Katelyn Ellins
AssociateKatelyn Ellins is a trial and arbitration lawyer that maintains a general civil litigation practice. Katelyn's practice focuses on complex commercial disputes, securities litigation and wrongful competition matters.
Katelyn has extensive experience representing clients in shareholder disputes, complex transactional disputes and disputes dealing with competitors lifting out teams of employees or a business. Katelyn regularly advocates for clients in relation to claims of oppression, breach of fiduciary duties, breach of restrictive covenants, breach of confidence, fraud, misrepresentation and the duties of good faith and honest contractual performance. Katelyn also provides strategic advice to public and private clients on a variety of corporate governance matters. Katelyn has acted for clients at all levels of Court in Ontario, including the Commercial List and the Court of Appeal of Ontario.
Katelyn represents both corporate and individual clients on a wide range of commercial law matters. Her client have included corporate directors, shareholders of public and private companies, large financial institutions, technology companies, manufacturers, real estate developers and insurance brokers.
Prior to joining the firm, Katelyn worked at a boutique corporate and securities law firm that specializes in providing legal and strategic advice to undervalued and underperforming Canadian public and private companies.
During law school, Katelyn was the Internal Director of Dalhousie's Student Advocacy Service and won several awards, including the Robert E. Bamford Memorial Prize awarded to the graduating student who best combines academic excellence with a commitment to the law school community and the Alistair Fraser Award in Commercial Law.
EXPERIENCE
- Acted for various insurance brokers in trials concerning the ownership of books of business, breach of restrictive covenants, spoliation, oppression, breach of confidence, wrongful competition and solicitation, breach of fiduciary duties and the duty of good faith
- Acts for a large Canadian bank in litigation commenced by the bank against debtors for fraud and misrepresentation and against the debtor's auditor for negligence
- Acted for interveners in relation to a challenge to alleged discriminatory practices by airlines before the Supreme Court of Canada
- Acts for a Canadian end-to-end IT solutions company in a dispute concerning a former director, officers and employees starting-up a competing business
- Acted for a creditor of a foreign state opposing a plan of arrangement under section 192 of the CBCA relating to the disposition of a gold mine from a public Canadian mining company to a company controlled by the state
- Acted for the purchasing shareholder in a dispute concerning the valuation of the shares in a share-purchase transaction
- Acted for a Canadian company in a Canadian-based manufacturing joint venture in a mediation/ arbitration dispute with its Chinese state-owned company joint venture partner
- Acted for a private software-as-a-service company providing customer communications management products and services in a commercial arbitration relating to the interpretation of a software license agreement
- Acted for a real estate development company in a dispute between the shareholders of the general partner of a limited partnership relating to the acquisition of commercial properties involving claims of oppression and breach of fiduciary duties
- Acted for the dissent shareholder in a proxy contest involving a Canadian mineral exploration and development company listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange
- Acted for a TSX Venture Exchange and Nasdaq listed issuer in relation to litigation commenced by a private equity fund relating to an alleged entitlement to warrants under a private placement
- Acted for companies, officers, directors and shareholders under investigations by the Ontario Securities Commission
- Acted for shareholders of numerous private companies in oppression, breach of fiduciary duties, wind-up and related proceedings where the parties did not have liquidity exit provisions
- Various work relating to OBCA and CBCA plans of arrangement
- Various work involving the provision of corporate governance advice to officers, directors and special committees in relation to alleged related party transactions and other alleged misconduct
- Advised an insurance company with respect to the validity of claims made under a representation and warranty insurance policy granted in connection with a share purchase transaction in which the insured claimed that the financial information provided by the vendor contained misrepresentations
- Acted for an indenture trustee of bonds issued in connection with a failed real estate development and successfully resisted injunctive relief sought by the developer
- Acted of a large international corporation in relation to a challenge to its COVID-19 masking policies by a potential customer
- Acted for a global consumer products company in an arbitration concerning the interpretation of supply and development agreement
- Acts of a public company operating in the cannabis space in relation to a contingency fee dispute
- English
- J.D., Dalhousie University, 2015
- B.A. (Honours), Queen’s University, 2011
Memberships And Affiliations
- Member, Canadian Bar Association
- Member, Ontario Bar Association
- Member, Advocates' Society