Lexpert presents Ontario’s best telecommunications lawyers based on the results of the latest extensive yearly peer survey. For the complete list of the province’s most recommended telecom lawyers and law firms, check out our practice area rankings.
In our survey, telecommunications law covers all activities regulated by the Department of Industry Canada pursuant to the Radiocommunication Act and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
Most frequently recommended telecommunications lawyers
Grant Buchanan
Law firm: McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Year called to the bar: 1980
City: Toronto
Grant Buchanan serves as counsel at McCarthy Tétrault LLP’s business law group in Toronto. He devotes his practice to broadcast and telecommunications regulation, policy and business transactions and copyright board work. Buchanan advises Canadian and non-Canadian for-profit and not-for-profit companies, unions, charities, regulators and financial institutions in the communications sector. He also advises parties appearing before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and the Copyright Board of Canada. Buchanan boasts broad understanding of the communications industry, related corporate documentation and the framework for broadcast and telecom regulation and financing. He has served as president of Canadian Broadcasters Rights Agency since 1991. He is also a former vice-president of corporate and regulatory affairs at Western International Communications Inc and was previously in-house counsel at the Bank of Nova Scotia. Buchanan is a co-author of several legal publications, including the Canadian Broadcasting Regulatory Handbook (2017), Regulatory Guide to Canadian Television (2014), Canadian Spam, Telemarketing and Privacy Handbook (2016), Regulatory Guide to Canadian Radio (2016), Canadian Telecommunications Regulatory Handbook (2017) and the Guide to the Copyright Board of Canada (2020). He is a frequent speaker at industry events, including co-chairing the International Institute of Communications’ Canadian Communications Law & Policy Conferences from 2012 to 2020.
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Laurence J.E. Dunbar
Law firm: Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
Year called to the bar: 1980
City: Ottawa
Laurence J.E. Dunbar is a partner at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP. He advises Canadian and foreign carriers, telecommunications service providers and investors in the wireline, wireless, cable television, satellite and Internet markets. Dunbar regularly advises clients on strategies to open domestic and international telecommunications markets to competition, as well as on related interconnection, ownership, licensing and tariff issues. Assisting with trans-border telecommunications issues, his expertise extends to the application of Canadian foreign ownership restrictions to investments in Canadian carriers and broadcasting undertakings and the regulation that govern trans-border facilities and services. Dunbar also advises clients on a wide range of radio spectrum issues relating to the provision of mobile wireless (cellular and PCS), fixed radio and satellite services. He has assisted airport authorities and electric and gas utilities with strategies to leverage their infrastructure to provide telecommunications services.
Consistently recommended telecommunications lawyers
David B. Elder
Law firm: Stikeman Elliott LLP
Year called to the bar: 1991
City: Ottawa
David B. Elder serves as counsel at Stikeman Elliott LLP, where is chair of the communications and privacy and data protection groups. He is also a member of the competition and foreign investment, government relations and international regulation and compliance groups and serves as the firm’s chief privacy officer. Elder specializes in communications, competition and privacy law. He is recognized as one of the country’s foremost authorities on Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), having been involved in all stages of the development of the new law, including making formal submissions on behalf of clients and having successfully worked to help secure some key amendments to the law and regulations during the legislative process. Elder advises clients on the interpretation and application of the new law and assists businesses with the development of anti-spam compliance programs. He is also a sought-after speaker on CASL. With respect to privacy matters, Elder provides privacy compliance advice to Canadian and international businesses, including technology companies, online service providers, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers conducting both bricks-and-mortar and online activities.
Gerald (Jay) Kerr-Wilson
Law firm: Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
Year called to the bar: 1999
City: Ottawa
Gerald (Jay) Kerr-Wilson is a partner and the leader of the communications practice group at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP. He practises primarily in the areas of communications and public law, with an emphasis on copyright. Kerr-Wilson regularly represents Canadian and foreign communications and technology companies and advises clients on issues related to telecommunications and broadcasting regulation, trademarks and copyright licensing and liability. He represents large and small, Canadian and foreign communications and technology companies in proceedings before the Copyright Board of Canada, advising them on issues related to copyright licensing and copyright liability. Kerr-Wilson also represents clients in appeals and judicial reviews before the Federal Court, Federal Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Canada. He is at the forefront of the debate surrounding the regulation of rapidly evolving communications technologies. Kerr-Wilson has testified before parliamentary committees and served as a delegate to the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) standing committee on copyright and related rights, on behalf of Canada’s cable and satellite industry.
