Avi Bourassa

Avi Bourassa is a partner at Ross Nasseri LLP.

Avi is a seasoned trial lawyer, who helps corporate and individual clients navigate complex commercial/contractual disputes. Avi also has experience in real property, commercial leasing, professional negligence, shareholder/oppression, fraud/misrepresentation, estates, franchising, defamation, malicious prosecution, construction, and intellectual property disputes. In addition, Avi has frequently defended professionals in front of their boards and colleges in regulatory matters.

Avi was recently recognized in the peer-reviewed Best Lawyers publication as being among the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Canada™, for his work in Corporate and Commercial Litigation.

Avi has appeared before all levels of court in Ontario, including for urgent/injunctive proceedings, as well as administrative tribunals including the Discipline Committee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, and the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board (HPARB). Avi has also acted as counsel in private commercial arbitration matters

Prior to joining Ross Nasseri in 2021, Avi practiced for five years as a litigation associate at McCarthy Tétrault, a leading national full-service firm, where he acted for a broad range of corporate and individual clients across a variety of industries.

In addition to his private practice, Avi also acts regularly as duty counsel at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice through Pro Bono Ontario.

Avi received his Juris Doctor with Honours from the University of Toronto in 2015. While in law school, Avi was awarded the Gowlings WLG Prize in Innovation Law & Policy. Throughout law school, Avi volunteered for the Artists’ Legal Advice Service (ALAS) in downtown Toronto. Avi also spent time working in the Paris office of an international law firm. In his second year, Avi represented U of T at the Laskin Moot, mooting in French and winning a team award. In his final year of law school, Avi spent a semester studying at the Center for Transnational Legal Studies in London, UK, with a focus on international law and cross-border issues. Avi also holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts with High Distinction from the University of Toronto, with a double major in Commerce and Economics and a minor in Philosophy.

Called to the Ontario Bar in 2016, Avi is a member of the Law Society of Ontario, the Canadian Bar Association, the Ontario Bar Association, and the Advocates’ Society.

• Counsel for the successful plaintiff in a multi-action, lengthy hybrid trial. RN LLP’s client succeeded in actions for malicious prosecution and abuse of process, and was awarded $425,000 in substantial indemnity costs (Konstan et al. v. Berkovits et al., 2023 ONSC 497, 2023 ONSC 1214 and 2023 ONSC 3052)
• Defended a privately held corporation in a multi-million dollar real property development contractual dispute, at trial and on appeal (Fram Elgin Mills 90 Inc. v. Romandale Farms Limited et al., 2019 ONSC 5322, 2020 ONSC 1621, and 2021 ONCA 201);
• Acted for corporate and individual respondents in a complex application arising from an alleged multi-property joint venture;
• Defended a public company in litigation commenced pursuant to the Repair and Storage Liens Act, over a fleet of vehicles;
• Acting for the plaintiff, a closely-held family business in food manufacturing, in an action for breach of confidence and breach of contract, including seeking interlocutory and permanent injunctive relief;
• Acting for a national auto dealer group in a contractual dispute;
• Successful in obtaining an urgent, ex parte CPL to secure a claim for breach of an assignment agreement for a residential property, involving allegations of fraud;
• Successfully resisted an urgent CPL motion (Riddell v. Huynh, 2022 ONSC 2153);
• Represented an industry association in the energy sector as the intervenor at the Ontario Court of Appeal in a case involving the application of good faith to rights-of-first-refusal in the context of a bundled sale of assets;
• Successful defence of a national franchisor in an expedited domestic arbitration brought by a terminated franchisee seeking permanent injunctive relief;
• Successful partial summary judgment motion on behalf of the defendant clinic (Rush v. De Ruiter, 2018 ONSC 1210);
• Successful response to an appeal to the HPARB on behalf of the respondent physician (D.G.E. v A.O.A., 2017 CanLII69303 (ON HPARB)).

Individual

• Listed in The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory for Corporate/Commercial Litigation (2024)
• Recognized by Best Lawyers as one of the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Canada™ for Corporate and Commercial Litigation (2024 Edition)
• Recognized by Best Lawyers as one of the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Canada™ for Corporate and Commercial Litigation (2023 Edition)

Firm

• RN LLP recognized as a Consistently Recommended firm for Corporate/Commercial Litigation and a Repeatedly Recommended firm for Professional Liability by Lexpert (2024)
• RN LLP recognized as a leading litigation firm in Canada by Benchmark Litigation (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)
• 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)

• “Increasing Mortgage Interest During the Term – Confirming the Loophole Around s. 8 of the Interest Act” (October 13, 2022), paper co-authored with Sara Romeih

• Speaker, “The Six-Minute Debtor-Creditor and Insolvency Lawyer 2022”, Law Society of Ontario (October 13, 2022)