Allison Speigel is commercial litigator who has broad industry experience. She has represented clients dealing with issues emanating from business disputes of all kinds.

Allison was once described as being “annoyingly ethical, but the best person to have in a dog fight.” In a 2018 decision released after a 26 day trial during which Allison sat first-chair, the Court noted that Allison “decimated” the plaintiff in cross-examination. Allison thoroughly enjoys taking on clients with matters that are considered to be uphill battles and never shies away from making novel legal arguments.

Allison, however, also recognizes and has written extensively about how flawed our legal system is and how taxing litigation can be. Despite her innate desire to battle it out in court, Allison is always thinking about creative ways to settle matters and makes every attempt to do so.

Perhaps due to her writing on the subject matter, Allison was asked by the Attorney General of Ontario and the Chief Justice to co-chair a twelve person working group tasked with conducting a full review of the Rules of Civil Procedure. Allison accepted the position without hesitation and began working on the project in 2024. Allison has high hopes that the working group will be able to make fundamental changes to our civil justice system to make it more efficient, less expensive, faster, and, ultimately, more accessible.

Allison represents clients with litigation issues emanating from construction, complex commercial, contract, insolvency, real estate, and professional negligence disputes. Allison also regularly represents clients dealing with fraud-related litigation. Allison is an asset to the firm’s debt collection and enforcement team because she has the tenacity needed to battle fraudsters who are intent on hiding money.

Having also been involved in high-stakes project finance and debt restructuring transactions, Allison has insight into the deal-making process and associated strategies. This provides her with an enhanced ability to handle the litigation that ensues when negotiations or deals of any size or nature break-down.

Allison spent the first five years of her career litigating high-profile cases in New York City. Allison and her husband, however, decided that life in the great white north was too good to give up and moved back to Toronto, their hometown.

Since returning home to Toronto, Allison joined the team of Speigel Nichols Fox LLP and has helped the firm develop an innovative approach to the business of law. Allison helped to develop the firm’s alternative billing structure. With Allison’s help, the firm was one of the first in Canada to offer flat fee, value based-billing on all litigation matters.

Allison is constantly thinking about how law firms can evolve to better serve their clients and create better working environments for their lawyers. In the client context, she believes that law firms should always be focused on 3 things: results, service, and efficiency. As for lawyers, she believes that lawyers do their best work when they are enjoying what they do.

When not working, Allison enjoys spending time with her family and arguing (with just about anybody) for sport.

REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS

While in Canada

• Routinely represents contractors and subcontractors in a variety of multi-million dollar construction-related disputes (often involving claims concerning non-payment for work, deficiencies, delay, tenders, etc.)
• Routinely represents financial institutions and insurance companies in litigation involving the collection of outstanding debts (often involving fraud claims)
• Routinely represents individual and corporations in litigation involving breach of contract, negligence, fraud, and oppression
• Routinely represents individual and corporations in the context of shareholder and partnership disputes
• Routinely represents lawyers accused of having acted negligently (with up to $30M at stake)
• Routinely represents individuals and corporation involved in multi-million dollar commercial real estate disputes
• Routinely represents clients seeking and opposing certificates of pending litigation and Mareva injunctions
• Represented commercial property owner in dispute concerning claims of nuisance and injurious affection with the City of Toronto and a property developer
• Represented property owner against large developers and the City of Toronto
• Represented client seeking Mareva injunction in a fraud case to ensure that funds currently in Canada were not removed to China
• Represented condominium owner in an oppression action
• Represented home owner in dispute concerning flooding of land
• Represented Ontario client responding to a letters rogatory
• Acted as in-house counsel for an Ontario corporation by overseeing litigation in the Cayman Islands, New York, Texas, and California being run by local counsel

While in the US

• Represented a large international corporation on a breach of contract case worth $5.5B that threatened the existence of the corporation
• Represented international corporations facing securities-related governmental inquiries
• Represented leading manufacturer of smart-cards in enforcing fundamental patents that enable the use of the Java programming language on resource-constrained devices
• Represented Canadian client in patent infringement litigation against leaders in the laptop, router, semiconductor, and handset industries, involving patents that provide wireless capabilities
• Represented a corporation against leading financial institutions in patent infringement litigation involving data compression technology used in the realtime delivery of market data
• Advised a large international client in drafting a compliance handbook
• Represented a large international corporation being sued by the Republic of Iraq based on a number of claims relating to the alleged payments of kickbacks to the Saddam Hussein government in connection with the Oil-for-Food programme
• Advised clients and helped negotiate contracts ranging from under $100k to over $1B

Pro Bono Matters

• Represented French-speaking, Congolese client seeking asylum in the United States
• Represented Holocaust survivors applying for compensation from the German government
• Represented mentally-handicapped client seeking disability payments