Melissa is experienced litigation counsel with a widely recognized expertise in civil and regulatory securities cases, professional disciplinary matters and complex commercial litigation matters.
Melissa’s expertise is unique in that she acts on a wide range of securities regulatory matters before the OSC, IIROC and the MFDA, both on the prosecution and defence side. Melissa routinely acts as counsel on compliance and registrant regulation matters and enforcement investigations, settlements and contested proceedings involving such issues as insider trading, disclosure violations and market manipulation. Melissa also acts as outside prosecution counsel on complex disciplinary matters before the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario and is regularly retained to advise on matters before other regulatory authorities across the country in the insurance and financial sectors.
Melissa maintains an active commercial litigation practice and has appeared before all levels of Court in Ontario. She advises investors, registrants, issuers, officers, directors, underwriters and private and public corporations on a variety of corporate and securities matters, including securities class action proceedings, corporate and shareholder disputes, oppression remedy matters, proxy battles, corporate governance matters, investment loss claims, breach of contract and professional negligence matters.
In addition to being recognized as one of the Top 25 Women in Litigation by Benchmark Canada since 2017, Melissa was named the 2018 Lawyer of the Year for Securities Law in the Toronto area by Best Lawyers in Canada. Melissa has also been recognized by Lexpert as one of the Top 500 Lawyers in Canada, by Chambers Canada as a leader in the field of securities litigation and by Best Lawyers in the fields of corporate commercial and securities litigation.