Byron Shaw

Litigation: Products Liability

Byron’s practice includes defence of class actions and mass tort claims with a focus on product liability matters, particularly for manufacturers of pharmaceutical medications and devices. Byron’s practice also includes corporate and commercial litigation, infrastructure disputes and public law litigation for both public and private sector clients.

Byron has appeared before all levels of court in Ontario, as well as the Supreme Court of Canada and trial and appellate courts in other provinces. In 2017-2018, Byron was a visiting lawyer with Paul, Weiss in New York where he worked on litigation before federal and state courts and investigations by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice.

Byron’s notable cases include the defence of:

• Sanofi Consumer Health in the dismissal of a proposed national class proceeding concerning alleged defects in ranitidine medication for heartburn;

• Abbott Laboratories and AbbVie in national testosterone litigation, securing the first pharmaceutical class action to be defeated by way of summary judgment in Canada;

• Abbott Laboratories in putative class actions by individuals and governments concerning opioid medications;

• St. Jude Medical in product liability class actions concerning defibrillators and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices;

• trivago in defeating certification of a proposed national class action alleging false or misleading advertising in relation to its online platforms.

Ontario Bar, 2009

Co-Chair of the International Subcommittee of the Commercial Litigation Section of the American Bar Association

Constitutional Law, 5th ed. (with Justice Patrick Monahan and Padraic Ryan). Authored or co-authored a number of other peer-reviewed publications.

Lecturer at the University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Law.