Gavin MacKenzie Gavin MacKenzie’s practice is focused on professional liability and discipline litigation, class actions and general civil and commercial litigation. He has appeared as counsel before courts at all levels, including the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as before many tribunals, including the Competition Tribunal, the Ontario Securities Commission, the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board and the professional conduct and discipline committees of numerous professional and regulatory agencies.
Mr. MacKenzie was honoured by induction as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 2000. He was elected as a bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1995, and re-elected in 1999, 2003, and 2007. He has chaired the Law Society’s Professional Regulation Committee, which is responsible for professional conduct and discipline, its Strategic Planning Committee and its task force on the reform of the Rules of Professional Conduct. Then, in 2006, he was elected Treasurer, the highest position in the Society, one that he served until 2008.
Mr. MacKenzie has often been retained as an expert witness on professional responsibility in litigation in the United States and in Canada and is a frequent speaker at continuing education programmes.
Mr. MacKenzie is a director of the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice and has served as Chair of LibraryCo Inc., the library system of Ontario Law Associations. He has also served as a director of the Advocates’ Society and the Medico-Legal Society of Toronto. He is among the lawyers repeatedly recommended by their peers in the annual Lexpert survey and is recognized as one of Canada’s leading lawyers in the areas of Alternative Dispute Resolution and Legal Malpractice Law in the 2010 edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada (Woodward/White). Mr. MacKenzie has been awarded Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating (“AV”) for his skills and sense of ethics.
In 2010, Mr. MacKenzie was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) degree from the Law Society of Upper Canada in recognition of his contributions to the legal profession.
Mr. MacKenzie joined Heenan Blaikie as a partner in 2000. Education
LL.B., York University (Osgoode Hall Law School), 1975 B.A., University of Western Ontario, 1972 Professional Affiliations
Advocates' Society American College of Trial Lawyers Canadian Bar Association Medico-Legal Society of Toronto The Law Society of Upper Canada (Ontario)
Publications and Conferences Lawyers and Ethics: Professional Responsibility and Discipline, looseleaf, (Scarborough: Carswell, 1993) (3rd student ed., 2002) Gavin MacKenzie's Netletter on Professional Responsibility, Discipline, and Liability, Quicklaw, 1998 to 2003 Growing Pains: Law Comes of Age in China (2001) 12 L. Times No. 19, 2(2) Barristers and Solicitors in Practice (Canadian version of Cordery on Solicitors, Markham (Ont.): Butterworth's, 1998, loose-leaf) Legends (1996) 16 Advocates' Soc. J. 10-11 Breaking the Dichotomy Habit: The Adversary System and the Ethics of Professionalism, Law Society of Upper Canada Gazette, June 1995; (1996) 9 Can. J.L. & Juris. 33-50 The Profession column, Law Times, 1995 to present The Valentine's Card in the Operating Room: Codes of Ethics and the Failing Ideals of the Legal Profession, Law Society of Upper Canada Gazette, September 1994; (1995) 33 Alta. L. Rev. 859-863; Donald Buckingham, Jerome Bickenback, Richard Bronaugh and Bertha Wilson, Legal Ethics in Canada: Theory and Practice (Toronto: Harcourt Brace, 1996) Case Comment, a Comment on Khan v Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons (1992), 9 O.R. (3d) 641 (C.A.), 2 Reid's Administrative Law 75 (1993) Law Society Discipline Proceedings (1992) 1 J. Church L. Assoc. Can. 77-83 Law Society Discipline Proceedings (1992) Advocates' Soc. J. no. 2, 3-30 Procedural Fairness and the Role of Tribunal Counsel in Professional Discipline Proceedings (1992) Spec. Lect. L.S.U.C. 391-404 Review of Honorable Justice: The Life of Oliver Wendell Holmes (1990) 69 Can. Bar Rev. 845-849 Lawyer Discipline and the Independence of the Bar: Can Lawyers Still Govern Themselves? (1990) 24 Gazette 319-326 Objections to Questions on Examination for Discovery Under Ontario's New Rules of Civil Procedure (1985) 46 Carswell's Practice Cases 269 The Defence of Disciplinary Proceedings Before the Law Society of Upper Canada's Discipline Committee, Advocates' Society Journal, October and December 1982
| 
