TORONTO (February 10, 2014) – Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP (Blakes), one of Canada’s leading business law firms, was honoured with four awards at the second annual nationwide Benchmark Canada Awards ceremony held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Toronto late last week. Blakes won Securities Litigation Firm of the Year, Insolvency Firm of the Year, a National Impact Case Award for Competition Bureau vs. Visa & MasterCard (Blakes represented Visa), and Gordon McKee was named Product Liability Litigator of the Year. This is the second time he has been honoured with this award.
Gordon McKee defends multinational manufacturers in Ontario, in both class actions and serious, individual claims. He also acts as Canadian national counsel, managing litigation across the country. Mr. McKee is regularly consulted on product warnings and recalls, is recognized in Canadian and international directories as a leading product liability and class action lawyer and is certified as a specialist in civil litigation. He is part of a small but growing group of lawyers in the common law provinces who has led the defence of class action common issues trials.
About Benchmark
Researchers at Benchmark spend six months conducting extensive interviews with litigators and their clients to identify the leading litigators and firms. During these interviews, researchers examine recent law firm casework and ask individual litigators to offer their professional opinions on peers. Recommendations are based on interviews with the nation’s leading private-practice lawyers and in-house counsel, and firms cannot pay to be recommended.
About Our Litigation & Dispute Resolution Practice
When the stakes are high and the risks are great, clients retain Blakes. Our diverse Litigation & Dispute Resolution team is committed to representing client interests at every stage of a dispute, from fact-finding and risk evaluation through final resolution and enforcement, at trial and appellate levels, in court, at the negotiating table, and before tribunals and government agencies. Before litigating, we explore other methods of dispute resolution and litigate only when appropriate. Our extensive experience in commercial arbitration and mediation, both domestic and international, demonstrates our eagerness to seek every opportunity to resolve disputes by the best available means.
About Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
At Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, we serve a diverse national and international client base, and our integrated office network provides clients with access to the Firm’s full spectrum of capabilities in virtually every area of business law. Blakes has offices across Canada and in New York, Chicago, London, Bahrain, Beijing and associated offices in Al-Khobar and Shanghai. Thanks to our clients and the challenging work they generate, in 2013, Blakes was named “Law Firm of the Year: Canada” by Chambers and Partners. This is the fourth time we have been honoured with this award, more than any other Canadian firm. Blakes was also named “Canada Law Firm of the Year” for the fifth consecutive year by Who’s Who Legal. Over the last five years, Blakes has been the busiest Canadian M&A law firm, according to Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters league tables.
More information on Blakes is available by visiting the Firm’s website at www.blakes.com or by following us on Twitter @BlakesLaw.
