Disponible en Anglais seulement
Adriana Forest is an associate in our Litigation Group in Toronto. She maintains a general litigation practice, with an emphasis on commercial litigation, class actions, and professional liability. Adriana has appeared before administrative tribunals, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Commercial List, the Federal Court, the Divisional Court, and the Supreme Court of Canada. Her experience includes:
- Defending physicians in professional liability cases at trial;
- Defending corporations and financial institutions in a range of proposed and certified national class actions, including breach of contract, consumer protection, employment, Competition Act, and banking claims;
- Defending clients in applications for the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards;
- Acting for clients in defamation matters; and
- Acting for intervening parties in high-profile appeals before the Ontario Divisional Court and Supreme Court of Canada, including in Annapolis Group Inc. v. Halifax Regional Municipality, 2022 SCC 36, which was recognized in the 2023 Lexpert Special Edition: Litigation as one of the Top 10 Business Decisions of 2022-2023.
Adriana is also committed to mentoring, teaching and pro-bono work. Adriana has acted as an instructor for the Trial Advocacy (“Law 360”) course at Queen’s University Faculty of Law and supervises law school students in the Pro Bono Students Canada program.
While in law school, Adriana obtained Dean’s Honour List and was the recipient of the Law Society of Ontario Prize for academic excellence and the Cohen Highley LLP Award for academic excellence and community involvement in Southwestern Ontario. Adriana also competed in multiple advocacy competitions. In particular, her team was the Champion of the Warren K. Winkler Class Actions Moot Competition in 2018. She also completed a legal internship in Chicago, IL in the summer of 2016 where she assisted with judicial review of a high-profile decision involving bi-national Great Lakes water resource issues.
Before law school, Adriana obtained a Bachelor of Science (with Distinction) from the University of Windsor in Biological Sciences and a Master of Science from the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research. Adriana’s master’s research was focused on the aquaculture industry and her findings have since been published in scientific journals.
Adriana was called to the bar in 2019. She is a member of the Law Society of Ontario, the Canadian Bar Association, the Ontario Bar Association, and the Advocates’ Society.
SELECTED CASES:
- Lin v. Uber Canada Inc., et al, 2024 FC 977 – counsel for the successful defendants in obtaining a stay of proposed class proceedings in favour of arbitration.
- McLean v. Valadka, 2023 ONSC 6803 – counsel for the successful defendant physician in medical negligence action involving informed consent.
- Tianjin Dinghui Hongjun Equity Investment Partnership v. Du, 2023 ONSC 1808 – counsel for the successful defendants in obtaining dismissal of application for recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral award.
- Annapolis Group Inc. v. Halifax Regional Municipality, 2022 SCC 36 – counsel for intervener in a landmark decision in which the SCC clarified the test for claimants to establish de facto expropriation of private property through a public authority’s exercise of regulatory powers.
- Blake v. Blake, 2021 ONSC 7189 – counsel for the intervener in an appeal involving lawyers’ duties to the court.
- Dufault v. Toronto Dominion Bank, 2021 ONSC 6223 – counsel for the successful defendant in the first sequencing motion brought under s. 4.1 of the amended Class Proceedings Act, 1992, S.O. 1992, c. 6.