Former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Ian Binnie has joined boutique litigation firm Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP as counsel, as well as Arbitration Place, where he’ll work as a resident arbitrator, it was announced Tuesday.
At Lenczner Slaght, Binnie — who before being appointed to the Supreme Court in 1998 was one of Canada’s most prominent commercial litigators, acting for clients such as Imperial Oil, Unilever PLC, Merck, American Airlines, Purolator and Onex — will provide “strategic and practical advice, as well as dispute resolution expertise, to his colleagues and the firm’s clients,” Lenczner Slaght said in a news release.
In nearly 14 years on the bench Mr. Binnie authored 170 opinions, many in highly significant cases involving intellectual property, defamation, and constitutional and administrative law, the firm noted.
At Arbitration Place, a new arbitration facility located in Toronto’s Bay Adelaide Centre, Binnie will serve as a resident arbitrator, presiding over both Canadian and international arbitrations. “Arbitration has become an increasingly popular and effective way of resolving business disputes in the globalized economy and Canada has a well-deserved reputation as a neutral jurisdiction,” Binnie said in a statement, adding he was “very much looking forward to hearing cases as an arbitrator.”
Photo: Andrew Balfour Photography / Supreme Court of Canada collection