Principal, Panoply Consulting Inc.

Is there anyone better to help you avoid costly and lengthy litigation than a lawyer whose been a top litigator for decades? If litigation is inevitable, won’t you need help choosing the right lawyer(s) staff, employees, witnesses, and strategy? Precise data collection, analysis, and detail is the key to modern e-Discovery. You’ll need someone on top of all current technological approaches.

Glenn Smith has been trial counsel in some of the most consequential conflicts of his generation. He and colleagues have set new standards and been instrumental in judges interpreting and expanding areas of law. He’s saved clients millions of dollars. Many businesspeople think that money is their major asset… In fact, it is the non-renewable resource—time. Glenn saves time.

More management consultant than lawyer now, Glenn helps clients navigate the murky waters of complex commercial litigation and insurance coverage disputes. Self-insurance, re-insurance, and retrocession are just some of the elements in those murky waters.

Now is the time to have Glenn analyse your insurance policies—not when trying to determine if you have the right coverage. Glenn then negotiates with insurers to settle disputes or clarify coverage to avoid a future dispute.

As a former commercial trial lawyer, Glenn tried disputes over economic business losses, environmental damages, architectural and construction defects, directors’ and officers’ tortious liabilities, and many other matters. More importantly for his clients, he successfully ended many disputes through negotiation and avoided long court battles.

“Most cases take years to work through the courts,” says Glenn. “In that time, every email, every letter, every phone call, and every meeting is billable time for both sides. I’ve studied this process and know that negotiation saves time and money.”

Glenn adds that a negotiator has to know what elements to negotiate about—not just sawing off in the middle. Glenn’s knowledge, and experience leads the opposing side to understand that a negotiated settlement is often inevitable.

The common element in resolving most commercial disputes is insurance coverage. Often the issue is a lack of insurance coverage. Glenn has focused on insurance coverage disputes including business income, trigger of coverage, pollution exclusions, bad faith and the obligations owed by the insurer to the insured.

Glenn is a certified mediator, and a member of the ADR Institute of Canada and former Adjunct Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto where he taught Civil Procedure. He was head of the Trial Practice Program at the University of Toronto Law School, and has been a Special Lecturer there for more than 30 years. He was formerly the section head of the Trial Advocacy Course at the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Bar Admission Course and has taught Civil Procedure. He won the Ontario Bar Award for Excellence in Insurance Law in 2019.