Lawyer Profile Detail

Biography

Harry Underwood is a partner in our Litigation Group in Toronto. In 25 years of practice, he has acted as lead counsel in many trials and appeals before the courts of Ontario, the Federal Court of Canada and the Supreme Court of Canada. Mr. Underwood has also appeared before various administrative tribunals and is experienced in arbitration proceedings under both domestic and international law regimes.

His particular concentration is in complex commercial disputes, including securities, corporate law, and banking and insolvency matters.

His recent commercial litigation experience includes:

• defending a Canadian pipeline company against a $500-million class action claim;
• representing financial institutions in a $25-million misrepresentation claim against underwriters, auditors and corporate officers;
• representing the liquidator of failed bank in a negligence claim against the bank’s former directors and senior officers;
• defending a Canadian bank against a conspiracy claim made by a large utility;
• defending a leasing company against multiple claims asserted by municipal customers and totalling $50 million;
• acting for a Canadian public company resisting a search and seizure of its records in aid of a U.S. government proceeding;
• acting for a Mexican telecommunications company resisting enforcement in Canada of a $325-million foreign judgment;
• acting for a Canadian public company seeking to enforce performance of an agreement to sell foreign mining properties;
• defending a director of a failed public company in proceedings before the Ontario Securities Commission and two class actions;
• representing a Canadian insurer in a $20-million fraud claim; and
• representing a Canadian bank in relation to a claim against a foreign state for the expropriation of its business and the defence of an Ontario class action arising out of the same circumstances.

Mr. Underwood is also experienced in the defence of complex medical malpractice and other professional liability cases.

Mr. Underwood is a former member of the adjunct faculty of the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, where he taught a course in litigating shareholders’ claims. He is a member of the editorial board of the quarterly publication Commercial Litigation.

Mr. Underwood appears in the 2010 Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, a guide to the leading law firms and practitioners in Canada, as a leading lawyer in the areas of corporate commercial litigation and medical negligence.

He received his BA from Trent University, his MA from Oxford University and his LLB from the University of Toronto. He was called to the Ontario bar in 1981 and the Saskatchewan bar in 1985.