Kent Thomson is a Fellow of The American College of Trial Lawyers and is the Head of the firm's Litigation Department in Toronto. He practises complex and "high stakes" litigation involving a wide range of areas including commercial disputes, securities cases, environmental matters, competition law, constitutional challenges, product liability and class actions. He has appeared on many occasions at all levels of court in Ontario, including the Superior Court of Justice, the Ontario Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. He has appeared on many occasions before Tribunals such as the Ontario Securities Commission, as well as in the Federal Court of Canada and before the courts of other Provinces, such as British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Saskatchewan. Kent has acted as counsel in a number of leading cases, including cases decided by provincial Courts of Appeal, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada in the fields of libel law, tax law, environmental law, constitutional law, arbitrations, oppression, athletic injuries, competition law, class actions and commercial disputes.
Most recently, Kent acted as one of the lead counsel for BCE Inc. in defending successfully extensive litigation before the Quebec Superior Court, Quebec Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Canada concerning the $52 billion takeover and privatization of BCE by a consortium of private equity buyers. This case concerns 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.
Kent has also represented numerous parties in complex domestic and international arbitrations conducted pursuant to the applicable Rules of the American Arbitration Association, the I.C.C., C.P.R., the London Court of International Arbitration and UNCITRAL in a number of provinces in Canada, as well as throughout the United States and in Europe.
Kent is recognized as one of Canada's leading counsel in the areas of corporate and commercial, tax, defamation, securities, class action and competition litigation by a number of different directories, including The International Who's Who of Commercial Litigators, Chambers Global's The World's Leading Lawyers in both the competition/anti-trust and dispute resolution categories, in the competition/anti-trust area of PLC Which lawyer? 2007, Expert Guide's List of the World's Leading Competition & Antitrust Lawyers, The Best Lawyers in Canada (in the specialties of Bet-the-Company Litigation, Class Action Litigation, Competition (Antitrust Law, Corporate and Commercial Litigation and Securities Law), Empire Who's Who, The International Who's Who of Competition Lawyers, Who's Who of Competition Lawyers and Economists and Global Counsel 3000. He has been named as a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and of the Litigation Counsel of America. Chambers Global's The World's Leading Lawyers for Business 2007 cited one client as commenting that Kent is "a brilliant pleader – he is extremely smart, creative and aggressive, works really hard, thinks strategically, is very thorough and understands that in litigation it is critical to keep control of the facts and the process". He has been named by LEXPERT as one of Canada's top 50 counsel in the areas of international corporate commercial, class action and securities litigation and one of Canada's top 10 counsel in the area of international competition litigation. Kent has been featured repeatedly in the LEXPERT/American Lawyer Media Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada and in the Canadian Legal LEXPERT Directory. He has received Martindale-Hubbell's highest rating, which recognizes pre-eminent legal ability, expertise, experience, integrity and overall professional excellence.
Kent is a frequent participant as a teacher in trial advocacy programs in Canada and in the United States. He has lectured on competition and litigation issues at Queen's and York Universities as well as at the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario and has delivered a wide variety of papers on litigation related issues. He is a member of the Dean's Council, an Advisory Board to the Faculty of Law at Queen's University.
Kent obtained a B.A. from Queen's University in 1979 (with Distinction) and an LL.B. from Queen's University in 1982.
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