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Michael S. Koch
Law firm: Goodmans LLP
Year called to the bar: 1988
City: Toronto
Michael S. Koch is a partner at the business law, foreign investment and communications and competition and antitrust groups at Goodmans LPP. He specializes in federal regulatory matters, including communications, copyright, competition and foreign investment law, in both transactions and litigation. Koch assists domestic and foreign financial and strategic investors in completing mergers and acquisitions. He also advises and represents telecommunications and media companies in navigating Canada’s regulatory framework and before tribunals, including the CRTC, Copyright Board of Canada and Competition Tribunal. He advocates on behalf of targets of government-initiated investigations and proceedings brought by the Competition Bureau. Koch also appears before the courts on reviews of and appeals from decisions of these bodies. He writes and speaks frequently for the Law Society of Ontario, Ontario Bar Association and University of Toronto on competition law, administrative law, communications regulation and copyright law. Koch is a past chair of the Canada Bar Association’s competition section’s unilateral practices committee.
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Monique McAlister
Law firm: Goodmans LLP
Year called to bar: 1998
City: Toronto
Monique McAlister is a partner at Goodmans LLP’s communications law and competition, antitrust and foreign investment groups. She specializes in regulatory, public and commercial law, with expertise in communications, competition, copyright, privacy, anti-spam, advertising and consumer protection. McAlister has served as counsel on major applications and policy submissions to the CRTC, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and Copyright Board and investigations by the Competition Bureau. She advises clients in the communications and digital media industries on regulation of broadcasting and digital media, public policy-making, copyright infringement, foreign ownership restrictions on cross-border media investments, CRTC applications, distribution agreements, affiliation agreements, program supply and program production agreements, merger reviews, misleading advertising and claims substantiation, packaging and labelling, promotional contests and e-commerce.
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Leslie J.F. Milton
Law firm: Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
Year called to the bar: 1994
City: Ottawa
Leslie J.F. Milton is a partner at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP. She has recently returned to her communications, competition and administrative law practice at Fasken from an in-house counsel position at a leading global satellite services provider. Milton provides complex legal and strategic advice to Canadian and foreign wireline, wireless and satellite telecommunications service providers on all aspects of telecommunications and radiocommunications regulation in Canada. She acts for these clients in a broad range of proceedings before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED Canada). Milton has participated in all manner of policy, licensing and enforcement proceedings before the CRTC, including international licensing, wholesale and retail tariffs, forbearance, foreign ownership, consumer safeguards, local access and interconnection, Internet services, numbering, do-not-call, anti-spam (CASL) and voter contact proceedings. Before ISED Canada, she represents wireless and satellite operators on spectrum and radio licensing, spectrum policy proceedings, antenna siting and sharing, equipment certification and other regulatory compliance matters.
Stephen G. Zolf
Law firm: Aird & Berlis LLP
Year called to the bar: 1989
City: Toronto
Stephen G. Zolf is a partner and member of Aird & Berlis LLP’s corporate and commercial, telecommunications, sports and media and technology groups. He guides clients in implementing new business models in the internet’s environment of rapidly evolving digital distribution networks and platforms. Zolf advises telecommunications clients on the CRTC’s regulatory framework for wholesale access to telecommunications facilities, including wireline facilities and mobile wireless services. He also advises clients on merger clearance under the Competition Act and foreign investment in Canada under the Investment Canada Act. Zolf represents clients before Industry Canada on spectrum policy matters and license transfers. He also represents media and content companies on rights clearances and copyright law, Canadian content rules and regulations, the Canadian tax credit regime and intellectual property issues governing producers and content creators. Zolf has experience before many administrative tribunals and agencies, including the CRTC, Canadian Copyright Board, Competition Bureau and Industry Canada.
