturers in the Province of Québec. A 2005 Québec Court of Appeal decision in this case, in which Davies attacked the constitutional validity of Québec’s class action authorization process (and which resulted in the suspension of every class action case in the province for more than a year), is widely recognized as one of the most significant judgments of principle in the field of class actions, and is one of the most commonly cited precedents in this area of the law.

Representative Work

• Acted for Diffusion Métromédia CMR Inc., a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment Inc., in the successful representation before the Québec Court of Appeal, and is now representing Diffusion Métromédia before the Supreme Court of Canada. A dismissal was obtained of a class action filed on behalf of a group of Montréal-based taxi drivers whose mother tongue is Creole or Arabic with respect to comments made by a former radio host while he was an employee of Diffusion Métromédia.
• Acting for the largest independent securities dealer in Canada in its defence of multiple class actions relating to a series of real estate investment projects located in Dallas, Texas.
• Acted for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in an appeal before the Supreme Court of Canada concerning the right of employers to definitively close their establishment for any reason whatsoever. In the cases Plourde v. Wal-Mart Company of Canada Inc. and Johanne Desbiens, et autres v. Wal-Mart Company of Canada Inc., the Supreme Court was called upon to define the scope of the employer's right to cease operations, even where the reason for the business closure was the employer's unwillingness to deal with a union.
• Acted for BCE Inc. and Bell Canada before the Québec Superior Court, the Québec Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada in the landmark case involving the proposed $51.7 billion privatization of BCE and the attempt by certain holders of debentures of Bell Canada (BCE's subsidiary) to prevent court approval of the transaction on the basis that the transaction failed to properly protect their interests. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of Canada reversed the previous decision from the Québec Court of Appeal, rejected the claims made by the debenture holders, and restored the trial judge's approval of the transaction.
• Acted for Pharmascience Inc. at all levels of court in the case of Option Consommateurs v. Novopharm whereby the Québec Court of Appeal upheld the judgment of the Superior Court by unanimously dismissing the appeal by a consumer advocacy group. The group had sought court authorization to proceed with a $3.9 billion class action against manufacturers of generic medications in relation to allegations of improper pricing of medications subsidized under the provincial drug insurance system.
• Defended SONY BMG Music (Canada) Inc. in a class action based on alleged damages caused by music copy protection software contained in CDs.
• Acted for Concordia University in the case of Bisaillon v. Concordia University before the Supreme Court of Canada in which Davies successfully argued that the Superior Court had no jurisdiction to entertain a class action initiated by an employee of Concordia University claiming the payment by Concordia of well over $100 million to the pension fund of its employees.
• Acted for BASF Corporation in its defence of a class action alleging a price-fixing conspiracy and Competition Act violations in respect of the Canadian market for polymethyl methacrylate, a chemical compound used in the manufacture of acrylic glass sold as Plexiglass, Perspex, Acrylite, Acrylpast and Lucite.
• Acted on behalf of Cinar Corporation in significant litigation in Canada and the Caribbean involving the recovery of in excess of $100 million in relation to certain unauthorized transactions effected by past directors and officers of the corporation. This litigation also involved multi-jurisdictional safeguard, enforcement and liquidation proceedings.

Recognition

• Named to the 2010 edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada.

Articles and Publications

Nick has produced a number of conference papers which have been published including:

• Le Recours Collectif – Un Simple Véhicule Procédural?, Canadian Institute: 3ième Conférence sur les Recours Collectifs, February 2006, Montréal
• Making Up Is Hard To Do: Current Problems and Issues In Class Action Settlements, Canadian Institute: 7th Annual National Forum on Litigating Class Actions, September 2006, Toronto
• At Play in the Fields of the Law: Jurisdictional Skirmishes in Pension Class Actions, Canadian Institute: 8th Annual Forum on Pension Law, Litigation & Governance, January 2007, Toronto
• National Classes: Dreaming the Impossible Dream?: Current Problems and Issues in Multi-jurisdictional Class Action Settlements, Canadian Institute: 11th Annual National Forum on Litigating Class Actions, September 2008, Toronto.

Teaching Engagements

In 2005, Nick traveled to Arusha, Tanzania to give a multi-day seminar in trial advocacy techniques for prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ("ICTR") prosecuting crimes against humanity committed in 1994 during the Rwandan genocide.

Speaking Engagements

Nick is a frequent speaker on the subject of class actions, both in Québec and other provinces. His speaking engagements have included 3ième Conférence sur les Recours Collectifs, February 2006, Montréal; 7th Annual National Forum on Litigating Class Actions, September 2006, Toronto; 8th Annual Forum on Pension Law, Litigation & Governance, January 2007, Toronto; DWPV Law@work Webcast: Canadian Class Action Litigation - Part 1 (May 31, 2007); DWPV Law@work Webcast: Canadian Class Action Litigation - Part 2 (June 28, 2007); and 9th Annual National Forum on Litigating Class Actions, September 2008, Toronto.

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