Gerald Chan

Gerald practices criminal, administrative, and select civil litigation, with a special focus on white collar criminal and regulatory defence. He has been named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada (Canadian Lawyer, 2019), White-Collar Crime/Enforcement Litigator of the Year (Benchmark Litigation, 2023), and Criminal Defence Lawyer of the Year, Toronto (Best Lawyers, 2024).

In his white-collar and regulatory defence practice, Gerald defends clients facing investigation by the RCMP Integrated Market Enforcement Teams, OSC (including the Joint Serious Offences Team), FSRA, Competition Bureau, OPP, Ministry of Labour, and special committees of boards of directors. Gerald also defends clients in a range of other criminal matters, including sexual offences and cyber-crimes. He has been recognized as a “trusted adviser” who is “tremendous in the courtroom” (Chambers Canada: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations, 2025).

Gerald is equally adept in trials and appeals. He is a fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers (an invitation-only organization of leading trial lawyers limited to 500 fellows in the U.S. and including 150 fellows internationally) and he has been recognized twice as one of the Top 50 Trial Lawyers in Canada (Benchmark Litigation, 2023-2024). He is also an advocacy advisor with the Supreme Court Advocacy Institute, having been counsel in over 20 appeals in the Supreme Court of Canada (including cases on data privacy, foreign corruption, insider trading, and medical marihuana).

Gerald also regularly acts for lawyers and law firms. He has defended lawyers in negligence claims, advised them on privacy breaches, and defended them against conflict-of-interest allegations. He has also acted for lawyers facing subpoenas to testify in court.

Apart from his practice, Gerald is a prolific writer and teacher. He is co-author of the 8th and 9th editions of Sentencing (LexisNexis); co-author of the 1^st and 2^nd editions of Digital Evidence: A Practitioner’s Handbook (Emond Publishing); co-editor of Digital Privacy: Criminal, Civil and Regulatory Litigation (LexisNexis); and co-editor of Litigating Artificial Intelligence (Emond Publishing). He also teaches on the faculty of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada’s National Criminal Law Program and the adjunct faculty of the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law.

Before joining Stockwoods, Gerald was a partner with Clayton Ruby at Ruby Shiller Chan Hasan, Barristers. Before that, Gerald practiced commercial litigation with a large firm and clerked for Justice Abella at the Supreme Court of Canada. He graduated as co-Gold Medallist from Osgoode Hall Law School.

In 2023, Gerald was elected Regional Bencher (for Toronto) of the Law Society of Ontario (LSO). He serves as Vice-Chair of the Law Society Tribunal, Appeal Division; Co-Chair of the Equity and Indigenous Affairs Committee; and a member of the Professional Development and Competence Committee, Strategic Planning and Advisory Committee, Treasurer’s Appointments Advisory Group, Tribunal Committee, and Tribunal Reform Working Group. Gerald is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Law Foundation of Ontario.

Gerald previously served for six years as a member of the Judicial Appointments Advisory Committee, which is responsible for making recommendations to the Attorney General of Ontario for appointments to the Ontario Court of Justice.

White Collar | Quasi-Criminal

• Successfully defended the former Chairman of CannTrust in an Ontario Securities Act prosecution in the Ontario Court of Justice, obtaining acquittals on all charges (including insider trading and securities fraud).
• Defending a criminal fraud prosecution in relation to the syndicated mortgages offered by Fortress Real Developments Inc.
• Representing individual tokenholders in a $16M crypto-fraud case regarding Indexed Finance (a decentralized finance platform)
• Represented a former airline executive in a money laundering investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police, which was terminated without charges
• Defended a large construction company in a workplace fatality prosecution by the Ministry of Labour and obtained a stay of all charges under s. 11(b) of the Charter
• Regularly advising telecommunications companies and financial institutions on lawful access requests by law enforcement
• Represented Uber partners in several jurisdictions (Toronto, Mississauga, etc.) and obtained withdrawals and stays of hundreds of charges of owning and operating a “taxicab” without a licence after lengthy motions on privilege and s. 11(b) of the Charter
• Defended casino operators on charges under the Smoke-Free Ontario Act and obtained a withdrawal in one case and an acquittal in another
• Defended a large food company facing mislabeling charges under the Food and Drugs Act and Criminal Code after an investigation by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Administrative and Public Law

• Successfully defended the Toronto District School Board’s French Immersion program on judicial review
• Represented Ryerson University in a labour grievance regarding the seizure of mail by police
• Represented a large construction company in a coroner’s inquest related to a workplace fatality
• Defended a lawyer in one of the first advertising-related prosecutions brought by the Law Society of Ontario
• Represented a City Councillor and Vice-Chair of the Toronto Police Services Board on a judicial review application regarding the Board’s attempt to sanction him for speaking to the press

Supreme Court Advocacy

• York Region District School Board v Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, 2024 SCC 22 (represented the Canadian Civil Liberties Association in an appeal dealing with workplace searches of computers and cloud-based data)
• R v McGregor, 2023 SCC 4 (represented the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights in an appeal dealing with the extraterritorial application of the Charter)
• R v Ramelson, 2022 SCC 44 (represented the B.C. Civil Liberties Association in an appeal dealing with the doctrine of entrapment in the context of cyber crime investigations)
• R v JJ, 2022 SCC 28 (represented the Criminal Lawyers’ Association in two appeals dealing with the constitutionality of the Bill C-51 amendments to the sexual assault provisions in the Criminal Code)
• R v Ghotra, 2021 SCC 12 (represented the B.C. Civil Liberties Association in an appeal dealing with entrapment in online police operations)
• R v Le, 2019 SCC 34 (represented the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers and Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic on a joint intervention dealing with racial profiling and police detentions in racialized communities)
• R v Mills, 2019 SCC 22 (represented the Criminal Lawyers’ Association in an appeal involving the right to privacy in text messages with an undercover officer)
• R vMarakah, 2017 SCC 59; R v Jones, 2017 SCC 60 (represented the B.C. Civil Liberties Association in two companion appeals on text message privacy)
• R v Peers, 2017 SCC 13 (represented the B.C. Civil Liberties Association in an appeal dealing with the right to a jury trial in Securities Act prosecutions)
• World Bank Group v. Wallace, 2016 SCC 15 (represented the B.C. Civil Liberties Association in an appeal dealing with a Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act prosecution)
• R v Smith, 2015 SCC 34 (represented the Criminal Lawyers’ Association in an appeal dealing with the constitutionality of medical marihuana regulations)

Criminal Defence

• R v Hoggard, 2024 ONCA 613 (represented the lead singer of Hedley, Jacob Hoggard, in the first appeal to deal with the admissibility of expert evidence on the neurobiology of trauma in criminal sexual assault trials)
• R v XC, 2020 ONSC 410 (argued one of the first motions to interpret the new sexual assault provisions brought about by Bill C-51, and obtained an acquittal on all charges at trial)
• R v Adler, 2020 ONCA 246 (obtained substituted acquittals in a sexual offences case after the ONCA concluded that all of the evidence should have been excluded)
• R v John, 2018 ONCA 702 (conviction and sentence appeal in the ONCA in which the court struck down the mandatory minimum sentence for possession of child pornography)
• R v Levin, 2015 ONCJ 290 (defended a former Deputy Minister in a prosecution for computer crimes and sexual offences)
• R v Yowfoo, 2013 ONCA 751 (obtained a substituted acquittal in a case involving serious drug trafficking and firearms charges)
• United States of America v Chu, [2009] OJ No 3091 (SCJ) (represented the person sought in an extradition case involving Canadian gathered wiretap evidence)