DEREK MCKAY, Toronto Litigation Lawyer

Since his call to the Ontario bar in 2006, Derek’s civil litigation practice has focused on class actions and complex commercial disputes. Prior to joining the firm in 2025, Derek practiced with two specialized Toronto litigation boutiques where he was an integral member of the lawyer teams in some of Canada’s largest and precedent-setting class actions.

Derek has a particular affinity for complicated problems of law and a knack for crafting elegant legal solutions. He excels at boiling down complex situations to the key facts and issues that matter, and takes great satisfaction in presenting clients with a clear distillation of their cases and what needs to be done to bring them to a successful conclusion.

Outside of his litigation work, Derek is co-author of two leading texts on Ontario civil procedure: Holmested and Watson: Ontario Civil Procedure and Watson and McGowan, Ontario Civil Practice. He is also a long-serving member of the Rules Secretariat of the Ontario Civil Rules Committee.

Derek is a 2005 graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School, where he was awarded the Sir Jack Jacob Prize for his first-place standing in Class Actions. In his graduating year, Derek was also one of the two members of Osgoode’s trial advocacy mooting team, placing second in both the Ontario Arnup Cup and the National Sopinka Cup.

Outside of his litigation and intellectual pursuits, Derek can almost always be found pedaling a bicycle and is known to start talking cycling for hours if someone so much as mentions the word “bike” in his presence.