Nathanson, Schachter & Thompson LLP

NST is recognized as one of British Columbia's leading dispute resolution firms. Its lawyers have built their reputations trying tough cases and arguing complex appeals.

The firm has been described as “a household name in the Vancouver market” and has been recognized as one of Canada’s top litigation boutiques. Legal publications rate NST’s lawyers as leading practitioners in commercial litigation and dispute resolution. Devoted to civil and business litigation and arbitration, the firm has litigated many of British Columbia’s largest and most complicated commercial lawsuits, including two of Canada’s most significant mining claims, as well as important securities and shareholder disputes.

Known for its intellectual rigour, high quality advocacy, responsiveness to clients' needs, and flexibility in procedural matters, the firm has experience arguing and defending certification motions, judicial reviews, summary trials, trials, and appeals. The firm utilizes its expertise to provide strategic advice and to seek practical solutions out of court. When that is not possible, NST’s lawyers have the courtroom experience to see a matter through to judgment.

NST’s clients include successful private and public companies, many of whom are referred to us by leading Canadian and international law firms. NST regularly acts in the full range of commercial disputes, including contract disputes, shareholders’ disputes, securities and oppression claims, hostile take-over bids and derivative actions, class actions and representative proceedings, mining claims, pension litigation, actions for professional negligence, administrative proceedings, defamation actions and employment disputes.

Irwin Nathanson, Stephen Schachter and Ardella Thompson created the firm with one purpose in mind—to focus on trying difficult cases and arguing complicated appeals. Over the years, the firm has carefully added lawyers, and now boasts five King’s Counsel and several former law clerks, including two former clerks to the Chief Justice of British Columbia. However, the firm’s goal has never been growth for its own sake. It maintains Irwin Nathanson’s vision of a select group of lawyers with the depth of talent and breadth of expertise to efficiently and effectively handle commercial disputes of all sizes and kinds.

In addition to its work for clients, the firm’s lawyers regularly contribute to legal scholarship, including: serving as adjunct professors at UBC Law School; writing chapters in texts on Business Torts, Government Liability, and the Annual Review of Law and Practice; frequently speaking at continuing legal education events on civil litigation law and practice; and authoring one of the province’s main litigation texts, the annual British Columbia Supreme Court Rules Annotated.