Repeatedly recommended telecommunications lawyers
Lawson A.W. Hunter
Law firm: Stikeman Elliott LLP
Year called to the bar: 1971 (NB); 1986 (ON)
City: Ottawa
Lawson A.W. Hunter serves as a senior counsel at Stikeman Elliott LLP. He is considered as one of Canada’s leading regulatory and government relations counsel, drawing on extensive experience in business, government and private practice. Hunter is formerly Canada’s senior civil servant in charge of competition policy and enforcement, primarily responsible for the drafting of the federal Competition Act. He advises Canadian and multinational corporations on all aspects of federal regulatory law and policy. Hunter was a member of the firm’s partnership and the head of the competition and antitrust group from 1993 to 2003. From 2003 to 2008, he served as executive vice-president and chief corporate officer of Bell Canada and BCE Inc., where he was responsible for overseeing regulatory, government relations and corporate affairs. Hunter rejoined the firm’s Ottawa office as counsel in September 2008. He assumed the role of head of the competition and foreign investment group and returned to his role as counsel from April 2010 to May 2012.
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T. Gregory Kane
Law firm: Dentons Canada LLP
Year called to the bar: 1973
City: Ottawa
T. Gregory Kane is a counsel at Dentons Canada LLP. He joined the firm’s communications and public policy law practice groups in 2012. His practice involves all aspects of domestic and international electronic and telecommunications sectors, including regulatory, transactional and privatization mandates in telephony, satellite, wireless, internet, broadcasting, broadcasting distribution and copyright. Kane has appeared before several federal and provincial regulatory agencies, including the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and the Copyright Board. Kane’s practice extends to regulatory and appellate litigation most recently in the transportation and health care-regulated sectors. He advises on federal lobbying, conflicts and ethics issues. Kane has made appearances before government departments, including Industry Canada, Canadian Heritage, Transport Canada, Canadian Transportation Agency and Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner. He has also appeared before the Federal Court of Canada and the Supreme Court of Canada in judicial proceedings to review department and agency decisions. Kane has served as legal advisor to tribunals and has acted on specific mandates for government departments.
Barbara Miller
Law firm: Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
Year called to the bar: 1981
City: Toronto
Barbara Miller is a partner at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP. She was previously co-chair of the firm’s communications practice group. Miller specializes in communications, mergers and acquisitions, financing transactions, corporate governance, public-private partnerships and infrastructure projects and general corporate and commercial matters. She represents clients on international, cross-border and domestic M&A and restructuring and infrastructure transactions. Miller advises clients on leading investments, acquisitions, disposition and financings of telecommunications and broadcasting entities in Canada. She also provides general regulatory advice to industry members and advises US cable networks in their dealings with Canadian regulatory authorities. Involved in film financings and domestic and international production and co-production agreements, she assists clients with seeking tax credits and other government funding for Canadian television and film projects, as well as the CRTC’s unsolicited telecommunications and do-not-call list rules and Canada’s anti-spam legislation. Miller also advises in relation to matters pertaining to cybersecurity and actionable intelligence.
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J. Aidan O'Neill
Law firm: Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
Year called to the bar: 1982 (QC); 1985 (ON)
City: Ottawa
J. Aidan O’Neill is a counsel at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP. He devotes his practice to copyright, media and communications law. O’Neill advises on copyright issues related to the communications, education and media sectors. He has assisted clients with tariff-setting proceedings conducted before the Canadian Copyright Board. Since 1987, O’Neill has acted as legal counsel in a wide variety of proceedings before the Copyright Board to establish the royalties payable for the use of musical works, sound recordings and other copyrighted works by both private and public broadcasters. He has also advised on the use of published literary works by K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and provincial and territorial governments in Canada. O’Neill advises a broad range of clients on their regulatory dealings with the CRTC, including the licensing of new television and radio broadcasting services and the distribution in Canada of foreign satellite services. He regularly represents clients in judicial review applications arising from Copyright Board and CRTC decisions before the Federal Court of Appeal and on any subsequent appeal proceedings before the Supreme Court of Canada.
