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OUR PEOPLE
Christopher M. Stanek
Partner • Toronto
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Christopher M. Stanek
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Chris Stanek is a partner in Gowlings' Toronto office, practising in the area of advocacy.
Chris specializes in construction, insurance and commercial disputes and his clients include owners and lenders involved in construction disputes as well as contractors that have lien rights. Chris has been privileged to serve numerous corporations based in Canada, the United States and other countries as well as partnerships and individuals in a wide range of commercial disputes.
Chris has appeared before every level of court in Ontario and several administrative tribunals. Chris has also successfully argued numerous appeals, in Superior Court and at the Ontario Court of Appeal, both as an appellant and as a respondent.
Chris ranked in the top seven students each year throughout his law school career. Prior to joining Gowlings, he served as a clerk to the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories. Before attending law school, Chris was a constituency assistant to a member of provincial parliament for several years.
Chris' notable reported cases include:
- Arcon Group Inc. v. 1371344 Ontario Inc., in which Chris successfully argued that the construction lien registered against his client’s land violated the technical requirements of the Construction Lien Act and was discharged;
- Microvoice Applications, Inc. v. ICE Consultants Inc. in which Chris successfully argued before both the Superior Court and the Ontario Court of Appeal that a U.S. corporation had the right to litigate in Ontario.
- PSC Industrial Services Canada Inc. v. City of Thunder Bay where Chris successfully argued for the production of confidential city council documents concerning the demolition of a grain elevator on city-owned property;
- Rakowski v. Malagerio, in which Chris successfully defended the right of the incorporated student government of a Community College to administer its own corporate bylaws;
- Re Golden Mile Bowl Inc., an appeal in which Chris successfully represented a trustee in bankruptcy with respect to a challenge to the Registrar in Bankruptcy’s approval of the trustee’s fees and disbursements;
- Walters v. Clark, where Chris was successful in overturning the judgment of a Superior Court Judge on appeal to the Ontario Court of Appeal;
- Zwaig Associates Inc. v. Mok, in which Chris successfully argued to enforce a personal guarantee in favour of a trustee in bankruptcy before both the Superior Court and the Ontario Court of Appeal.
Chris is the instructor of the litigation section of the annual Gold Seal Construction Law Course sponsored by the Ontario Sewer and Watermain Association (OSWCA). Chris was a speaker at the Canadian Institute’s Conference on Litigating and Resolving Construction Disputes, where he delivered the paper: Construction Litigation Intelligence: Practical and Tactical Strategies in Dealing with Ontario Courts. Chris is also the co-author of Seven Deadly Sins (Adapted and Applied to Construction Insolvencies) (with Neil Abbott) and the author of The Risks in Removing Construction Liens from Title to Land, which appeared in PULSE, a publication of the Ontario Risk and Insurance Management Society (ORIMS).
While attending law school, Chris was a research assistant on the book The Constitutional Protection of Freedom of Expression by Richard Moon (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000).
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