Eric Brousseau

Eric is a partner at Ross Nasseri. He maintains a busy civil, commercial, and regulatory litigation practice. He has appeared at all levels of Court in Ontario and has more than 45 reported decisions in his name. In May 2023, he was named Benchmark’s Emerging Talent Litigator of the Year (Ontario).

Eric has acted for individuals and corporations in a wide variety of matters, including oppression remedy claims and shareholder disputes, directors’ and officers’ liability, professional negligence, employment matters, defamation, fraud, and all facets of real property litigation. He has obtained Mareva, Norwich, and Anton Piller orders and other urgent relief through urgent motions and applications. Eric also acted as Commission counsel to the Public Order Emergency Commission led by Commissioner Paul Rouleau.

Eric has represented individuals and corporations in investigations by and prosecutions before the following regulatory authorities:

• Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) and the Capital Markets Tribunal (CMT)
• Mutual Fund Dealers Association (MFDA) and Investment Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), now the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO)
• Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO), now the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRAO)
• College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO)
• Law Society of Ontario (LSO)
• Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO)

Eric has been duty counsel before the Law Society Tribunal (LST) and with the Capital Market Tribunal’s Litigation Assistance Program and Duty Counsel Program. He volunteers at ProBono Ontario’s Hotline, and has presented at continuing professional development sessions run by the Advocates’ Society.

Eric has represented accused individuals and corporations in simple and complex criminal matters, including assaults and fraud. He was co-lead counsel in a three-month, bilingual securities fraud trial before a judge and jury following which his client was acquitted.

Eric regularly appears before the Associate Judges and Judges of the Superior Court of Justice (including the Commercial List), and has appeared numerous times before the Ontario Court of Appeal.

Prior to joining Ross Nasseri, Eric spent more than three years at Polley Faith LLP, a commercial litigation firm in Toronto. During his articles, he clerked for the judges of the Superior Court in Toronto, including the Judges of the Divisional Court and the Commercial List. He co-authored “The Closing Address: The Opening Chapter in Trial Preparation” (Annual Review of Civil Litigation 2016) with Justice Todd Archibald.

Eric received his BCL/LLB from McGill University. In law school, he was the Director of Research at the Legal Information Clinic at McGill, and clerked for a judge of the Quebec Court of Appeal. He also has an MA and BA (Honours) in History from McGill, and held the Vivienne Poy scholarship throughout his undergraduate degree.

Eric was called to the Ontario bar in 2015 and is a member of the Law Society of Ontario, the Advocates’ Society, the Toronto Lawyers’ Association, and the Ontario Bar Association. Eric was named a Benchmark Litigation Future Star (2022 & 2023) and appeared on Benchmark Litigation’s 40 & Under List (2022 & 2023). He is also listed in Best Lawyers in Canada (2024) for Administrative & Public Law.

Eric is bilingual and acts for clients in both French and English.

• TeknoScan Systems Inc. (Re) (2024 ONCMT 7): successfully sought an adjournment of a scheduled Capital Markets Tribunal hearing on behalf of his client.
• Wayne Safety v. Gendelman et al. (2023 ONSC 2478): obtained Mareva, Anton Piller, Norwich and other urgent injunctive relief in relation to a $5.6 million fraud by a company’s bookkeeper. He has also had an initial motion to vary the Mareva largely dismissed (2023 ONSC 3517), and a further motion to vary the Mareva completely dismissed (2024 ONSC 1642).
• Binscarth Holdings LP v. Anthony et al. (2022 ONSC 3426 and 2022 ONSC 5526): acted for the respondents to a motion for leave to commence a derivative action. The Court authorized only a narrow derivative action.
• Akelius Canada Inc. v. 2436196 Ontario Inc. et al. (2020 ONSC 6182, affirmed: 2022 ONCA 259, leave to appeal refused): acted for the successful defendants in an action for $250+ million in damages based on a failed real estate deal. The decision is an important one for the law of damages generally and in real estate transactions in particular.
• Q3 Networking LLC v. Siemens (2021 ONSC 2808): successfully obtained enforcement of letters rogatory in relation to IP litigation in the United States.
• Brach v. Registrar, Real Estate and Business Brokers Act, 2002 (2021 CanLII 43549 (ON LAT)): successfully compelled the Registrar to make disclosure to the appellant in a proceeding before the License Appeal Tribunal.
• Re Shields (2021 IIROC 15 and 2021 IIROC 31): represented an individual in a 13-day hearing before an IIROC panel (now CIRO), and successfully obtained a favourable package of sanctions.
• Law Society of Ontario v. Skinner, 2021 ONLSTH 34: represented a lawyer at a disciplinary hearing before the Law Society Tribunal Hearing Division.
• Prollenium International Corporation v. Vital Esthetique Sarl (appeal from decision of Associate Justice dismissed: 2020 ONSC 1704, 2020 ONSC 3483 (costs), leave to appeal refused: 2021 ONSC 2209): successfully sought leave to amend a statement of claim and defended the decision through an appeal and a motion for leave to appeal.
• Tran v. Bloorston Farms Ltd. (2020 ONCA 440): acted for the defendants in this precedent-setting case which concerns the proper boundaries and application of the rule in Foss v. Harbottle.
• Labourers’ International Union of North America, Local 183 et al. v. Castellano (2019 ONSC 506, varied: 2020 ONCA 71): acted for the successful plaintiffs in a motion for summary judgment and in resisting one of the earliest motions under Ontario’s anti-SLAPP provision (s. 137.1 of the Courts of Justice Act).
• Morrizon v. Barzo (2017 ONSC 4919, reversed: 2018 ONCA 979): acted for the proposed defendant in a motion to add her to an ongoing action. The motion judge’s decision was reversed on appeal, without prejudice to the defendant’s right to plead a limitations defence.
• R. v. Beattie (2017 ONSC 7686): acted for a woman charged with making a false prospectus under s. 400 of the Criminal Code. The trial judge dismissed the motion for a directed verdict, but the jury acquitted Eric’s client after two days of deliberations, following a three-month trial.
• Best v. Ranking (2015 ONSC 6279, aff’d: 2016 ONCA 492, leave to appeal refused): acted for a group of defendants who sought costs personally against a solicitor under r. 57.05 of the Rules of Civil Procedure, and defended the motion judge’s decision on appeal and from leave to appeal.

Individual

• The Best Lawyers in Canada (2024 Edition), Administrative & Public Law & Corporate and Commercial Litigation
• 2024 Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, Corporate/Commercial Litigation
• Winner of Benchmark Litigation Emerging Talent Litigator of the Year (Ontario), 2023
• Benchmark Litigation, 40 & Under List, 2022, 2023, 2024
• Benchmark Litigation, Future Litigation Star, 2022 & 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)
• Lexpert: Repeatedly Recommended firm for Professional Liability by Lexpert (2024)
• Lexpert: Who’s Who Bullseye for leading firms in Civil Litigation (2024)
• Lexpert: Who’s Who Bullseye for leading firms in Commercial Litigation (2024)
• Benchmark Litigation: Leading litigation firm in Canada (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)

• Co-Chair, "The Building Block Series: Evidence for Litigatiors Block One", The Advocates' Society (October 8, 2024)

• Quoted in “Investment industry governance proposals aimed at investor confusion, confidence: lawyers,” The Lawyers Daily, August 10, 2021