Irvin Schein is a partner in the Litigation Group of the law firm Blaney McMurtry LLP in Toronto, Ontario. He also practices as a mediator and has done so since obtaining his Master of Laws in Alternative Dispute Resolution from York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School.

With over 40 years of litigation experience, Irvin has acted as counsel in a vast number of areas including: shareholders’ rights and remedies, applications for injunctive relief and judicial review, wrongful dismissal, defamation, corporate and commercial disputes, international litigation, including jurisdictional disputes, negligence and tort claims, sexual abuse litigation, real property litigation including commercial development disputes and commercial leasing disputes, pension and employment benefits disputes, prosecution and defence of solicitors’ negligence and professional malpractice claims, and environmental litigation.

Irvin has a particular interest and experience with clients in the automotive industry and Ontario’s wine industry, both grape-growers, and wineries.

Irvin has acted on a number of high profile cases of national importance. He has conducted numerous cases against financial institutions and is particularly well known as having obtained an outstanding result for an entrepreneur client in an action against a financial institution that acted improperly in connection with a loan to the client. Notwithstanding the fact that the actual loan amounted to approximately $200,000, as a result of Irvin’s efforts, the financial institution was ultimately ordered to pay almost $7 million in damages. Irvin was then successful in defeating the financial institution’s appeal to the Court of Appeal. This case is widely regarded as one of the most important lender liability cases of the 1990s.

Irvin has also achieved success on behalf of financial institutions, including a judgment of the Court of Appeal allowing his lender client to recover its funds where its mortgage was discharged in error even though the provisions of the Registry Act appeared to dictate the opposite result.

Irvin’s experience in environmental litigation includes having acted for a financial institution whose mortgage security was impaired by toxic chemicals emanating from a neighbouring property.

Irvin has substantial experience with litigation of an international nature. Irvin routinely handles numerous matters for companies based in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Irvin served on the Board of Directors (2019-2022) and as a co-chair of the litigation section of Meritas Law Firms Worldwide. He has been very active throughout his career as an author and lecturer on litigation practice-related matters.

Law School: Osgoode Hall Law School, LLB with Honours (1980); LLM in ADR (2014)
Year of Call: 1980

Representative Industries Served

Irvin’s clients include financial institutions, commercial landlords, commercial tenants, accounting firms, real estate developers, builders, real estate agents and property managers, franchisors, software developers, insurers, importers and distributors, retailers, automobile dealerships, meat processors, trucking companies, and other entrepreneurs.

Continuing Legal Education Lectures

• Enforcement and Realization of Commercial Finance Security, topic: Real Estate Security Enforcements, April 15, 1993
• Critical Issues in Power of Sale, paper entitled The Power of Sale Remedy, Insight, March 26, 1991
• Lease Defaults & Enforcement: Rights, Remedies & Damage Control, paper entitled The Landlord’s Rights and Remedies, February 5, 1991
• Dynamite Discoveries: Proven Techniques for Maximizing the Information Obtained Prior to Trial, paper entitled Examination for Discovery The Financial Institution, November 13, 1995
• Damages or Loss in Commercial Litigation, topic: Calculation of a Business Interruption Loss Claim, December 15, 1995.

Publications

• Legal Proceedings during COVID-19: Civil Matters and the Commercial List (Toronto), March 2020
• Online Defamation: What if the Author Can’t be Identified?, Minden Brief, Fall 2017
• Whose House is it Anyway? The Latest on Resulting Trusts, Canadian Family Law Matters, August 2016
• NADAP rules:  Can you rely on them for protection?, Canadian Auto World Magazine, April 2012
• Dealer Agreement Renewals: Ask Not for Whom the Bell Tolls…, Canadian Auto World Magazine, January 2012
• Making use of NADAP, a closer look at industry arbitration, Canadian Auto World Magazine, May 2010
• A Primer on Retaining & Relating to Outside Counsel, American Corporate Counsel Association Docket Magazine, March 2010 (Co-author)
• Caught in a Cross-Fire: The Erring Employee in the Borderland of Contract and Tort, The Advocates’ Quarterly, Vol. 8, July 1987 (Co-author)
• Assignment and Subletting The Landlord’s Consent: Practice and Procedure under Section 23 of the Landlord and Tenant Act, The Advocates’ Quarterly, Vol. 10, February 1989
• Rule 31.06 of the Rules of Civil Procedure: Should Parties be Obliged to Provide Summaries of Witnesses Evidence at Trial, The Advocates’ Quarterly, Vol. 10, May 1989
• Legal Secretaries and the Conflict of Interest Rule, The Advocates’ Quarterly, Vol. 14, July 1992
• Is an Interlocutory Injunction Available to Enforce a Positive Operating Covenant in a Lease, The Advocates’ Quarterly, v. 16, 1994
• Assessment of Damages for Solicitors’ Negligence in Real Estate Transactions, The Advocates’ Quarterly, Vol. 18, 1996 (Co-author)
• Why Hypothesis Should Not Replace History: Admissibility of Hindsight in Damage Claims, The Journal of Business Valuation, 1997
• The Role of Anger in Mediation, The Advocates’ Quarterly, 2014

Personal
Irvin’s passions include co-ed softball, skiing at Alpine Ski Club near Collingwood, cycling, and his dog.  Irvin also plays hockey as a goaltender two nights a week.