Gordon Vance

Gordon is a partner at Ross Nasseri. He maintains a diverse civil, commercial, and regulatory litigation practice. He has appeared at all levels of court in Ontario and has more than 30 reported decisions to his name.

Gordon has acted for individuals, family business, and large corporations in a wide variety of matters, including oppression remedy claims and derivative actions, shareholder and director disputes, employment matters, fraud, real property litigation, estate disputes, and injunctions. He is building a robust appeal practice and appears routinely before the Divisional Court and the Court of Appeal for Ontario.

Gordon appears regularly before the Associate Judges and Judges of the Superior Court of Justice (including the Commercial List) and has acted for clients in disciplinary hearings before various tribunals. He has steered clients through successful mediation and investigations, and he is an experienced trial counsel.

Before joining Ross Nasseri, Gordon gained valuable courtroom experience serving as an Assistant Crown Attorney in London, Ontario. He completed his articles by clerking with the judges of the Superior Court of Justice. During his clerkship, Gordon assisted several Ontario judges with a wide variety of cases including commercial disputes, professional negligence matters, and judicial review applications. Before his clerkship, Gordon also worked as a student at Polley Faith where he gained experience assisting lawyers with several civil cases including providing support on trials and hearings.

Gordon graduated with a J.D. /M.B.A. with honours, and on the Dean’s List, from the University of Toronto in 2019. He was awarded several prizes and accolades including the Gerald W. Schwartz Gold Medal for the highest overall average in his program, the Bregman Scholar award from the Rotman School of Management, and prizes for the top grades in administrative law and contract law. Before law school, Gordon completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours, with distinction) and a Master of Arts as a Canada Graduate Scholar.

Gordon was called to the Ontario bar in 2020 and is a member of the Law Society of Ontario, the Advocates’ Society, the Toronto Lawyers’ Association, the Ontario Bar Association, and the Canadian Bar Association.

Representative Matters

• Acting for the plaintiff in a complex, multi-defendant proceeding arising from a fraudulent mortgage scheme
• Representing a residential developer facing 107 counts of misconduct on an appeal before the Licence Appeal Tribunal
• Acting for a multinational corporation in a multi-million-dollar commercial invoice dispute
• Acting for a shareholder and founder in oppression proceedings involving a multinational medical device company
• Acting for a shareholder and director in oppression proceedings involving a closely held family roofing company
• Acting for beneficiaries in estate proceedings regarding a large estate with assets subject to the Indian Act
• Acting for the general partner in complex, multi-faceted proceedings regarding a limited partnership that holds real estate assets throughout North America
• Acting for a family member in a complex, multi-jurisdictional corporate succession dispute

Decisions

• Bayliss v. Burnham, 2025 ONSC 5376: Successfully challenged the will of a tobacco magnate in a will challenge trial on the Toronto Estates List on the basis of suspicious circumstances and insufficient evidence of knowledge and approval by the testator
• Home Construction Regulatory Authority v. Briarwood (Angus) Ltd. et al.: Obtained successful outcome in a significant discipline trial pursuant to a regulatory prosecution under the Code of Ethics to the New Home Construction Licensing Act, 2017. The Respondents faced 142 allegations of misconduct and $33M in financial jeopardy. The trial ended with none of the allegations being proven and no findings against our clients. We received the following victorious decisions during the trial:
  • Successful motion for further and better disclosure early in the trial (2025 CarswellOnt 15021)
  • Successful motion to disqualify the HCRA’s expert witness for lack of requisite qualifications to provide opinion evidence (2025 CarswellOnt 22056)
  • Successful motion for leave to bring a nonsuit motion without having to make an election as to calling a defence (2025 CarswellOnt 22057)
  • Successful motion to have 128/142 dismissed on a non-suit motion (2025 CarswellOnt 22058). The remaining 14 counts were withdrawn at the HCRA’s request
• Anthony v. Binscarth Holdings GP Inc., 2025 ONCA 130 aff’g 2024 ONSC 2106: Successfully resisted an appeal regarding the interpretation of the Limited Partnerships Act and the Accumulations Act
• Royal Bank of Canada v. Everest Group Inc., 2024 ONCA 577 aff’g 2023 ONSC 1507, 2023 ONSC 3808: Counsel on appeals and cross-appeals regarding disclosure requirements and rescission under Ontario franchise law
• Binscarth Holdings LP v. Grant Anthony, 2024 ONCA 522 aff’g and rev’g 2022 ONSC 3426, 2024 ONCA 582: Counsel on an appeal and cross-appeal of the first decision in Ontario granting leave to commence a derivative action on behalf of a limited partnership
• Espartel Investments Limited v. Metropolitan Toronto Condominium Corporation No. 993, 2024 ONCA 18: Counsel on an appeal concerning the discoverability doctrine and what constitutes reasonable diligence when assessing the limitation period applicable to a contract claim arising from a utility sharing agreement between a condominium corporation and a hotel
• Kiosk Design Inc. v. El-Riffaey, 2024 ONSC 2373: Counsel on a successful motion for Mareva and Norwich relief arising out of an alleged foreign currency exchange fraud
• Skymark Properties Corporation, Inc. v. 63263101 Canada Inc., 2023 ONCA 861 aff’g 2023 ONSC 1520: Counsel on an appeal concerning the letters rogatory doctrine and the evidence required to enforce a request for enforcement from a foreign court
• Ontario Securities Commission v. Camerlengo Holdings Inc., 2023 ONCA 93 rev’g 2023 ONSC 22: Counsel on a case concerning whether transfers of assets at a pre-creditor stage could be attacked as fraudulent conveyances
• Bayliss v. Burnham, 2023 ONSC 7161: Counsel on two successful motions, one to compel third-party productions from a major tobacco company, and one to obtain leave to examine two non-parties for discovery
• Jacobs et al. v. McGee, 2023 ONSC 2765, 2023 ONSC 3427: Successfully resisted an urgent Norwich order, obtained a costs order in favour of client on a substantial indemnity basis
• Kawa v. 1Plus12 Corporation, 2022 ONSC 6527, 2023 ONSC 1437, 2023 ONSC 1069: Counsel in successfully resisting the majority of relief sought in multiple motions to strike a claim concerning a real estate fraud scheme; successfully resisted leave to appeal motion at Divisional Court
• Lee v. 964988 Ontario Inc., 2022 ONSC 3687: Lead counsel in successfully defending an injunction in a commercial property dispute
• Information and Privacy Commissioner Order PO-4398 re: Appeals PA 20-00171 and PA20-00787 Financial Services Regulatory Authority, 2023 CanLII 49384 (ON IPC): Successfully appealed decisions of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario to deny access to a Notice of Proposal from the Fortress syndicated mortgage prosecutions

Awards

• Best Lawyers in Canada:
  • Ones to Watch Canada (2026)

• Lucas v. Semelhago: Is it Open Season for Specific Performance? in Justice Darla A. WIlson (ed.), Annual Review of Civil Litigation, 2024 (Thomson Reuters) (co-authored with Sara Romeih and Daniel Milton)
• Rule 15 – Representation by Lawyer in Noel Semple (Ed.), Civil Procedure and Practice in Ontario, 2nd ed. (Canadian Legal Information Institute, 2022) (co-authored with Justin Nasseri)

• Speaker, "The Six-Minute Debtor-Creditor and Insolvency Lawyer 2024", Law Society of Ontario (October 16, 2024)
• Presenter: “Keeping Current for Civil Litigators”, The Ontario Bar Association (February 27, 2024)