Sylvie Rodrigue

First Year of Call
Ontario, 2008

Areas of Practice
Commercial Litigation

Description
With a broad litigation practice and extensive experience defending cases in all provinces across Canada, including class actions both pre-certification and at trial, Sylvie has a formidable track record supporting clients in their highest-profile disputes.

Sylvie has been involved in a wide range of litigation matters, including multi-jurisdictional class actions, relating to product liability, drugs and medical devices, banking, privacy, constitutional law, competition law, consumer complaints, civil liability, employment matters, securities, large tort and negligence. She regularly represents clients in the banking, retail, technology, manufacturing, communication, real estate, railway, aviation and pharmaceutical industries in a variety of commercial disputes. Sylvie has appeared before all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada.

In 2021, she successfully represented the Canadian Olympic Committee and Olympian Mandy Bujold against the International Olympic Committee before the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Switzerland on a pro bono basis. The legal challenge, which led to Ms. Bujold’s participation at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, raised human rights and discrimination issues on the basis of pregnancy and resulted in a landmark decision for the benefit of female athletes worldwide.

Sylvie was awarded the designation of Advocatus Emeritus by the Québec Bar, a distinction awarded to a limited number of lawyers to honour an outstanding legal career, remarkable contribution to the profession and dedicated efforts to social or community services. The Ontario Bar Association also awarded her the 2023 Excellence in Class Actions Award. Sylvie was recognized by the WXN in 2016 and 2019 as one of Canada’s Top 100 Women and was named 2021 Litigator of the Year by Canadian Law Awards. Benchmark consistently recognizes her as one of Canada’s top female litigators, as well as Chambers and other ranking publications for her work in product liability and class action matters.

Sylvie leads our Montréal office, as well as Torys’ national Class Action practice.