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Byron is known for his bench strength and his ability to advocate for and defend our clients and their businesses.

Byron’s practice includes corporate and commercial litigation, class actions and public law litigation. He regularly acts for corporations, individuals and government agencies in commercial litigation before the courts and private arbitration panels. Byron has considerable expertise in class action defense of financial institutions and product liability claims against manufacturers and distributors of pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer products and services. Byron also litigates and advises public and private entities on constitutional and administrative law.

Byron has appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada, all levels of court in Ontario and trial and appellate courts in other Canadian provinces. Between 2017-2018, Byron worked at Paul, Weiss in New York, where he assisted in the defence of securities class actions and commercial and antitrust litigation before federal and state courts, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.

Byron co-authors Constitutional Law with Justice Patrick Monahan and his texts and other writings are frequently cited by trial and appellate courts including the Supreme Court of Canada. Byron also lectures on Advanced Contracts at the University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Law.

Byron clerked for the Court of Appeal for Ontario in 2008-2009 where he worked with former Associate Chief Justice Dennis O’Connor and Justices Sharpe, Weiler and Gillese. He received his B.A. (Hons.) in Economics from the University of British Columbia in 2005 and his LL.B from the University of British Columbia in 2008. He was called to the bar in Ontario in 2009.

Byron is active in the law community and is a member of the Commercial & Business Litigation Committee of the American Bar Association as well as the International Association of Defence Counsel (IADC). He is also a member of the Canadian and Ontario Bar Associations and the Advocates Society.

NOTABLE CASES

Byron’s significant engagements include:

Class Actions and Product Liability

• Abbott Laboratories and AbbVie in the first pharmaceutical class action to be defeated on summary judgment in Canada.
• Sanofi Consumer Health in class action and individual claims alleging Zantac heartburn medication causes increased cancer risk, including the successful dismissal of a proposed national class action on summary judgment.
• St. Jude Medical in product liability class action concerning defibrillators and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices.
• Sanofi/Genzyme in class proceedings involving allegations of defects in hernia mesh products.
• The former CFO of Manulife in class action regarding alleged inadequacies in the company’s public disclosure.
• Abbott Laboratories in opioid litigation, including the successful dismissal of class certification against Abbott in Ontario.
• St. Jude Medical in product liability class action concerning defibrillators and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices.
• National Bank in successful defence of proposed secondary market securities class action alleging that National Bank was a “promoter” under the Securities Act.
• Intact and Belairdirect in class action involving statutory accident benefits claims.
• trivago in the successful dismissal of class certification at first instance and on appeal in action alleging false or misleading advertising on its product website and app.

Commercial Litigation

• Shareholder in confidential domestic arbitration proceedings involving allegations of oppression, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of employment agreements.
• Canadian client in confidential international arbitration involving allegations of negligence against a design firm.
• AutoCanada in proceedings involving allegations of breaches of fiduciary duty against a former executive.
• J.D. Irving, Limited in proceedings involving forest product marketing boards.
• Canadian Creditors Committee in cross-border trial and related appeals concerning the allocation of $7.3 billion amongst the debtor estates of Nortel.

Public Sector Facing

• Infrastructure Ontario in successful motion to quash judicial review application relating to Ontario Place redevelopment and the Environmental Assessment Act.
• Metrolinx in numerous injunctions and appeals involving the proposed Osgoode Hall subway station.
• Crown Agents, Hospitals and Universities in constitutional and administrative law mandates and contractual disputes.
• The Canadian Constitutional Foundation in an intervention before the Supreme Court of Canada regarding the right to a jury for individuals charged with Securities Act.

PUBLICATIONS

• Constitutional Law, 5th ed. (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2017) (with Justice Patrick Monahan and Padraic Ryan).
• Constitutional Law, 4th ed. (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2013) (with Patrick Monahan).
• “Canadian Claims for Cancer Risk Rejected in Valsartan and Ranitidine Litigation: A Welcome Development for Manufacturers Doing Business in Canada” (2024) 91:3 Defense Counsel Journal.
• “Containing Wildfires: Cross-Border Class Actions and Multijurisdictional Litigation” ABA Business Litigation & Dispute Resolution (2023).
• “Letters Rogatory for Discovery in Canada: What U.S. Attorneys and Clients Need to Know” ABA Litigation Section (2021).
• “Goldhar v. Haaretz.com: A Product of the Supreme Court’s Unfinished Project to Reform Canadian Private International Law” (2019) 49(2) Advocates’ Q. 143 (with Scott Robinson).
• “Questions About Leave Test for Secondary Market Claims Remain Unanswered after Court of Appeal Decision in Rahimi v SouthGobi Resources Ltd” (2018) 13(1) Canadian Class Actions Review 5.
• “A Wise Development? The Growing Trend Towards Summary Judgment in Class Actions” (2017) 47 Advocates’ Q. 164 (with Neil Finkelstein and Brandon Kain).
• “Summary Judgment Prior to Certification in Class Actions: How Microsoft and Hryniak Have Changed the Landscape” (2015) 44 Advocates’ Q. 229 (with Neil Finkelstein, Brandon Kain and Eric Block).
• Developments in Private International Law: The 2011-2012 Term – The Unfinished Project of the Van Breda Trilogy (2012), 59 S.C.L.R. (2d) 277 (with Brandon Kain and Elder Marques).
• Mapping the Serbonian Bog: The Territorial Limits of Secondary Market Securities Act Claims under the Canadian Constitution – Part 1 (2012) 53 C.B.L.J. 63 (with Brandon Kain). Mapping the Serbonian Bog: The Territorial Limits of Secondary Market Securities Act Claims under the Canadian Constitution – Part 2 (2012) 53 C.B.L.J. 233 (with Brandon Kain).
• “The Impact of Extra-Judicial Service on the Canadian Judiciary: The Need for Reform” in H.P. Lee, ed., Judiciaries in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) (with Patrick Monahan).
• “Supreme Court of Canada Affirms the Request Principle in R. v. Imperial Tobacco” (2012) 45(1) U.B.C Law Review 247.
• “Indemnities for acts done at another’s request” (2011) 44(2) U.B.C Law Review 331.