David John Outerbridge

Across industries and disputes, David is an accomplished litigator, providing clients with strategic thinking, strong advocacy, and skilled management of complex engagements.

David has significant experience both as a trial lawyer and as appellate counsel, with a focus on litigation and arbitration in the energy, infrastructure, construction and procurement sectors, insurance law, product liability claims, indigenous law, class actions, environmental claims and commercial disputes. He acts for project developers and owners, lenders, contractors, design professionals, regulators and insurers in all manner of construction disputes, as well as for a wide range of clients in class actions, including financial institutions, pharmaceutical companies, public authorities and schools. In his insurance practice, David advises and represents a wide range of industry participants, in matters involving, among other things, policy interpretation, regulatory compliance, corporate and commercial transactions, and reinsurance.

In addition to his commercial disputes practice, David has substantial experience in public law, criminal and constitutional litigation. He has appeared as lead counsel at the Supreme Court of Canada, the Federal Court, all levels of court in Ontario, the courts of five other provinces, in commercial arbitrations, before public inquiries and before various administrative tribunals, including the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario and the Ontario Licence Appeal Tribunal.

In addition to his robust disputes practice, David is one of Canada’s leading e-discovery lawyers. He is Past-Chair of Sedona Canada, which is author of the Sedona Canada Principles Addressing Electronic Discovery, a best practices document that is incorporated by reference into the Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure. He is Past-Chair of the e-Discovery Implementation Committee (EIC), a joint committee of the Ontario Bar Association and The Advocates’ Society, whose mandate is to implement best practices relating to electronic discovery in Ontario. David is also the founder and Past-Chair of the Ontario Class Action Bench-Bar Liaison Committee.