Adriana Forest

Adriana is a litigator at Ross Nasseri. She maintains a general litigation practice with an emphasis on commercial litigation and strategic advice.

Adriana has a wide range of experience representing corporations, institutions, and individuals in all manner of complex commercial disputes. She is a zealous advocate for her clients both inside and outside the courtroom. Adriana has obtained a wide breadth of advocacy experience, including by appearing before arbitrators, administrative tribunals, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Commercial List, the Federal Court, the Divisional Court, and the Supreme Court of Canada.

Adriana has represented and advised clients in a wide range of matters including shareholder disputes, oppression proceedings, professional liability, breach of contract, product liability, consumer protection, employment, malicious prosecution, and defamation claims. Adriana also has experience with workplace investigations and judicial review proceedings, as well as representing corporations and financial institutions in a range of proposed and certified national class actions. She has also acted for intervening parties in high-profile appeals before the Ontario Divisional Court and Supreme Court of Canada.

Prior to joining Ross Nasseri, Adriana practiced for six years as a litigator at McCarthy Tétrault, a leading national full-service firm.

Adriana received her JD from Western Law in 2018, where she obtained Dean’s Honour List and was the recipient of the Law Society of Ontario Prize for academic excellence and the Cohen Highley LLP Award for academic excellence and community involvement in Southwestern Ontario. Adriana also competed in multiple advocacy competitions. In particular, her team was the Champion of the Warren K. Winkler Class Actions Moot Competition in 2018. She also completed a legal internship in Chicago, IL in the summer of 2016 where she assisted with judicial review of a high-profile decision involving bi-national Great Lakes water resource issues.

Before law school, Adriana obtained a Bachelor of Science (with Distinction) from the University of Windsor in Biological Sciences and a Master of Science from the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research.

Adriana was called to the bar in 2019. She is a member of the Law Society of Ontario, the Canadian Bar Association, the Ontario Bar Association, and the Advocates’ Society.

Representative Matters

• Representing a leading Canadian fertility clinic in a commercial litigation matter
• Representing and advising a real estate developer in regulatory proceedings, contractual disputes, judicial review proceedings, and before administrative tribunals
• Representing a well-known technology company in various product liability and breach of contract disputes
• Representing defendants in a multi-million dollar breach of contract and oppression claim
• Advising a leading AI company in a shareholder dispute
• Representing claimants and respondents in high-stakes commercial arbitration disputes
• Representing both plaintiffs and defendants in defamation disputes, including providing advice pre-litigation
• Defending respondents in applications for recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards
• Counsel to companies in applications to enforce letters rogatory
• Acting for companies to obtain urgent injunctive relief, both before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and before arbitral and administrative tribunals
• Defending professionals in regulatory and negligence disputes, including at trial before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and before administrative tribunals
• Representing financial institutions and corporations in proposed and certified provincial and national class actions, including banking, employment, product liability, competition and consumer protection claims
• Acting as an investigator in an internal investigation at a private institution
• Representing interveners in high-profile appeals before the Ontario Divisional Court and Supreme Court of Canada

Decisions

• Lin v. Uber Canada Inc., et al., 2024 FC 977: Counsel for the successful defendants in obtaining a stay of a proposed class proceeding in favour of arbitration
• McLean v. Valadka, 2023 ONSC 6803: Counsel for the successful defendant physician in a medical negligence action
• Tianjin Dinghui Hongjun Equity Investment Partnership v. Du, 2023 ONSC 1808: Counsel for the successful respondents in obtaining dismissal of an application for recognition and enforcement of a foreign arbitral award
• Annapolis Group Inc. v. Halifax Regional Municipality, 2022 SCC 36: Counsel for the intervener in a landmark decision in which the SCC clarified the test for claimants to establish de facto expropriation of private property through a public authority's exercise of regulatory powers
• Blake v. Blake, 2021 ONSC 7189: Counsel for the intervener in an appeal involving lawyers' duties to the court
• Dufault v. Toronto Dominion Bank, 2021 ONSC 6223: Counsel for the successful defendant in the first sequencing motion brought under s. 4.1 of the amended Class Proceedings Act, 1992, S.O. 1992, c. 6

Individual

• Lexpert:
  • Lexpert Special Edition - Litigation - Top 10 Business Decisions of 2022-2023 (2023)

Firm

• Best Law Firms in Canada 2025:
  • Tier 1 Nationally for Corporate and Commercial Litigation
  • Tier 1 in Toronto for Corporate and Commercial Litigation, Administrative and Public Law, Appellate Practice
• Chambers Canada 2025: Highly Regarded firm in Commercial Litigation in Ontario (2024)
• Lexpert :
  • Recognized as a Consistently Recommended firm for Corporate/Commercial Litigation (2024)
  • Repeatedly Recommended firm for Professional Liability by Lexpert (2024)
  • Who’s Who Bullseye for leading firms in Civil Litigation (2024)
  • Who’s Who Bullseye for leading firms in Commercial Litigation (2024)
• Benchmark Litigation :
  • Leading litigation firm in Canada (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)
  • Highly Recommended Firm (2025)
  • Litigation Boutique Firm of the Year (2025)
• RN LLP recognized in The Globe and Mail’s Canada’s Best Law Firms list for Dispute Resolution (Litigation, Arbitration & Investigations) (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)

• Speaker, "Drafting Compelling Pleadings", Ontario Bar Association, May 22 2025