Douglas Harrison is a Member Arbitrator and Mediator of international and domestic business disputes. He has been a presiding arbitrator, co-arbitrator and sole arbitrator of ad hoc commercial arbitrations and arbitrations under the AAA, ADRIC, ICC, ICDR, ICDR Canada, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, and National Automobile Dealership Arbitration Program Rules. His recent arbitration appointments have involved disputes arising from supply agreements, license agreements, distributorships, franchises, shareholder agreements, consulting agreements, construction contracts, cyber insurance, and commercial tenancies. They have covered a range of sectors, including automotive, consumer products, energy, financial services, food, heavy manufacturing, insurance, land development, pharmaceuticals, and public infrastructure.
Doug is recognized by Chambers (Most in Demand Arbitrators – Canada and Global – Band 1), Lexology Index (Canada) for Arbitration (Highly Recommended), the Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory for Commercial Arbitration (Consistently Recommended), and Best Lawyers in Canada for International Arbitration (Lawyer of the Year 2025 – ...more International Arbitration, Toronto; Lawyer of the Year 2026 – Alternative Dispute Resolution – Toronto).
Doug is a former Co-Chair of the University Tribunal of the University of Toronto (2017-26), presiding over academic disciplinary hearings. He has been a member of the Ontario bar since 1988 and continues to act as counsel in select matters, including the enforcement of arbitral awards, and providing opinions on Canadian law.
For over 30 years, Doug was with Stikeman Elliott LLP in Toronto conducting a broad corporate- commercial litigation and arbitration practice that included complex, high-value matters involving, among other things, breach of contract, competition law, infrastructure, insolvency, supplier-procurement disputes, and class actions. His practice also included environmental law, product liability, defamation, professional liability, and directors’ and officers’ insurance. His industry expertise includes aerospace, chemicals, consumer products, food processing, logistics, manufacturing, media, mining, and pharmaceuticals. He was vice-chair of the firm’s national Risk Management and Claims Committee and a member of the firm’s national Professional and Ethics Committee.
Apart from being a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Doug is also a member of the CPR Panels of Distinguished Neutrals as both an arbitrator and mediator (Global Panel, Product Liability Panel and Pro Bono Panel), and is on the arbitration rosters of AAA/ICDR, ICC Canada, the ADR Institute of Canada, the Scottish Arbitration Centre and the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission. He is a member of the International Arbitration Institute, the International Council for Commercial Arbitration, the Institute for Transnational Arbitration, and the London Court of International Arbitration. He obtained his mediation training from the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation.
Doug is the chair of the Toronto Commercial Arbitration Society and the Director of the Society’s Gold Standard Course on Commercial Arbitration, by which participants can qualify for the Q.Arb designation of the ADR Institute of Canada. He also sits on the organizing committee of CanArbWeek, and the North America Sub-Committee of the Campaign for Greener Arbitrations.
Doug is the author of numerous publications on international and domestic arbitration, including recent papers on enforcing arbitral awards in Canada against state-owned enterprises for the IAI’s Series on International Arbitration, the Bering Sea Arbitration of 1893 for the Canadian Yearbook of International Law, and on removing arbitrators for incapacity or undue delay for the Canadian Journal of Commercial Arbitration and New York Dispute Resolution Lawyer. He is a co-author of The Law of Product Warnings and Recalls in Canada, 2nd ed. (LexisNexis Canada, 2019). He is also a frequent speaker on arbitration and mediation for organizations such as The Advocates’ Society. He has served as a Sessional Instructor in Trial Advocacy at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.
Prior to practicing law, Mr. Harrison was a sports journalist based in Toronto and Paris.
Additional information is available at https://harrisonadr.com
