Expertise
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Practice Areas:
Bar Admissions:
Education:
- University of Toronto (2009) JD
- University of Toronto (2009) MA (Economics)
- McGill University (2006) BA (Honours - Economics and Political Science)
- LawVision Group (2017) Legal Project Management
Details
- Bio
- Cases
- Associations
- Blog Posts
- News & Media
- Publications & Presentations
- Recognition
Paul-Erik Veel
"Paul-Erik Veel is a very strong litigator with particular expertise in class actions. He’s a creative thinker and a very good strategist." — Chambers Canada
Paul-Erik’s commercial litigation practice focuses on class actions, competition law, intellectual property matters, complex commercial disputes, and professional liability. His clients include major technology companies, financial institutions, professional services firms, pharmaceutical companies, retailers, and franchisors.
Paul-Erik has extensive trial experience, having acted as counsel in trials involving a number of industries and subject-matters, including a dispute over the implementation of a software package, an intellectual property matter relating to a pharmaceutical product, a misleading advertising case, and several contractual disputes. He has appeared repeatedly before both the Supreme Court of Canada and the Ontario Court of Appeal. Paul-Erik also has extensive experience with regulatory and public law proceedings, having represented clients before various administrative tribunals and in commissions of inquiry.
Paul-Erik has acted as an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He is currently a sessional lecturer in the graduate program in the Department of Economics at the University of Toronto, where he teaches Economic Analysis of Law. He has published articles on a variety of legal topics, including contracts, class actions, competition law, and constitutional law. Prior to joining Lenczner Slaght in 2010, Paul-Erik graduated as the Gold Medalist from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, and then clerked for Madam Justice Louise Charron at the Supreme Court of Canada.
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Cygnus Electronics Corporation v Hitachi AIC Inc
Counsel to a defendant electronics company in a proposed Ontario class action relating to allegations of price-fixing in the market for electrolytic capacitors.
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Counsel to Cineflix and related entities in a proposed class action relating to the alleged misclassification of independent contractors in the television production industry.
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Counsel to BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. in an overtime class action brought by a former investment advisor on behalf of all BMO NBI investment advisors in Ontario.
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Counsel to Atos in a dispute respecting the termination of a subcontract for data conversion and software support. The matter was subject to numerous motions and proceeded to a five week trial before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, where Atos was successful in recovering approximately $5.5 million in damages.
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Subway Franchise Systems of Canada Inc v Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Counsel to Subway in a $210 million defamation action against the CBC and Trent University relating to a Marketplace episode.
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The Manitoba Metis Federation v The Government of Manitoba et al
Counsel to the Manitoba Metis Federation in a dispute with the Government of Manitoba over the cancellation of hydro contracts.
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Counsel to a plastic surgeon in a proposed class action relating to alleged privacy breaches.
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Counsel to Elfriede Stronach in a complex family business dispute. The lawsuit alleges that Belinda Stronach and Alon Ossip conspired to deceive Frank and Elfriede and to take control of the Stronach family empire, and claims damages for oppression, breach of trust, and breach of fiduciary duty.
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Counsel providing ongoing competition law advice to a multinational retailer.
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Canadian Bar Association
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Ontario Bar Association - Chair of the Health Law Executive; Member-at-Large of the Civil Litigation Executive
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The Advocates' Society
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American Bar Association - Litigation and Antitrust Law Sections
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Getting Leave to Appeal to the Supreme Court: Empirical Insights from Tax Cases
As I have posted before, I’m a fan of using empirical data to inform legal practice. Much as the evidence-based medicine movement has taken hold in the field of medicine, the practice of law should, wherever possible, rely on objective data to inform our decision-making. Unfortunately, empirical legal work remains at an early stage. While there are some academics embracing empirical analysis, much of legal academic scholarship does not involve the quantitative analysis of empirical data. In my view, it is important for lawyers to test our intuitions whenever we can by reference to whatever data is available.
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The Supreme Court of Canada’s Holiday Present: Simpler Rules for 2021
The Supreme Court of Canada has announced important changes to the Rules of the Supreme Court of Canada that will take effect on January 27, 2021. The amendments were published in the Canada Gazette here, and the Supreme Court of Canada has also published a plain language guide for these amendments here. While these changes are fairly minor in the grand scheme of Supreme Court practice, they will simplify the process for seeking leave to the Supreme Court of Canada.
