Crawford is a partner of the firm with a wide-ranging litigation practice. He has substantial experience in commercial litigation, class actions, securities and energy regulatory proceedings, as well as public and administrative law. Crawford joined the firm after practicing at Torys LLP for nearly 20 years during which he served as the Coordinator of the Litigation Department and as a Director of the Advocates’ Society. Crawford has consistently been recognized as a "litigation star" and a "leading litigation lawyer" by Chambers, Benchmark and Lexpert. Most recently, he was selected as a Top 50 Trial Lawyer in Canada. Crawford is also recognized as leading regulatory lawyer.
Some of Crawford’s major representative mandates include:
- acting for The Great-West Life Assurance Company of Canada and London Life at trial and on appeal in defence of an Ontario class action commenced by participating policyholders of the two insurers in connection with the acquisition of London Life;
- acting for Manulife Financial in its defence at trial and on appeal of an Ontario class action commenced by Manulife’s former Barbados policyholders concerning benefits related to Manulife's demutualization, and in resisting an appeal of the trial decision before the Ontario Court of Appeal and an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada;
- acting for the Canadian Hockey League and its member leagues and teams in defence of class actions brought in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta alleging that the players are employees pursuant to applicable employment standards legislation;
Crawford was called to Ontario bar in 1999.