Wendy Berman is a partner in McCarthy Tétrault’s litigation group in the Toronto office where she leads the securities litigation practice. She is one of Canada’s foremost securities litigators with extensive experience in complex commercial and securities-related litigation, often involving parallel and cross border regulatory, criminal and class actions proceedings. She has exceptional expertise in shareholders’ remedies, litigation aspects of proxy contests, take-over bids and other acquisitions, and corporate governance.
With a legal career spanning 30+ years, Wendy has acted for public companies and their directors and officers in some of Canada’s largest and most significant investigations and proceedings relating to allegations of corporate misconduct, disclosure violations, fraud and insider trading. She advises clients on managing and responding to corporate crisis situations.
From June 2020 to December 2021, she served as Vice-Chair of the Ontario Securities Commission. During her tenure, she was a member of the Commission, its board of directors, adjudicative committee and executive team. Wendy chaired or participated as a member of tribunal panels that decided securities enforcement and transaction-related proceedings and appeals of decisions of self-regulatory organizations. She was also executive sponsor for a number of important securities policy and rule-making initiatives, including mandatory climate-related disclosure and broader diversity.
Wendy’s is recognized by many notable legal authorities, including Chambers Canada, the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, and Best Lawyers in Canada. She is the recipient of the Lexpert Zenith Award honouring leading women lawyers, the Canadian recipient of the International Law Office Client Choice Award for exceptional legal work and client service in litigation, and is recognized by Benchmark Litigation as a “Litigation Star” in the Securities category, and one of the “Top 25 Canadian Women in Litigation.”
A member of the Bars of Ontario and British Columbia, Wendy is also a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, a member of the Canadian Bar Association, The Advocates’ Society and the Women’s Law Association of Ontario. Wendy is a former member of Board of Directors of the Advocates’ Society, the Securities Proceedings Advisory Committee and the Executive Committee of the Women in White Collar Defense Association.
She is co-author of the Canada chapter of The International Investigations Review (5th Edition), published by Law Business Research Ltd.