Call us: (905) 366 9700
EDUCATION
- Juris Doctor (2003) - University of Western Ontario
- Bachelor of Science (1997 Honours) - University of Toronto
PRIOR LAW FIRM EXPERIENCE
- Pallett Valo LLP
- WELPartners (formerly Whaley Estate Litigation)
- McMaster, McIntyre & Smyth LLP
- Rusek Law Office
BAR ADMISSIONS
- Ontario Bar – July 2004
- Recipient of the William Belmont Common, Q.C. Prize for Criminal Law
PROFESSIONAL & COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES
- Section Lead/Liaison for the Ontario Bar Association’s Civil Rules Review Taskforce (2025)
- Technology Liaison on the Executive of the Trusts and Estates Section – Ontario Bar Association (2023-2024)
- Public Affairs Liaison on the Executive of the Trusts and Estates Section – Ontario Bar Association (2021-2023)
- Canadian Bar Association
- Ontario Bar Association
- Advocates Society
- Peel Law Association
- Ukrainian Canadian Bar Association
- Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association of Toronto
- West-End Women's Network
- Past board member for various charitable organisations, including:
- Etobicoke Children’s Centre (2017-2018)
- Loyola Arrupe Centre for Seniors (2008-2012)
- Rotary Cheshire Homes (2006-2014)
- Canadian Helen Keller Centre (2006-2014)
AWARDS + RECOGNITION
Krystyne Rusek
Counsel
PROFILE
ARTICLES + SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Krystyne’s litigation practice focuses on the area of estates; trust and capacity disputes, including will challenges and will validation, dependant support claims, guardianship applications, and power of attorney disputes. She appears regularly in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal.
Krystyne is one of our hybrid lawyers (and there are not many out there nowadays), a litigator who has had solicitor experience practicing in the trenches to get deals done. She can litigate these issues better because she has been involved in the thick of them.
Krystyne is an advocate, a teacher, a writer, a representative of the Ontario Bar Association, and a public speaker. Krystyne is highly respected by her peers and was recognized by Best Lawyers 2025 Edition, in Trusts and Estates Law. Krystyne was recently appointed by the Trusts and Estates Section Executive of the Ontario Bar Association as the Section Lead/Liaison for the Civil Rules Review Taskforce.
Krystyne is also another of our lawyers who has served our country. She is a former member of the Canadian Reserves, 25 Medical Company (1993-2000). She can strip a rifle even better than she can strip away the pretenses of a prevaricating witness.
She likes to swim with sharks. Go figure. Please! No snide comments about lawyers in general (don’t even think it).
REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS
- Estate litigation, including representation of individual and institutional litigants in the Superior Court of Justice and Court of Appeal:
- under new rule 6.1.01 of the Rules of Civil Procedure, obtained bifurcation of issues order in an estates matter, with costs award against opposing party
- obtained an order under s. 21.1 of the Succession Law Reform Act, validating a will that did not comply with the formal requirements of execution and witnessing
- successfully defended a Will challenge, with costs against opposing party ordered due to procedural deficiencies
- successfully defended a complicated dependant support claim, with costs awarded on a substantial indemnity basis against the alleged dependant
- succeeded on a motion for interim support, while also securing repayment of funds improperly taken by the estate trustee
- settled a complicated dependant support and compensation application, while securing costs awards for various steps taken over the course of the litigation
- represented the successful party in a leading case on elder abuse, Juzumas v. Baron, 2012, ONSC 7220
- Estate administration:
- provides legal advice and representation to estate trustees
- acts as estate trustee in contentious and non-contentious files