Practice Areas
Fredrick focuses on high-stakes commercial disputes and investigations involving alleged financial misconduct, pricing and market behaviour, and other matters where civil litigation intersects with regulatory or criminal exposure. He is frequently retained to defend executives, companies, and public-facing organizations in matters that are legally complex, fact-intensive, and reputationally sensitive.
His practice includes major commercial arbitrations, civil fraud and asset-tracing proceedings, urgent injunction and enforcement matters, Competition Act investigations and follow-on litigation, and class actions involving pricing, market conduct, or alleged coordination. He regularly advises boards, senior management, and executives on internal investigations and parallel civil, regulatory, and criminal risk.
Fredrick has represented senior public officials and corporate leaders in high-profile investigations and inquiries, and has defended individuals and organizations facing allegations of fraud, breach of trust, and other serious misconduct. His work frequently involves intensive expert evidence, including disputes involving valuation, pricing, and digital or technical issues.
He appears regularly before the Ontario courts, the Federal Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court of Canada, and is known for trial and appellate advocacy, strategic use of expert evidence, and crisis-driven litigation where urgent relief or reputational protection is required. Before joining Stockwoods, Fredrick clerked for the Honourable Justice Ian Binnie at the Supreme Court of Canada and was selected as a Fox Scholar, training with leading commercial barristers’ chambers in London, England.
Representative Work
Counsel to the Government of Canada in the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference.
Counsel to a multi-national pharmaceutical company in a class action alleging systemic price-fixing and market allocation in the generic prescription drug industry.
Regulatory counsel for Laurentian University of Sudbury in its CCAA insolvency, 2022 ONSC 109, 2022 ONSC 429, and 2023 ONCA 299.
Dhillon v Brampton (City), 2021 ONSC 4165: acting for a Brampton City Councillor in a judicial review application challenging findings of Brampton’s Integrity Commissioner and the resulting actions of City Council.
Cicada 137 LLC v Medjedovic, 2022 ONSC 2765, 2022 ONSC 468, 2022 ONSC 369, 2021 ONSC 8473: acting for the representative plaintiffs in a proposed class action arising from the misappropriation through hacking of approximately US$16 million in cryptocurrency from a decentralized finance platform.
AG Ontario and $164,300 in Currency, 2019 ONSC 2024: motion to exclude unconstitutionally obtained evidence in a Civil Remedies Act application for the forfeiture of alleged proceeds of crime. One of the first reported cases in Ontario on this issue.
Amytrophic Lateral Sclerosis Society of Essex County v Corporation of the City of Windsor, 2019 ONCA 344, 2017 ONCA 555, 2015 ONCA 572: member of the defence team in a class action alleging that lottery licence fees were actually unconstitutional taxes.
R v Levesque: defence counsel for JP Levesque, Chief of Police in Thunder Bay, Ontario, against charges of breach of trust and obstruction of justice. At trial, Chief Levesque was acquitted on both counts: 2018 ONSC 603.
R v 7506406 Canada Inc (Ornge), 2017 ONCJ 726 and 2017 ONCJ 750: defence counsel for Ornge, the Ontario air ambulance corporation, in a trial of charges under the Canada Labour Code arising from a four-fatality helicopter crash. Trial in spring 2017. Ornge was acquitted on all counts.
Criminal appeals: R v Morris, 2023 ONCA 816; R v Rule, 2023 ONCA 31; R v Lewis, 2022 ONCA 641; R v Navarathinam, 2022 ONCA 377; R v Gracie, 2021 ONCA 707; Caja Paraguay de Jubilaciones y Pensiones v Duscio, 2019 ONCA 803; R v Du, 2015 ONCA 715
Additional Info
Awards and Recognition
- Lexpert – Repeatedly Recommended – Litigation – Corporate Commercial; Consistently Recommended – Litigation – Regulatory & Public Law (since 2024)
- Best Lawyer for Administrative and Public Law (since 2021), Corporate and Commercial Litigation (since 2022), and Appellate Practice (since 2022).
- Silver medallist, University of Toronto Faculty of Law (2008)
- Dean’s key, University of Toronto Faculty of Law (2008)
- Harold G. Fox scholar (2009-2010)
Publications
- “Is the absence of reasonable and probable grounds an element of the tort of negligent investigation?” Annual Review of Civil Litigation, 2024.
- Case Comment: Law Society of Saskatchewan v Abrametz, Can J Admin L & Prac at 385
- “No leg to stand on? Developments in the law of standing in Canada.” Annual Review of Civil Litigation, 2023 (co-authored with Justin Safayeni and Jack Ventress).
- “Judge hopes to ‘begin a shift’ in application of Ontario Health and Safety Act”, Canadian Lawyer, January 7, 2020 (https://www.canadianlawyermag.com/news/opinion/workplace-death-ruling-may-signal-stricter-penalties/324612)
- Chapter author, “Invasions of Privacy: Criminal Consequences”, Hasan and Chan, Digital Privacy (LexisNexis, 2019)
- Author, “The expanding reach of Canada’s foreign anti-bribery and corruption law”, Corporate Liability Journal, 2015
Teaching & Speaking Engagements
- Commentator on Global News on the anti-honk injunction during the truck convoy protests, February 8, 2022
- Faculty, “Advanced Impeachment Techniques”, Advanced Oral Advocacy Program, Osgoode Professional Development, February 2023 (upcoming)
- Faculty, “The Charter in Provincial Offences Act prosecutions”, The Osgoode Certificate in Provincial Offences Court Practice, Osgoode Professional Development, January 2023
- Faculty, Newly Appointed Provincial and Territorial Judges’ Skills Seminar, National Judicial Institute, November 2022
- Panellist, Ontario Regulatory Agencies Annual Conference, “Delay in courts/tribunals”, August 2022
- Faculty, Intensive Trial Advocacy Workshop, Osgoode Professional Development, July 2022
- Faculty, Newly Appointed Provincial and Territorial Judges’ Skills Seminar, National Judicial Institute, June 2022
- Faculty, The Investigator’s Guide to Testifying in Non-Criminal Cases, Osgoode Professional Development, May 2022
- Panellist, Managing Evidence in the Digital Age: Essential Skills for Litigators, Canadian Bar Association, April 2022
- Faculty, Osgoode Professional Development – Provincial Offences Charter Update, April 2022
- Panellist, Privilege for Litigators, “Waiver of Privilege”, Advocates’ Society, March 2022
- Judge, Wilson Moot, February 2022
- Faculty, “The Charter in Provincial Offences Act prosecutions”, The Osgoode Certificate in Provincial Offences Court Practice, Osgoode Professional Development, January 2022
Associations
- Member, The Advocates’ Society
- Member, Canadian Bar Association
- Member, Ontario Bar Association
- Volunteer, Law Help Ontario (Superior Court of Justice and Small Claims Court)
- Duty Counsel, Criminal Appeals, Ontario Court of Appeal
- Duty Counsel, Summary Conviction Appeal Program
- Amicus program, Civil Motions, Ontario Court of Appeal
