Hilary Book

Hilary’s judgment, creativity and persistence have earned her a reputation as a go-to commercial litigator.

She is recognized in the Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada as “Most Frequently Recommended” for Corporate Commercial Litigation and as a “Top 100 Women in Litigation” by Benchmark Canada. Before co-founding BE Law, Hilary founded Book Law in 2018. She was previously a partner at Lax O’Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb LLP and WeirFoulds LLP.

Hilary is a skilled trial and appellate lawyer. Her practice includes contractual disputes, partnership and shareholder disputes, commercial real estate litigation and professional negligence cases. She is experienced in cases involving fraud and conspiracy, contempt of court and cross-border issues, and has represented clients as lead counsel at all levels of court in Ontario on motions, trials and appeals.

Hilary is a frequent speaker and skills instructor on a variety of civil litigation topics. She is a Director of the Advocates’ Society and the incoming Chair of its Standing Committee on Advocacy and Policy. She recently chaired the task force that authored Delay No Longer, the Society’s call for action on delay in the civil justice system, and is actively engaged in civil rules reform initiatives. 

Outside of law, Hilary enjoys gardening, cycling, reading, playing piano and spending time with her small-in-stature, big-in-personality Shih Tzu, Leora.

Notable Cases:

• Lead counsel to several appellants in an appeal concerning breach of fiduciary duty and misappropriation of corporate opportunities (7868073 Canada Ltd. v. 1847978 Ontario Inc., 2024 ONCA 371)
• Lead trial counsel to the successful corporate plaintiff in a claim for breach of contract and defamation (James Bay Resources Limited v. Mak Mera Limited et al., 2023 ONSC 6844)
• Lead counsel at first instance and on appeal to a shareholder successfully resisting a forced buyout (Leader Automotive Inc. v. Warwick, 2022 ONSC 5438, 163 O.R. (3d) 379; aff’d 2023 ONCA 726, 168 O.R. (3d) 702, 47 B.L.R. (6th) 33)
• Lead counsel to a non-party successfully opposing production requests in family/estates litigation (Cohen v. Estate of Cohen, 2023 ONSC 69, 84 R.F.L. (8^th) 286)
• Lead counsel to the successful party in an application for partition and sale of property (Kang v. Dhillon, 2022 ONSC 1305)
• Lead trial and appellate counsel to the plaintiff in a successful claim establishing serious oppression and fraudulent activity by the defendants (McFlow Capital Corp. v. James et al., 2020 ONSC 374, 16 R.P.R. (6^th) 70; aff’d 2021 ONCA 753)
• Co-counsel to successful appellant in regulatory case involving the extraterritorial application of provincial statutes (College of Optometrists of Ontario et al. v. Essilor Group Canada Inc., 2019 ONCA 265, 145 O.R. (3d) 561)
• Lead counsel at first instance and on appeal to a manufacturer concerning choice of law issues (Thorne et al. v. Hudson et al., 2016 ONSC 5507, 134 O.R. (3d) 301; aff’d 2017 ONCA 208, 136 O.R. (3d) 797)
• Co-counsel on an appeal involving the interpretation of an option agreement and relief from forfeiture (PDM Entertainment Inc. v. Three Pines Creations Inc., 2015 ONCA 488, 388 DLR (4th) 478, 46 BLR (5th) 1 (CA))
• Lead counsel to the successful applicant in an application for relief from forfeiture under the Personal Property Security Act (Remarkable Energy Inc. v. Crosscurrent Energy Corp., 2015 ONSC 3663, 4 P.P.S.A.C. (4th) 36)
• Lead counsel (2011-2015) to a key target defendant, who succeeded at trial, in a complex, multi-party fraud and conspiracy claim (Korea Data Systems Co. v. Amazing Technologies Inc. et al., trial decision unreported)