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Referring to living “in an era in which data is constantly flowing across borders”, Canada recently introduced Bill C-11. If enacted, it will radically alter the Canadian privacy litigation landscape. Bill C-11 contains the Consumer Privacy Protection Act (“CPPA” or the “Act”), and the Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act (“PIDPTA”), and makes a number of consequential amendments to existing legislation. Bill C-11 would bring Canada closer to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which set the standard for data protection in the developed world.
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Mr. Sub franchisees order a large class action, but the Supreme Court is fresh out of duty of care
The concept of a duty of care is foundational to the common law concept of negligence. Whether a duty of care exists and, if so, the scope of that duty of care are hotly contested issues that have made their way to the Supreme Court of Canada many times over the last few decades. Today, the Supreme Court of Canada released its long-anticipated decision in 1688782 Ontario Inc v Maple Leaf Foods Inc, in which a narrow majority of the Supreme Court found that Maple Leaf Foods owed no duty of care to Mr. Sub franchisees in connection with a listeria outbreak and product recall. While the principles set out in Maple Leaf Foods are not fundamentally new, the majority’s decision provides insight into the application of the duty of care analysis in cases involving pure economic loss.
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Waiver of tort is dead, long live waiver of tort!
Waiver of tort has long been a contentious subject in Canadian law. Many, many courts have permitted waiver of tort claims to proceed in class actions. Yet no court had definitively ruled as to whether waiver of tort in fact existed. It was for this reason that the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Atlantic Lottery Corporation v Babstock has been so highly anticipated. Most expected that the Supreme Court would finally answer whether a waiver of tort existed as an independent cause of action under Canadian law. This in turn would have significant consequences for many types of cases, including many types of class actions.
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Trial Advocacy is (Mostly) the Same Online: Lessons Learned from a Virtual Patent Trial
The COVID-19 pandemic has required courts to adapt to new ways of providing access to justice. We have first-hand experience with this new reality.
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Supreme Court Sides with Drivers in Uber Case; Deals Blow to Arbitration Clauses
The Supreme Court of Canada has released its highly anticipated decision in Uber Technologies Inc v Heller.
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Court of Appeal Affirms Jurisdiction to Hear Appeals in Writing
The old saying that "to a hammer, every problem looks like a nail" is disquietingly relevant to traditional approaches to the dispensation of justice. For a long time, commentators have observed that the legal profession and the Courts lag behind much of the rest of society in leveraging digital resources to improve the quality, speed, and efficiency of litigation.
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A Quantitative Look at the Supreme Court of Canada
Lawyers are trained to do close and careful reading of cases. We are experts in textual analysis of individual decisions, and we can spend hours arguing over what individual paragraphs in Supreme Court of Canada decisions mean. Yet while individual decisions are important, so are the aggregate trends. Quantitative data can reveal important information that lawyers can use to engage in more effective advocacy and better inform our clients as to what to expect.
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Can an “Episodic” Price-Fixing Conspiracy be Certified as a Class Action?
Many price-fixing class actions allege a reasonably uniform conspiracy. The stereotypical scenario alleged is that executives from different companies meet in a dark, smoke-filled room and agree to raise prices or restrain output in some uniform fashion. While that is an oversimplification, and reality is always much more complex, the basic core of most price-fixing allegations is that there was a uniform conspiracy that impacted all, or at least most, consumers in a broadly similar way. This is what has made so many price-fixing class actions amenable to certification.
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Lexpert Recognizes Lenczner Slaght Lawyers for Litigation Excellence
An increasing number of our expert litigators continue to be recognized as the foremost litigators in their fields by peers and senior members of the legal profession.
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Lenczner Slaght Recognized as a Top-Tier Litigation Firm by Chambers Canada
Canada’s leading litigation firm and its expert litigators continue to be recognized by world-renowned directory, Chambers & Partners.
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Best Lawyers in Canada Recognizes Lenczner Slaght’s Litigation Expertise
Lenczner Slaght is proud to announce that 33 of our expert litigators are recognized in Best Lawyers in Canada 2021. Our lawyers received a total of 128 rankings, up from 100 in 2020.