Margot Patterson
Law firm: Dentons Canada LLP
Year called to the bar: 2000
City: Ottawa
Margot Patterson is a counsel at Dentons Canada LLP’s intellectual property, communications law, competition law and media, entertainment and sports practice groups. Her practice is focused on media, brands and intellectual property. Patterson advises businesses in entertainment, e-commerce and technology matters on exploiting, growing and protecting their commercial assets. She was designated by the Law Society of Ontario as a certified specialist in copyright. Patterson regularly advises clients on licences for copyright-protected content. She represents clients before the Copyright Board of Canada and has acted as an expert advisor to international organizations on the Canadian copyright system. Patterson works with broadcasters and content distributors to navigate CRTC rules and structure commercial agreements to ensure regulatory compliance and the successful launch of services in Canada. She advises a broad range of clients on advertising and marketing, including promotions, sponsorships and contests of all kinds, branding issues and competitive disputes. Patterson also advises on consumer protection, regulated consumer products and services and product recalls. She has worked extensively with businesses to meet the requirements of Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation and privacy laws.
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Scott M. Prescott
Law firm: Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
Year called to the bar: 1997
City: Ottawa
Scott M. Prescott is a co-managing partner at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP in Ottawa. He specializes in communications and administrative law. Prescott boasts expertise in the legal, regulatory and policy frameworks governing the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in Canada. He provides complex legal and strategic advice to cable and satellite distributors, television and radio broadcasters, online content providers, Canadian and foreign programming services, wireline and wireless telecom companies and Internet service providers. His clients include leading Canadian and international communications companies. Prescott has been involved in numerous licensing, ownership and policy proceedings before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Prescott’s communications practice includes advising on various matters relating to licensing and regulatory compliance, dispute resolution, regulatory and statutory interpretation, transfers of ownership and control, Canadian ownership and foreign investment, regulatory and policy frameworks, building access and telecommunications interconnection, licensing and tariffs.
Peter D. Ruby
Law firm: Goodmans LLP
Year called to the bar: 1996
City: Toronto
Peter D. Ruby is a partner and co-chair of Goodmans LLP’s technology group. He has a national and international practice focused on business and IT-based dispute resolution, including software, telecommunications, film, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, television, privacy and data protection and breach, IP, e-commerce and internet litigation, arbitration, mediation and advice. Ruby represents large multinational organizations and some of Canada’s most entrepreneurial IT companies, including Oracle, NBCUniversal, SAP, Bell Media, Nortel’s monitor, Trader Corporation and Business Development Bank of Canada, in proceedings before arbitrators, the Supreme Court of Canada, the courts of Ontario, Canada’s national telecommunications and broadcast regulator and other tribunals. Ruby is a member of the International Technology Law Association’s executive committee and former co-chair of the dispute resolutions committee. He is also a former director of the Canadian Technology Law Association and the Toronto Computer Lawyers Group. Ruby has served as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Toronto, where he taught telecommunications and internet law.
Y. Monica Song
Law firm: Dentons Canada LLP
Year called to the bar: 1998
City: Ottawa
Y. Monica Song is a partner at Dentons Canada LLP, where she leads the communications law group in Canada. She is a skilled administrative lawyer with in-depth knowledge of the business, legal, regulatory, licensing and public policy issues affecting the communications industry. Song has more than 20 years of experience advising clients in the sector, including wireline and wireless carriers, resellers, satellite operators, cable companies, internet service providers, cloud-based application service providers, digital media undertakings, content providers and equipment manufacturers and distributors. She also oversees the provision of tailored commercial, access to information, lawful access, lobbying, privacy, marketing and advertising, copyright and transactional advisory services. Song is a seasoned litigator and has appeared before the Ontario Superior Court, Divisional Court, Court of Appeal for Ontario, Ontario Provincial Court, Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal in both civil and administrative law proceedings. Her work before a host of statutory boards and tribunals includes proceedings before the CRTC, Canadian International Trade Tribunal, Ontario Energy Board, Canadian Transportation Agency, Canadian Human Rights Commission and Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.