Eric S. Block

Eric Block is a partner at Ross Nasseri LLP. An experienced trial lawyer with a national reach, Eric focuses on high stakes, complex commercial litigation (including shareholder disputes and oppression claims), fraud, cross-border litigation, internal investigations, real estate litigation, trade secret litigation, environmental litigation, product liability, estates litigation, defamation, and litigation against all levels of government.

Prominently ranked across legal directories, Eric is widely considered a preeminent Canadian litigator, sought by clients who require practical solutions, strategic thinking, and court room prowess.

Eric is also a class action expert. On the defence side, he acts in the agricultural, product liability, medical devices, securities, and employment spaces. On the plaintiff side, he co-led a team that brought constitutional challenges against Canada for its failure to address unsafe drinking water in many First Nations, resulting in an historic 2021 settlement of more than $8 billion. Eric is acting as national class counsel against Bausch Health Companies, on behalf of purchasers of Cold-FX, alleging that the manufacturer made false and misleading claims about the product’s efficacy.

Prior to joining the firm, Eric was a partner in the Toronto Litigation Group of McCarthy Tétrault LLP, where he practiced from 2002 to 2023. While at McCarthy Tetrault, Eric was awarded the mentor of the year and the legacy mentor award.

From 1998 to 2002, Eric was a litigator at Paul Weiss in New York, where he worked on many precedent-setting litigations. He also litigated, pro-bono, the Southern District of New York jury trial awarding $745 million to rape and torture victims of the Bosnian War (Kadic, et al, v. Karadzic).

As a thought leader, Eric has written for the Wall Street Journal, Jerusalem Post and Washington Times, among other publications. He co-authored the book “Emergency Law in Canada: Commentary and Legislation” (Toronto: LexisNexis, February 2021).

Eric received his BA (Hons.) (Political Science) from McGill University in 1992. He held the Guy Drummond Fellowship consecutively at Institut D’Etudes Politiques de Paris (“Science Po”) from 1992 to 1993 and at McGill University from 1993 to 1994. He received his MA (Political Science) from McGill University in 1995. From 1994 to 1995, Eric was a speechwriter to U.S. Ambassador Morris B. Abram in Geneva (former Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva). He received his BA, MA (Jurisprudence) from Oxford University (Christ Church) in 1997. Eric received his LLM from the University of Chicago Law School in 1998. He has sat on the Board of Directors of the National Ballet School Foundation.

Representative Matters

• Acting as national class counsel on behalf of Canadian Cold-FX consumers alleging false and misleading claims;
• Defending the founder of a privately held company in an internal investigation and related threatened litigation;
• Representing plaintiff non-profit corporation alleging improvident settlement against a Schedule 1 Bank;
• Representing plaintiff corporation alleging fraud and conspiracy against a Schedule 1 Bank;
• Defending directors in securities and common law misrepresentation civil action;
• Acting for corporate victim of malicious phishing scheme;
• Acting for founder of a privately held company prosecuting trade secret theft claim;
• Defending American law firm in Ontario action alleging breach of trust and breach of contract;
• Defending crypto company founder in threatened civil and regulatory matters;
• Representing a whistleblower before the OSC involving RESPs;
• Successfully represented First Nations against Canada who were impacted by long term drinking water advisories and continue to be continue to be;
• Acted for impacted First Nations against Canada who were impacted by Canada’s failure to provide adequate housing on reserve;
• Defending coffee company in Ontario class action alleging management misclassification;
• Defending industrial supplier in Alberta class action alleging breach of vacation and overtime pay;
• Defending an Ontario farm in Ontario class action alleging abuse of temporary workers;
• Defending pesticide maker in BC, Ontario, and Quebec class actions alleging pesticides cause neurological disease;
• Defending maker of baby formula in BC class action alleging formula causes injury to infants;
• Defending alleged opioid distributor in various class actions across Canada; and
• Acting on the Commercial List for the (now deceased) businessman and philanthropist Michael G. DeGroote in a decade long USD $120 Million fraud case against certain individuals.

Recent Decisions

• FSC (Annex Limited) Partnership v. Adi 24 Prince Arthur (152 OR (3d) 568); Successful Commercial List application for one limited partner against the limited partner for specific performance and a subsequent successful, alternative decision to take control of the property through a court-ordered sale (2021 ONSC 2039);
• Elad Canada v. Rester (2022 ONSC 2327); successful Commercial List Application for a developer in a post-closing working capital dispute addressing the role of the "independent accountant"
• Dunham v. Syngenta et al (2003 ONSC 872); acting for Syngenta in multi-jurisdictional Canadian agricultural products class action seeking to object to the plaintiffs’ unilateral discontinuance of the class action in Ontario;
• Zenabis Investments v. 2657408 Ontario Inc. (2021 BCSC 2459); acting in British Columbia for Sundial Growers to successfully convert the petition of Zebabis Investments Ltd to an action;
• Pokornik v. SkiptheDishes (2020 MBQB 181); acting in Manitoba for Skip-the-Dishes in a successful class action sequencing application (2020 MBQB 181);
• Darmar Farms v. Syngenta et al; (148 O.R. (3d) 115); acting for Syngenta in a pure economic loss case at the Court of Appeal) and at class certification (2021 ONSC 6411); and
• CN v. Holmes (2022 ONSC 1682); Acting for certain CN police officers in a successful Commercial List fraud trial brought by CN against a former employee.

Individual

• Chambers and Partners:
  • 2025: Ranked in General Commercial Litigation (Band 6)
• The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory – Class Actions, Corporate/Commercial Litigation, Director/Officer Liability, Product Liability, and Securities Litigation, 2024
• The Legal 500 – Canada – Next Generation Lawyer for Dispute Resolution, Ontario
• Benchmark Litigation – Litigation Star: Class Actions, Commercial, Product Liability, Securities
• The Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada: Litigation – Corporate Commercial
• The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory – Leading Lawyer in Class Actions, Litigation – Director & Officer Liability, Litigation – Securities, and Litigation – Product Liability
• Lexpert Special Edition: Litigation – Leading Lawyer, Commercial Litigation
• Lexpert Special Edition: Agribusiness and Cannabis – Leading Lawyer
• Best Lawyers in Canada – Leading Lawyer: Product Liability Law (2024)

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)

Selected Publications

• “Maintaining Privilege in Internal Investigations: the Special Counsel’s Dilemma” (forthcoming)
• “Toward a Common Law Duty to Negotiate in Good Faith” (with Brandon Mattalo), ((2023), 67 C.B.L.J. 399)
• Emergency Law in Canada: Commentary and Legislation (with Adam Goldenberg), (Lexis Nexis 2021)
• “Summary Judgment Prior to Certification in Class Actions: How Microsoft and Hyrniak Have Changed the Landscpape” (with Neil Finkelstein, Brandon Kain, and Byron Shaw), (2015) 44 Adv. Q. 229

Presentations

• Panelist, Employment Class Panel, Osgoode Class Action Symposium, April 25, 2024
• Panelist, Appellate Advocacy for Estate Litigators, OBA Conference, April 16, 2024
• Panelist, “Civility for Litigators”, The Advocates’ Society, December 14, 2023
• Panelist, “Preparing Your Witness for Discovery, the Advocates’ Society, October 11, 2023