Ryder Gilliland

Ryder is an accomplished litigator with a broad litigation practice focused on commercial litigation, defamation and privacy law.

His experience spans a wide range of disputes, including complex contractual disputes, construction and infrastructure-related litigation, internal investigations, securities litigation, professional liability, libel litigation, privacy litigation, in addition to commercial arbitration. He has appeared at every level of court in Ontario, as well as the Court of Queen’s Bench in New Brunswick, the Federal Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal, the Tax Court of Canada and the Supreme Court of Canada. He has also appeared before many administrative tribunals, including the Competition Tribunal, the Ontario Securities Commission, the Ontario Municipal Board and the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. Ryder’s hearing room experience and skills are complemented by substantive expertise in the areas of commercial arbitration, defamation and privacy/cybersecurity.

Ryder has extensive experience in domestic and international arbitration proceedings, both ad hoc arbitrations and under institutional rules, including the Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute of Canada (ADR), the International Chamber of Commerce International Court of Arbitration (ICC) and the American Arbitration Association’s International Centre Dispute Resolution (ICDR). He is a past President of the Toronto Commercial Arbitration Society and a current member of the Arbitration Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). In addition, he is a member of ICDR’s Canadian panel of arbitrators, and holds the Qualified Arbitrator (Q. Arb) designation from the ADR Institute of Canada.

Ryder is recognised by his peers as one of the leading media and defamation lawyers in Canada. For more than 15 years, he has advised community and metropolitan newspapers, digital publishers, book publishers and broadcasters on issues related to defamation law, publication bans, sealing orders, privacy and copyright. He has acted in leading cases in many of these areas, and also has extensive experience as counsel in defamation disputes between individuals and corporations – as well as in advising/assisting in connection with online reputation management. He is the past President of the Canadian Media Lawyers’ Association; meanwhile, he is an Adjunct Professor at Ryerson, where he has taught media law to journalism students for a decade.

Ryder regularly advises clients on matters related to fraud, extortion and security breaches requiring internal and/or external investigation and corporate reputation management. In the cybersecurity space, Ryder has assisted clients with a variety of issues, ranging from lost or stolen data, cyber-extortion threats, malware and phishing attacks, as well as vendor service provider breaches. He is the breach coach for a leading cyberinsurance provider, and regularly advises clients on cyber-breach preparedness issues.

Before founding DMG Advocates, Ryder spent 15 years at a leading national law firm, including nine of those as a Partner.