Nicholas Kluge

Nicholas Kluge is a partner in Gowling WLG's Toronto office, practising in the area of commercial litigation and dispute resolution.

He has extensive experience as a trial and appellate lawyer, and as a strategist and creative problem-solver in complex, multi-party, multi-jurisdictional disputes, working closely with clients and other counsel in all Canadian provinces, the United States and internationally. Nicholas has acted as counsel before all levels of provincial courts in Canada, the federal court and the Supreme Court of Canada.

Nicholas' areas of practice include product liability defence, class actions, insolvency, financial services and capital markets litigation, including representing Canadian and multinational corporations in significant consumer, corporate and commercial litigation and cross-border restructurings.

Nicholas is the editor-in-chief of the Commercial Litigation Bulletin, a newsletter documenting and analyzing important developments in commercial litigation in Canada and globally. He is the co-author of the Canadian chapter of the International Comparative Legal Guide to Product Liability.

International experience

Nicholas has very close working relationships with clients and lawyers in the United States and Europe, and is frequently involved in multi-jurisdictional litigation. These relationships allow Nicholas to assemble the right resources to address problems with an international dimension.

Career & Recognition

Filter timeline:

Nicholas participated in the following presentations:

  • The New Canada Consumer Product Safety Act: Are You Ready? Webinar, June 16, 2011
  • Class Actions Against Financial Institutions: Trends and Defense Strategies Webinar Series - Webinar 1: Defeating Attacks on Account Agreements & Card Agreements, April 14, 2011

Representative Work

Product liability defence, including medical devices, pharmaceutical products, consumer goods, automobiles and component parts, electrical devices, foods, and natural health products.

Class action defence, including claims related to product liability, pensions, contracts, banking and lending disputes, and securities.

Corporate commercial litigation, including all matters relating to the breach of, or disputes regarding, commercial contracts, lender liability, the rights of debtors/creditors, and multi-jurisdictional disputes involving cross-border matters and dealings with foreign corporations and counsel.

Financial services and capital markets litigation, including 14 years representing Canadian chartered banks and foreign banks.

Directors' and officers' liability, including creditors' claims and shareholders' disputes.

Securities litigation and regulation, including issuer and investment dealer disclosure and liability, and broker liability.

Recent significant briefs

Product liability defence

  • Lead counsel for a major international furnace product manufacturer. acting as co-ordinating counsel for all North American product liability proceedings
  • Senior member of medical product class action defence team that successfully defeated national class action certification
  • Counsel defending national product liability class actions for manufacturers of hip implants, contact lens solutions, vaccines, diet drugs, pharmaceutical anti-inflammatories, and energy drinks

Bankruptcy and insolvency

  • Nortel trial team member with close involvement in trial preparation involving claims and allocation in respect of an estate worth approximately $9 billion
  • Counsel to the Monitor in the Sino-Forest CCAA proceedings

Broker negligence

  • Lead counsel defending a claim of negligence against an international online stock and commodities trading platform

Securities

  • Lead counsel defending an international mining company in a class action alleging prospectus misrepresentation

Fraud

  • Counsel defending an application involving allegations of international fraud of over $20 million

Pensions

  • Lead class action counsel defending the trustees of a pension plan against allegations arising out of a pension fund shortfall