Vera Toppings advises and represents clients in commercial and civil litigation matters, with a focus on class actions and complex business and contractual disputes. She is Associate Vice-Chair of Fasken’s Ontario Litigation and Dispute Resolution Department.
Vera has particular experience with class action litigation. She has represented clients in significant class proceedings addressing noteworthy and emerging issues in the field. Her experience includes multi-jurisdictional cases involving allegations of price-fixing and other competition issues; privacy and the protection of personal information; product liability; breaches of contract and consumer protection law; and securities misrepresentation.
Vera regularly works with U.S. law firms on the joint defence of multi-national clients’ litigation matters worldwide, and is a member of the firm’s U.S. Committee.
Vera represents Canadian, American, European and Asian clients doing business across a range of industries including banking, investments, automotive, electronics, mining, aerospace, healthcare, telecommunications, consumer and industrial goods, real property and professional services.
She has appeared on behalf of clients before trial and appellate courts in Ontario and British Columbia, before the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as in domestic and international arbitrations. She also regularly advocates for clients in complex settlements and multi-party mediations.
Vera is Secretary of the national Class Actions Practice Group of The Advocates’ Society, a member of the Class Actions Executive Committee of the Ontario Bar Association, and past Chair of the national Competition Litigation Committee of the Canadian Bar Association.
Vera has been an adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, as part of the teaching team for the “Lawyer As Negotiator” course. She is also one of the founders of the Osgoode Mediation Clinic and the law school’s Mediation Intensive Clinical Program.
As a member of the Fasken Student Development Committee, Vera has been involved for many years in the recruitment and professional development of the firm’s summer and articling students.
Vera is recognized as a Leading Lawyer in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory in the areas of Class Actions and Litigation - Corporate Commercial, and was previously recognized as a Lexpert Leading Lawyer to Watch in Commercial Litigation (2021, 2020) and as a Lexpert Rising Star (2020). She is also ranked as a Litigation Star (Commercial; Class Actions) by Benchmark Litigation (2021) and recognized on the Benchmark Litigation 40 & Under Hot List (2021, 2020, 2019, 2018). She was previously ranked as a Future Star in Litigation by Benchmark Litigation (2020, 2019, 2018).
