James A. Woods, Ad.E., is considered to be one of the best lawyers in Quebec and Canada. With over 40 years of experience in the fields of litigation and arbitration, he has pleaded before all instances of federal and Quebec and Ontario provincial tribunals, as well as the Supreme Court of Canada. During his career, he also acted as arbitrator, either as president or member of a panel, in a large number of commercial and international files, both ad hoc and under the rules of the International Chamber of Commerce.
James is a Fellow of the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers, of the Federation of Defence and Corporate Counsel and a Senior Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America. The most trusted legal directories continue to list him among the top lawyers. Besides, he received honors bestowed on a select number of accomplished litigators. In 2020, he was inducted into Benchmark Litigation’s Hall of Fame, an award “only given to select lawyer(s) with a long, illustrious career with considerable achievements.” Best Lawyers named him the “Lawyer of the year” in “Bet-the-company litigation - Montreal” (2012), “Corporate and Commercial Litigation” (2013), “Bet-the-Company Litigation” (2016), “Alternative Dispute Resolution” (2017), “Director and Officer Liability Practice” (2019), “Appellate Practice” (2020) and “Legal Malpractice Law” (2021). In 2016, he was designated “Litigator of the Year” by Le Monde Juridique Magazine.
He has created and taught for nearly 30 years the McGill University Law Faculty’s Civil Litigation Workshop.
- Called to the Bars of Québec, 1976, Ontario, 1979, Alberta and BC, 2006, England & Wales, 2007, Barreau Paris, 2013
- Member of the panel of arbitrators of the AAA, of the CBA, QBA, LSUC, LSBC, LSA, LSEW, ABA, IBA, LCIA, AAJ, CCAC, Diversity Law and Trial Law Institutes.
- Fellow of the ACTL, LCA, FDCC and CIA (London).
Representative cases include:
- Represented the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, Providence Equity Partners, and Madison Dearborn Capital Partners in the context of the contestation by a group of bondholders of one of the most important privatizations in history. The contestation was dismissed by the Superior Court following over 30 days of trial. The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously upheld the decision of the Superior Court.
- Acted for a group of Quebec corporations holding in the aggregate over $1 billion of frozen Asset-Backed Commercial Paper (ABCP) in contesting the plan of arrangement under the CCAA for the restructuring of the $32 billion Canadian non-bank ABCP market.
- Secured awards in damages in excess of $82M in capital for Videotron against a satellite television broadcaster for having neglected to act to eradicate the piracy of its television signals
- Represented Manulife Corporation in a major securities class action alleging improper disclosure to the market.
Updated March 2022