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Proceedings in first-ever Zoom trial at Federal Court met with praise by judge, counsel
The Lawyer's Daily interviewed Sana Halwani and Paul-Erik Veel on their experience in the first-ever Zoom trial before the Federal Court.
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Lexpert Highlights Lenczner Slaght’s Professional Excellence
Lenczner Slaght’s litigators continue to be recognized by their peers as the foremost practitioners in their fields.
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More uncertainty for Canadian cannabis as class-action suits filed in U.S.
Paul-Erik Veel was interviewed by CTV News for the Your Morning Show on February 10. Paul-Erik commented on the proposed Class Actions brought against Canadian cannabis companies in the U.S. and their implications on the cannabis industry in Canada.
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Ontario would take a step backward with proposed class action changes, critics say
In this Law Times article, Paul-Erik Veel shares his expert opinion on the proposed changes to class action certification tests in Bill 161, the Smarter and Stronger Justice Act, 2019.
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SCC rules that class actions in lawsuits against tech giants can proceed
Paul-Erik Veel was quoted in the Canadian Lawyer article SCC rules that class actions in lawsuits against tech giants can proceed.
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Best Lawyers in Canada Recognizes Lenczner Slaght with 100 Rankings
In the latest edition of Best Lawyers in Canada, 28 Lenczner Slaght lawyers earned a total of 100 rankings, up from 86 in 2019.
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Benchmark Recognizes Four Lenczner Slaght Partners
Benchmark Litigation has recognized four Lenczner Slaght partners among the most talented litigators under the age of 40.
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Maximizing the Expert Witness in Civil Litigation
Paul-Erik Veel co-chaired the OBA's Civil Litigation program on Maximizing the Expert Witness in Civil Litigation.
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Mastering Summary Judgment Motions
Paul-Erik Veel co-chaired the OBA's Civil Litigation program on Mastering Summary Judgment Motions.
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Certified: Class Actions in Ontario & Beyond
Paul-Erik Veel was interviewed in the Certified: Class Actions in Ontario & Beyond podcast on Class Actions Theory. Paul-Erik discussed the theory and purposes of class actions.
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Commercial Litigation and Arbitration Review
Scott Rollwagen, Sana Halwani, and Paul-Erik Veel's article "Do courts have jurisdiction to order virtual hearings? Absolutely!" was published in the August 2020 volume of the Commercial Litigation and Arbitration Review.
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Exhibit Eh-OK: Sana Halwani and Paul-Erik Veel
Sana Halwani and Paul-Erik Veel were interviewed in the Exhibit Eh-OK podcast on their experience in the first-ever virtual trial held at the Federal Court.
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Recent Key Developments in Contract Law
Paul-Erik Veel presented on the OBA's Civil Litigation program Recent Key Developments in Contract Law. He discussed recent key developments on the Duty of Good Faith.
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Sana Halwani, Monique Jilesen, Scott Rollwagen, and Paul-Erik Veel shared their expertise at the Virtual GC Forum on May 12.
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Maintaining Your Litigation Practice in a Remote Work Environment
Paul-Erik Veel co-chaired the first session of the OBA's Civil Litigation Call In Series on Maintaining Your Litigation Practice in a Remote Work Environment on April 7.
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Paul-Erik Veel's article was published in the latest volume of the Canadian Competition Law Review. In this article, he discusses competition law aspects of pharmaceutical litigation settlements.
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Paul-Erik Veel's article Let it Rain was published in the October 2019 Issue of Lexpert Magazine. In this article, Paul-Erik discusses the Supreme Court's long-awaited decision in Pioneer Corp v Godfrey.
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Benchmark Canada (2018-2020)
Future Star
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Benchmark Litigation (2018-2020)
Under 40 Hotlist
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Best Lawyers in Canada (2018-2021)
Administrative & Public Law, Class Action Litigation, Health Care Law, Medical Negligence
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Bill Miller Memorial Award (2020)
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Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory (2018-2020)
Litigation - Corporate Commercial, Medical Negligence, Professional Liability
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Chambers Canada (2021)
Healthcare: Contentious (Nationwide – Canada)
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Dean's Key (2009)
University of Toronto, Faculty of Law
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Gold Medal (2009)
University of Toronto, Faculty of Law
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Lexpert Special Edition: Canada's Leading Litigation Lawyers (2020)
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Precedent Setter Award (2014)