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2018
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LEXPERT 37
Ouellet, Patrick Woods LLP
(514) 982-2551 pouellet@woods.qc.ca
Partner of the firm, Mr. Ouellet is known as one of Québec's finest trial and
appellate lawyers, with nearly 20 years of experience dealing with high-end
commercial and corporate litigation matters. His focus has been in litigation
and arbitration involving securities, telecommunications, class actions,
construction, and shareholder disputes. He is responsible for many especially
high-profile cases.
Osborne, Peter Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP
(416) 865-3094 posborne@litigate.com
Recognized as one of Canada's leading litigators, Mr. Osborne has a broad
civil litigation and administrative law practice encompassing cross-border
commercial disputes, complex cross-border restructuring and insolvency
cases, class actions and securities matters, as well as professional
malpractice litigation and disciplinary proceedings.
Orzy, S. Richard Bennett Jones LLP
(416) 777-5737 orzyr@bennettjones.com
Mr. Orzy is one of the most well-known restructuring and insolvency lawyers
in Canada. He covers all major areas of restructuring, mostly on cross-
border matters, having led many involving the US, Europe, South and Central
America and Israel. He is known for his preeminent Canadian practice
representing bondholders, major foreign creditors and landlords in many
of Canada's largest restructurings.
O'Sullivan, LSM, Terrence J. Lax O'Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb LLP
(416) 598-3556 tosullivan@counsel-toronto.com
Mr. O'Sullivan's litigation and arbitration practices focus on business disputes,
financial institution litigation, regulatory charges and defence of directors'
and officers' liability. He acts as a mediator, arbitrator and is an ACTL and IATL
Fellow. He routinely appears in all levels of court, including the Supreme Court
of Canada.
O'Connor, David F. Roy O'Connor LLP
(416) 350-2474 dfo@royoconnor.ca
Mr. O'Connor is a founding partner of Roy O'Connor LLP. He is recognized
by Benchmark as a star in class actions and commercial litigation. He was
a finalist for Canadian Class Action Litigator of the Year in 2015 and 2017,
and for the Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada in 2015 and 2016
(Canadian Lawyer magazine). He is also ranked by Lexpert® and Chambers
in the area of Class Actions.
Nicholl, AdE, John I.S. Clyde & Co Canada LLP
(855) 607-4288 john.nicholl@clydeco.ca
A bilingual insurance litigator who commutes between Ontario and Québec,
Mr. Nicholl's trial, appellate and arbitration practice focuses on insurance
and reinsurance coverage disputes, D&O, professional and product liability,
and class action defence.
LEXPERT-RANKED LAWYERS
At the heart of the cases is "the bid-ask spread
manipulation, and the benchmark fixings," says
Sterns. "e bid-ask spread … allegation is that
these banks would communicate with each other,
and say, 'I've got a customer, I'm going to quote,
what's everyone think?' In the FX world, we know
that from pleas that have been agreed to by some
the defendants," including in the United States.
"is was pervasive," he adds. "You had trad-
ers in a very small market, sharing information,
disclosing confidential claims, agreeing on how
wide the spread would be, and agreeing that a
particular client of one bank would be quoted
a certain amount, and other [banks] wouldn't
compete with that. … On a basic level, it's no
different than two sellers getting together and
deciding to raise prices."
Approximately twelve defendants have so far
agreed to settle in the FX case, with about $110
million in settlements agreed to. In July, class
counsel received approval of their plan of alloca-
tion and are about ready to start the claims pro-
cess, Bach says.
"In a conspiracy class action, when you're suing
a lot of people engaged in a conspiracy, typically
the institution that settles first is giving some
money [in settlement to plaintiffs], but primarily it
is giving information about the conspiracy," Bach
adds. What typically happens is that at one point,
one party decides they want out of the conspiracy
and comes to a law firm to provide information, he
says. "at's oen called an icebreaker settlement."
is helps a case develop in terms of what is
understood of the underlying conduct, he adds.
According to the filed statements of claim, this has
included traders in "chat rooms" discussing bench-
mark manipulation with each other.
In the FX case, the non-settling defendants
will have until early December to file their re-
sponding material in certification motions, says
Baert, and the hearing will take place next June
in front of Justice Paul Perell of Ontario's Su-
perior Court of Justice.
"On the presumption they won't admit they're
part of a conspiracy, it will all come down to
whether they were part of the price-fixing groups,"
based on evidence, for example, provided by
Bloomberg terminals that traders were allegedly
using to fix pricing, he says.
e US case in the alleged forex/FX bench-
mark manipulation has settled largely with "the
same body of defendants that we have settled
with," says Bach. In the gold and silver bench-
mark cases, settlement has been reached in the
US but not in Canada, nor have certification
dates been scheduled.
"I would not be surprised to know that some-
thing was also happening in the UK and Aus-
tralia," Bach adds. "It's a global alleged conspiracy
