Sonia Bjorkquist

Sonia is Chair of the firm’s National Disputes Department and Past President of the Advocates’ Society. Sonia has extensive experience defending companies in class actions, commercial arbitration and other complex litigation, including advising clients on strategies for managing risks and cross-border issues in multi-jurisdictional cases.

She defends complex product liability claims across many industries. She also litigates business-critical issues related to commercial agreements, banking, construction and infrastructure, data and privacy, directors' duties and shareholder rights and remedies.

An “extremely dedicated” and “tireless advocate” and trial lawyer, Sonia is ranked among Canada’s top litigators in Chambers Global (Dispute Resolution: Class Action Defence, and Litigation: Product Liability and General Commercial), Lexpert/ALM 500, Lexpert (Class Actions, Product Liability Litigation, Corporate-Commercial Litigation, and Commercial Arbitration), Best Lawyers (Class Action Litigation and Product Liability Law), and a Benchmark Litigation Star. Best Lawyers named Sonia as “Lawyer of the Year” for Product Liability Law, Toronto (2019). She is named as a leader in class actions in the Lexpert Guide to the Leading US/Canada Cross-Border Litigation Lawyers in Canada. Sonia is rated AV Preeminent in Martindale Hubbell’s Peer Review Ratings. She is a frequent speaker and author on class action and commercial arbitration issues.

Sonia was selected by the Government of Canada as a delegate to the CUSMA Advisory Committee on Private Commercial Disputes under USMCA Article 31.22, and served on the predecessor NAFTA 2022 Advisory Committee. The CUSMA Advisory Committee promotes the use of arbitration, mediation and ODR for the prevention and resolution of international commercial disputes between private parties in the North American free trade area.

Prior to joining Osler as a lawyer, Sonia clerked for the Court of Appeal for Ontario.

Queen’s University, LL.B.

University of Waterloo, B.A. (Hons.)

Bar Admission: Ontario, 1997