John Blair is Regional Leader of our Commercial Litigation Group, which has 28 lawyers and has been ranked by Lexpert® as Calgary’s top commercial litigation department for the past five years. He is also a member of our Class Actions Focus Group.
Though experienced in many diverse areas, John focuses his current practice on investor lawsuits, securities class actions, shareholder disputes and securities regulatory investigations and hearings. In the latter regard, John advises and represents clients in investigations and enforcement actions brought by tribunals such as the Alberta Securities Commission (ASC), the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC, formerly IDA), the Mutual Fund Dealers Association and the Toronto and TSX Venture stock exchanges. This practice includes guiding issuers, directors, officers, dealers and registrants through investigations, complaints, settlements and, if necessary, contested enforcement hearings. John has secured more outright dismissals for clients before ASC and IIROC tribunals than any other counsel in Alberta, in areas as diverse as insider trading, market manipulation, conduct unbecoming, misrepresentations, illegal advising, breaches of public interest and failure to implement policies. On the civil side, John has acted on several of the recent series of Alberta-based investor class actions brought against issuers of real estate securities.