Mark A. Ross

Mark Ross is a founding partner of Ross Nasseri LLP. He is a fearless and tenacious litigator whose practice includes complex contractual litigation in various industries (including construction, insurance, and real estate), shareholder and partnership cases, estates litigation, professional liability matters, property disputes, and prosecuting and defending civil fraud claims.

Mark has earned his reputation as a premier trial and appeal litigator through years of experience arguing and winning cases. He is counsel on several significant reported decisions and has conducted numerous motions, applications (including ones moving for or resisting injunctive relief), trials, and appeals in Ontario as lead counsel. He has acted for a wide range of clients including individual investors and businesspeople, closely held/family enterprises, and large corporations and institutional clients. Mark has also been lead counsel on a number of complex arbitrations.

Mark is the co-author of Haber and Ross: Top Commercial Leasing Cases (Toronto: Carswell: 2019), a leading textbook on commercial leasing disputes. Lawyers and clients frequently seek Mark’s advice on complex lease disputes and other property-related disputes. Mark is also regularly asked to lecture at conferences on commercial litigation and advocacy skills. Mark was recently ranked among Toronto’s leading practitioners in the Canadian Lexpert Directory for corporate commercial litigation.

Mark graduated with an LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School in 2004. He was called to the Ontario bar in 2005. Mark is a member of the Law Society of Ontario and The Advocates’ Society.

• Wayne Safety Inc. v. Gendelman, 2023 ONSC 2478, 2023 ONSC 3517 and 2024 ONSC 1642; obtained extraordinary relief in the form of Anton Piller, Mareva, Norwich relief and multiple certificates of pending litigation to address an ongoing fraud, and resisted an attempted variation of injunction terms
• Successfully defended a manufacturing company in a confidential arbitration regarding a shareholder buyout dispute
• Physicians’ Dialysis Center Inc. v. Credit Valley Hospital, 2023 ONCA 402; counsel on an appeal concerning distribution of partnership proceeds
• Konstan et al. v. Berkovits et al., 2023 ONSC 497, 2023 ONSC 1214 and 2023 ONSC 3052, 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
• Up In Frames v. NYX Yonge Inc., 2022 ONSC 4795; successfully acted for a commercial tenant in restraining the developer landlord from prematurely terminating the lease to pursue a development
• Akelius Canada Ltd. v. 2436196 Ontario Inc., 2022 ONCA 259; successfully defended a vendor in a $56M claim for damages arising from failure to close on the sale of seven apartment buildings in downtown Toronto
• Alexander v. DHA Holdings Inc. et al., 2022 ONSC 2305; counsel for a widow in a multi-million dollar dependants’ support claim, which included complex shareholder oppression allegations
• 7868073 Canada Ltd. v. 1841978 Ontario Inc. and Sugar v. Vacuum Metallizing Limited, 2022 ONSC 4557; Trial counsel in a four-week trial involving multiple actions for oppression, breach of fiduciary duty and theft of business opportunity in relation to an industrial processing company
• 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
• Rusinek & Associates Inc. v. Arachchilage, 2021 ONCA 112; counsel on an appeal concerning whether a trustee in bankruptcy could initiate an equalization claim under the Family Law Act
• Hornstein v. Kats, 2020 ONSC 870, var’d 2021 ONCA 293; won an 18-day complex trial concerning a property investment
• Bennett v. Bennett, 2019 ONCA 772 aff’ing 2018 ONSC 4138; successfully resisted appeal from a judgment obtained for a client to enforce a settlement agreement
• Ania v. Spice Danforth Inc., 2019 ONSC 572; successfully brought an application to enforce an agreement of purchase and sale on behalf of the purchasers and had vendors’ cross-application dismissed
• L-Jalco Holdings Inc. v. MacPherson, 2018 ONCA 488; successfully resisted appeal concerning mortgage priority dispute
• County Court Centre Ltd. v. Turtle Jack’s Restaurant, 2017 ONSC 3004; successfully obtained summary judgment on liability and substantial damages after a trial in a commercial lease dispute
• Broze et al. v. Toza, 2014 ONSC 3302; successful on a motion to have the respondents in an estates application declared in contempt of court
• Di Michele v. Di Michele, 2014 ONCA 261 aff’ing 2013 ONSC 870; largely successful in resisting appeal from a successful application to seek an order for the sale or partition of a property

Individual

• Listed in The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory for Corporate/Commercial Litigation, 2024
• Recognized by Lexpert as a leading lawyer in Professional Liability, 2023
• Recognized by Lexpert as a top lawyer in Corporate Commercial Litigation, 2021

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)

Haber and Ross: Top Commercial Leasing Cases | Thomson Reuters

Mark Ross is interviewed for the Ontario Bar Association newsletter - Toronto Litigation Firm (rossnasseri.com)