Best Law Firms in Vancouver, BC for Bet-the-Company Litigation

Farris LLP ("Farris") is a leading Canadian law firm with offices in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia. The full-service firm represents some of the largest public and private institutions and corporations in the province, and has the proven capacity and experience to carry out complex and multi-dimensional legal projects.

Corporate/Commercial: With more than 30 lawyers, the Corporate/Commercial group at Farris is relied upon by clients to assist with a wide range of matters, across a variety of industries. Unique amongst most large law firms, our corporate lawyers are first trained as generalists before they specialize in any given area of business law. We believe a broad legal knowledge of the key business law issues affecting businesses and industries enables us to help our clients solve their legal problems –big or small–quickly and effectively.

Delivering on our clients’ goals and ambitions means working closely with our clients to develop work plans tailored to their particular needs in terms of scope and budget. Our clients rely upon our advice regarding capital raising, finance strategies, governance issues, succession planning, insourcing, and outsourcing. Our lawyers assist with contract drafting and negotiations, securing regulatory approvals, agreements for joint ventures, and acquiring or selling aspects of a business. We regularly advise on privately negotiated transactions, controlled auctions, plans of arrangement and take-over bids, as well as reorganizations and restructurings for tax optimization.

Advocacy & Litigation: Our litigators are recognized leaders in their field, providing timely, creative and practical representation in a full range of commercial, corporate and constitutional litigation, and have extensive experience conducting hearings, trials and appeals. Our clients are diverse and include major business organizations, public bodies, universities, First Nations, media organizations, family litigants, and public interest groups. We advocate for our clients in every forum and at every level of court, and are engaged in many of the most important cases in the province at any given time. We recognize that advocacy work entails flexibility and a constant evaluation of available options, and that not all matters require a formal hearing. We actively look for opportunities to engage in alternate dispute resolution processes where appropriate.

Labour and Employment: Farris has a full-service labour and employment practice, providing advice, counsel, and representation to our clients in all aspects of workplace law.

We have broad experience representing employers in employment law disputes, including wrongful dismissal matters, disputes relating to restrictive covenants, disability related claims, discrimination and accommodation matters, Human Rights issues, employment and labour standards matters, privacy matters, and workers compensation issues. Our lawyers regularly represent our clients in Court and before administrative tribunals that apply employment-related statutes.

Our lawyers have vast experience in labour relations matters, acting before arbitrators, arbitration boards, and appearing in related judicial reviews and injunction applications before all levels of court and advising employers in a wide range of industries. We regularly act for employers with respect to grievance arbitration and collective agreement administration. Our lawyers conduct Labour Board hearings including applications for certification and decertification, unfair labour practices, variance, common employer and successorship issues. We assist clients with strikes and lockouts and the legal issues that can arise including picketing, ally and replacement workers.

We also assist our clients in drafting and reviewing employment agreements that cover all aspects of the employment relationship, including compensation and benefits, stock options and other incentive plans, severance provisions, restrictive covenants, intellectual property matters, hours of work, and alternative dispute resolution; as well as drafting Employee Handbooks that provide for various rules and regulations that apply in the workplace.

Taxation: Farris lawyers work together with our clients and their accountants to provide timely, innovative and practical tax advice. Representing a broad range of domestic, international, public and private-sector corporate clients across many industries, we provide guidance in areas of expertise such as mergers & acquisitions, real estate, structuring corporate groups and partnerships, fund formation and executive compensation. Our lawyers also have vast experience in advising on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, cross-border debt and equity offerings, structuring and financing of inbound investments into Canada and outbound investments from Canada, foreign affiliate reorganizations, profit repatriation, intellectual property migration strategies, electronic commerce, transfer pricing and tax treaty issues. For our private clients, we offer advice in owner-manager tax planning, estate and trust planning, private equity and venture capital investments.

If and when audits or disputes with the tax authorities arise, our lawyers have the experience and expertise to support you at every step. Our tax litigators represent clients in all types of CRA audits and disputes, assisting with proposals, voluntary disclosures, objections to CRA findings and appeals.

Recognition:

• 61 Farris partners ranked in Best Lawyers in Canada.
• Farris rated one of Vancouver’s leading corporate and litigation law firms for over a decade by The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory.
• Farris Repeatedly Recognized as One of Canada's Best Law Firms
• 28 Farris partners ranked in The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory.

Languages: English, French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Punjabi and Spanish.

NST is recognized as one of British Columbia's leading dispute resolution firms. Its lawyers have built their reputations trying tough cases and arguing complex appeals.

The firm has been described as “a household name in the Vancouver market” and has been recognized as one of Canada’s top litigation boutiques. Legal publications rate NST’s lawyers as leading practitioners in commercial litigation and dispute resolution. Devoted to civil and business litigation and arbitration, the firm has litigated many of British Columbia’s largest and most complicated commercial lawsuits, including two of Canada’s most significant mining claims, as well as important securities and shareholder disputes.

Known for its intellectual rigour, high quality advocacy, responsiveness to clients' needs, and flexibility in procedural matters, the firm has experience arguing and defending certification motions, judicial reviews, summary trials, trials, and appeals. The firm utilizes its expertise to provide strategic advice and to seek practical solutions out of court. When that is not possible, NST’s lawyers have the courtroom experience to see a matter through to judgment.

NST’s clients include successful private and public companies, many of whom are referred to us by leading Canadian and international law firms. NST regularly acts in the full range of commercial disputes, including contract disputes, shareholders’ disputes, securities and oppression claims, hostile take-over bids and derivative actions, class actions and representative proceedings, mining claims, pension litigation, actions for professional negligence, administrative proceedings, defamation actions and employment disputes.

Irwin Nathanson, Stephen Schachter and Ardella Thompson created the firm with one purpose in mind—to focus on trying difficult cases and arguing complicated appeals. Over the years, the firm has carefully added lawyers, and now boasts six King’s Counsel and several former law clerks, including two former clerks to the Chief Justice of British Columbia. However, the firm’s goal has never been growth for its own sake. It maintains Irwin Nathanson’s vision of a select group of lawyers with the depth of talent and breadth of expertise to efficiently and effectively handle commercial disputes of all sizes and kinds.

In addition to its work for clients, the firm’s lawyers regularly contribute to legal scholarship, including: serving as adjunct professors at UBC Law School; writing chapters in texts on Business Torts, Government Liability, and the Annual Review of Law and Practice; frequently speaking at continuing legal education events on civil litigation law and practice; and authoring one of the province’s main litigation texts, the annual British Columbia Supreme Court Rules Annotated.