Helen Richards is an accomplished civil litigator with extensive private practice and in-house experience. She is known for her clever arguments, strategic thinking, and ability to simplify seemingly complex problems.
Her areas of expertise include complex commercial matters, contract disputes, professional negligence, and securities litigation (as well as related internal investigations). She has appeared before courts of appeal, including at the Supreme Court of Canada, and has extensive experience with regulatory bodies, including the Ontario Securities Commission and the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board, among others.
Helen spent many years at McCarthy Tétrault LLP and Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP before moving in-house to practice securities litigation for a national bank and, ultimately, joining Ross Nasseri LLP. She is widely published on topics relating to commercial and securities litigation and taught Contract Remedies at Osgoode Hall Law School from 2018 to 2020.
Notable Cases
- Jacobs et al. v. McGee, 2023 ONSC 2765; successfully resisted an urgent Norwich order
- Representing defendant shareholder in dispute relating to sale of company.
- Representing corporate plaintiff in relation to ongoing breach of contract dispute relating to option to purchase.
- Representing clients suing their lawyers for alleged negligence relating to failure to meet limitation periods and other issues.
- Representing a real estate brokerage in urgent injunction proceedings, seeking to enforce an Agreement of Purchase and Sale in the days leading up to an important closing.
- Carbone v Boccia, 2022 ONSC 6528, 2023 ONSC 54: Successfully moved for a Mareva injunction and Norwich Order in a strongly contested case of fraud.
- Riddell v Huynh, 2022 ONSC 2153: Successfully resisted an injunction for a Certificate of Pending Litigation.
- Advised on numerous cases against financial institutions and their employees relating to alleged professional negligence and breaches of securities laws.
- Advised various large financial institutions on confidential internal investigations arising out of potential breaches of securities laws (both as in-house and external counsel).
- ADAG Corporation Canada Ltd. v SaskEnergy Incorporated, 2018 SKCA 14, leave to appeal to the Supreme Court dismissed: Successfully obtained a decision at the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal reversing a decision of the Court of King’s Bench concerning options to purchase and The Partnership Act; successfully resisted the motion for leave to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.
- Google Inc. v Equuestek Solutions Inc., 2017 SCC 34: Counsel for multiple intervenors, including the American Society of News Editors, the First Amendment Coalition, AOL Inc. and others in a seminal Supreme Court case concerning a worldwide injunction against Google.
- VM v GJD, 2014 CanLii 14446 (ON HPARB): Successfully defended a physician client against the appeal of a favourable decision from the ICRC.
- Goodwood Inc. v Cathy Forest Products Corp., 2013 ONSC 4242: Successfully recovered shareholders’ costs incurred as a result of a s. 144 court-ordered shareholders’ meeting (Canada Business Corporations Act).