
Phil Tunley
Phil Tunley is a founding partner at St. Lawrence Barristers LLP, with more than 30 years experience as counsel in complex litigation matters. He represents clients at all levels of courts in Ontario, and in the Federal Courts and Supreme Court of Canada. He appears frequently in the Divisional Court and before a variety of administrative appeals tribunals. He is also an experienced trial counsel in both civil disputes and provincial offence matters, and in a wide range of regulatory and administrative hearings.
Phil’s civil litigation practice includes corporate and commercial disputes, media and defamation law, energy law, high technology matters, professional and business regulation, and human rights matters, both at trial and on appeals. His experience centres on complex matters, often involving high volumes of documentary productions, or conflicts of laws issues engaging two or more legal systems. He practices litigation as a specialty, and is always keen to work as co-counsel with specialist lawyers in a particular subject area or from other jurisdictions. He has special expertise in expert evidence, electronic evidence and automated litigation support in complex trials.
Phil’s corporate and commercial clients regularly include both referrals from other leading Canadian law firms, including the two national law firms with which he has been associated, as well as direct retainers. He has acted in shareholder disputes, and other matters involving expert business valuation evidence, up to the Ontario Court of Appeal, as well as in disputes involving contract and fiduciary claims, energy, securities, insolvency, banking, mining, corporate tax, and other matters.
Phil also frequently acts for clients in relation to both civil and Charter or human rights claims for damages and other remedies, or defending such claims, when an infringement of protected rights and freedoms is alleged. This kind of litigation requires both a strong grounding in the decided Canadian and international case law, coupled with a willingness to find and advance new policy arguments that push the frontiers of the decided cases. His media and defamation practice is only one aspect of this specialty, which extends to claims involving matters from national security and the investigation of allegation of terrorist affiliations, to civil claims for sexual assault. He also has long experience and involvement with the rights of Aboriginal peoples in Canada, and in land claims and other disputes, negotiations, and regulatory proceedings that directly impact those rights, including representation of Aboriginal groups, regulators, industry and governments in such matters.
Recently, Phil’s administrative and regulatory practice has focussed on energy regulation and on regulatory compliance proceedings.