Alan D’Silva is a senior partner in the Litigation & Dispute Resolution Group of Stikeman Elliott LLP in Toronto. He is a leading litigation lawyer in Canada, with expertise in several areas of business law, including corporate/commercial, securities, shareholder/oppression, large insurance litigation, accountants’ and auditors’ negligence, directors’ and officers’ claims, professional negligence, sports law, and class actions.
Alan’s skill is built on over 30 years of experience in private practice as a commercial litigator and more recently, in his role as an arbitrator and mediator. He has served as an arbitrator and mediator in disputes, both in Canada and internationally, including in corporate/commercial, insurance and reinsurance, international trade, securities dealer, professional negligence, estates, construction, and employment and human rights, as well as an arbitrator in Olympic and professional sports disputes in his capacity as an arbitrator for the International Court of Arbitration for Sport. Alan is certified as a mediator through The Advocates’ Society/Harvard Law Program.
Alan D’Silva is a senior partner in the Litigation & Dispute Resolution Group of Stikeman Elliott LLP in Toronto. He has a diverse business litigation practice and is highly regarded in the field for the depth of his understanding of the law and legal principles. Alan has significant experience and acted as counsel in more than 200 publicly reported cases and has extensive skill at all levels of court, and before administrative tribunals, including more than 100 appeals in Canadian appellate courts and 13 cases in the Supreme Court of Canada since 2001.
Alan is recognized for his excellent work as a mediator and arbitrator in disputes, both in Canada and internationally, including in corporate/commercial, insurance and reinsurance, international trade, securities dealer, professional negligence, estates, construction, and employment and human rights, as well as an arbitrator in Olympic and professional sports disputes. He brings to his work as a mediator and arbitrator his strong understanding and experience of the areas of business and other law in which he has practised, sound judgement, a practical perspective, and an ability to focus on the issues at the heart of a matter. Alan is a well-respected and active arbitrator, and effectively balances sitting as an arbiter while continuing his active law practice.
Alan is certified as a mediator through The Advocates’ Society / Harvard Law Program (1998) and has attended numerous courses in mediation practice. Alan was appointed as an Arbitrator for the International Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2019, where he is one of the arbitrators worldwide who hear professional and amateur sports cases.
Alan is a recipient of the University of Ottawa Law School's 2015 Alumni Award and has been inducted into the Common Law Honour Society, the Law School's most prestigious alumni distinction. He has achieved national recognition as one of the 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada by Canadian Lawyer magazine. He was a recipient of the 2014 Lexpert Zenith Award for Practice Excellence.
He is a Fellow of The Trial Lawyer Honorary Society of the Litigation Counsel of America and a member of the International Association of Defense Counsel, both by invitation only membership.
Alan is the co-author of three legal texts including The Directors’ and Officers’ Canadian Risk Management Guide and Secondary Market Liability in Canada (Second Edition) and is the author of many legal articles, some of which have been cited by courts and tribunals. He has been an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario Law School, a Visiting Professor at the University of Ottawa Law School, a guest lecturer at University of Windsor Law School, and an instructor in the Osgoode Hall Intensive Trial Advocacy Course and the Law Society’s Bar Admission Course.
He has been a Member of the Board of Directors of The Advocates’ Society, the Executive Committee of the Ontario Bar Association’s Insurance Section, and the Equity Advisory Group of the Law Society of Upper Canada (now the Law Society of Ontario).
Alan received his J.D. cum laude from the University of Ottawa (1987), after attending the Université Laval (in the French-language program) (1984), and after receiving his BA with distinction from Carleton University (1983). He was called to the Bar in Ontario in 1989.
