Gary H. Luftspring, Partner

Gary H. Luftspring is a Partner at Ricketts, Harris LLP and conducts a high-level litigation practice.
Gary is widely regarded as one of Toronto’s leading litigators concerning the breakdown of business relationships – in the boardroom, among business owners, at the senior operational level and when complex commercial agreements go awry.

Gary also frequently writes and speaks on corporate insurance issues.  He is one of the recognized experts in the country on directors and officers insurance.  He has been involved in many of the leading cases which are creating the Canadian law in this complex area.

He has considerable experience in advising high profile senior executives and directors of Canadian and U.S. based public and privately held companies and their insurers with respect to their duties and responsibilities in claims against them.  Gary has been successful on behalf of clients in numerous leading reported cases and was named by Lexpert as one of the consistently recommended counsel in the area.  He has appeared as an expert witness in US Federal Court on Canadian procedural and jurisdictional issues and has chaired annual Canadian conference on Directors and Officers Liability.

Gary also frequently acts for senior executives or companies in negotiating their contractual arrangements and in pursuing remedies on their behalf when things go bad.

The other areas of major litigation, trial and arbitral work where Gary has great experience are complex corporate/commercial and shareholder disputes; executive termination, intricate stock option and non-compete litigation, successor employer obligations; venture capital employee relations litigation and product liability defense work.  He also has experience in the defense of clients involved in major tort litigation especially in the product liability area.  He consistently acts for a number of major product companies in defending actions brought against them from time to time.  Gary regularly acts as lead counsel in high stakes cases before a wide variety of courts and tribunals including the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Divisional Court and the Court of Appeal of Ontario.  He has been an instructor in trial advocacy and negotiation for the Law Society of Upper Canada Bar Admission Course, and is a guest instructor at Osgoode Hall in trial advocacy.

Gary’s practice remains vibrant through ongoing referrals from clients and other professionals.

Admissions and Affiliations
Called to the Ontario Bar (1980)
Law Society of Upper Canada
Canadian Bar Association
Metropolitan Toronto Lawyers Association
Founding Director, North York Harvest Food Bank

Education
Bachelor of Laws, Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto, Ontario (1978)
Bachelor of Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario (1975)