Bio
Rachel is a commercial litigator whose practice focusses on construction law. Known for her practical, affable and flexible approach to litigation, Rachel excels at distilling complicated legal matters and building open and trusted relationships with her clients. She is a highly responsive, confident litigator, and has an affinity for complex legal situations requiring creative solutions.
Rachel has represented clients of all sizes in complicated contract and shareholder disputes, real estate litigation, insolvency proceedings and general corporate and commercial litigation. She has acted for developers, project owners, public bodies and construction professionals in wide array of matters, including residential and commercial property development, financing disputes, professional liability and in P3 and infrastructure litigation. Rachel also has considerable experience representing condominium corporations in construction, oppression and human rights disputes.
She has appeared for clients before all levels of Ontario courts, various administrative tribunals and in private arbitration.
Rachel was born in Jamaica, has lived in The Bahamas and Pennsylvania and now calls Toronto home. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 2011 and her law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in 2016.
Rachel also served as coordinator for the Amicus Program for the Ontario Estates and Commercial list, supporting the Court in the appointment of volunteer Amicus counsel when requested.
Memberships
- Canadian Bar Association
- Ontario Bar Association
- The Advocates' Society; member-at-large of TAS Commercial Litigation Practice Group (2023-2024)
- Toronto Lawyers Association; member of TLA New Lawyers Committee (2023-2024)
- Coordinator of the Commercial List and Estates List Amicus Program (2022-2024)
Representative Work
- Canadian counsel to B. Riley Farber Inc., the court-appointed monitor of Lighthouse Immersive Inc. and Lighthouse Immersive U.S.A., Inc. in their proceedings under the CCAA and Chapter 15 in Delaware.
- Counsel to FTI Consulting Canada Inc. as court-appointed monitor of Fire & Flower Holdings Corp. and its affiliates pursuant to the CCAA.
- Counsel to Grant Thornton Limited as Trustee in Bankruptcy of self-proclaimed crypto king Aiden Pleterski and AP Private Equity Limited.
- Joint ventures and public companies in complex construction, engineering and design disputes involving public-private-partnership infrastructure projects across Ontario. Mandates have included transit systems, multi-modal stations, highways and sewage infrastructure.
- Property development companies and constructors. Mandates include disputes over construction of low- and high-rise residential and mixed-use projects.
- Represented a developer in its dispute over the development of a mid-rise residential condominium involving deficiency claims and claims for delay.
Speaking
- Evening with the Commercial List Judges, Toronto, ON - Speaker at the ‘Evening with the Commercial List Judges’ on “How to Be a Good Junior at Hearings at the Commercial List”
Rankings & Recognition
- Fogler, Rubinoff LLP Prize in Debtor/Creditor Law
Representative Publications
- “Forging Your Own Path: Alternative Routes to Big Law” , OBA (June 6, 2021)
- “Trials and Tribulations of a CAT” , Toronto Condo News (January 2020)
- The Potcake Album (Nassau: Media Enterprises, 2013)