Biography

Matthew Latella has over 25 years of experience as a trial lawyer and a track record of success in high-stakes matters, both acting for plaintiffs and defendants. He leads the Firm's Canadian international arbitration practice and has been lead counsel on several of the leading Canadian court cases involving international arbitration, successfully arguing precedent-setting cases up to the Supreme Court of Canada. He has been recognized as an "outstanding professional" and described by clients as "a brilliant advocate and cross-examiner." One client stated: "Matthew is adept at identifying and nailing the core issues to successful conclusion. I’ve seen him simply out-work and out-strategize opposing counsel." He frequently litigates and arbitrates multijurisdictional disputes, including ground-breaking asset recovery and enforcement matters. Matthew is a frequent contributor to www.canadianfraudlaw.com and has for several years co-authored the Canada Chapter in the Asset Tracing and Recovery Review, published by Law Business Research (UK).

Practice Focus

Matthew focuses his practice on all aspects of corporate and commercial litigation and arbitration, including civil fraud, enforcement and asset recovery, breach of trust and all manner of contractual disputes. He also has deep experience working on cases involving economic torts, security enforcement, shareholder rights and remedies, product liability and international commercial law matters. Matthew has argued cases at all levels of court in Ontario and British Columbia, as well as courts in Alberta and at the Supreme Court of Canada and the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands.

Representative Legal Matters

• Successfully obtained and retained world-wide Mareva injunction in complex, multi-jurisdictional fraud proceedings, freezing assets and funds in excess of USD 40 million.

• Successful enforcement and collection of USD 9 million arbitral award against Pakistani government entity by way of novel application of worldwide Mareva injunction on behalf of India-based resource company, including successful appellate proceedings up to Supreme Court of Canada.

• Successful defence of quartet of arbitral award enforcement cases totalling CAD 200 million brought against Kyrgyzstan state-owned entity. After initial judgment was set aside, successfully obtained dismissals of all claims on rehearing, and successfully argued appeals and leave to appeal applications to the Supreme Court of Canada.

• Represented appellants in leave application and appeal to Supreme Court of Canada that established the law regarding enforcement of foreign judgments in Canada.

• Represented a foreign government in enforcement proceedings following the USD 800 million English fraud judgment in a case involving tracing of assets, multiple offshore trusts and successful dismissal of appeal before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council from decision of Cayman Islands Court of Appeal regarding international recognition and enforcement of foreign bankruptcy orders.

• Successfully defended financial institutions in numerous multi-plaintiff breach of trust/breach of fiduciary duty actions brought by investors allegedly defrauded by independent financial advisors.

• Successfully defended financial institutions, up to and including before the Supreme Court of Canada, in multi-plaintiff action involving losses arising out of leveraged mutual fund investments.

• Representing court-appointed custodian responsible for preservation and production of millions of electronic records from numerous sources in multiple jurisdictions in seminal Canadian case regarding e-discovery procedures.

• Successfully froze and recovered embezzled funds after obtaining summary judgment on behalf of international financial institution in a multi-party fraud action, involving a Ponzi scheme and telephone banking fraud.

• Represented plaintiff in a successful oppression application and contract claim to enforce agreement regarding retraction of USD 2 million's worth of first preference shares.

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Professional Associations and Memberships

• Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition - Judge
• Law Society of Ontario
• United Way of Greater Toronto - Workplace Fundraising Campaign Committee
• Canadian Bar Association
• The Advocates' Society

Admissions

• Ontario~Canada (1997)

Education

• Dalhousie University (LL.B.) (1995)
• University of Western Ontario (B.A., Honours) (1992)

Languages

• English

Previous Offices

• London

Publications

Publications

Author, "SCC Set to Clarify Rules on Enforcement of Foreign Judgments," The Lawyers Weekly, 29 August 2003

Author, "New fraud risks for Canadian defendants to foreign judicial proceedings," Fraud Intelligence, October 2004

Referenced in "Superior Court Grants Lenders' Summary Judgment Motions Against Borrower-Investors," Lexpert Magazine, April 2006

Quoted in "Company could not escape its contractual obligation to redeemshares," The Lawyers Weekly, July 2006

Presentations

Speaker, "Lots of Rules and No Mercy: Developing Policy and Standards to Preserve Electronic Documents," Infonex E-Discovery Seminar, September 2006

Speaker, "Cross-border e-discovery: What's the difference?", Canadian Law & Technology Forum, November 2008