Katherine L Kay

Practice Areas

Katherine Kay is a partner in the Litigation & Dispute Resolution and Competition & Foreign Investment Groups. She has served on the Partnership Board and Executive Committee, as well as the Management Committee in the Toronto office. Katherine leads the competition litigation group and her practice is concentrated on complex commercial litigation, often involving the interplay between regulatory, civil and criminal law regimes, and across multiple jurisdictions. Chambers Global has described Katherine as “virtually insurmountable in the area of competition litigation” and quoted client feedback that “she is always on top of her game - outstanding expertise, energetic, insightful and very practical" and “has an encyclopedic knowledge of the antitrust practice in Canada. She is extremely bright, very responsive and has a good litigation sense". Katherine was recently noted in the Global Competition Review’s Country Survey: Canada as one of Canada’s “headline competition litigators” and as “among the most talented and well-regarded in the country”. She was also described in previous GCR Country Surveys as “arguably the best competition litigator Canada has to offer”. She is lead counsel on a broad range of cases dealing with all aspects of competition law, including criminal defence work, class and other civil actions, mergers, abuse of dominance and other reviewable matters before the Competition Tribunal.

A major focus of Katherine’s practice is defence of class actions, where she has extensive experience in a wide range of cases, including those alleging anti-competitive conduct and securities law violations, product liability, franchise and consumer cases. Her class action practice emphasizes the key aspects of formulating and coordinating strategic responses, often working very closely with counsel in the United States, Europe and other jurisdictions; coordinating and directing multiple class actions across several Canadian jurisdictions; vigorous and highly effective advocacy before the relevant courts and tribunals; and negotiating, securing court approval and implementing settlements where appropriate.

Katherine regularly acts for clients in regulatory and criminal proceedings arising from both competition and securities investigations. She has extensive advocacy experience before all levels of trial and appellate courts in Ontario, British Columbia, Québec, the Yukon Territory, the Federal Court of Canada, and the Supreme Court of Canada. She appears frequently before the Competition Tribunal, the Ontario Securities Commission, and other regulatory bodies.