Tom Conway to join May 30 CTA Zoom webinar

Last-minute scheduling change allows Ottawa lead counsel to join

Updated May 30th: With information on Tom Conway’s appearance

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Conway Litigation’s lead counsel Tom Conway is expected to join the CTA Zoom Webinar today. He will bring short remarks.

Conway is the legal mind behind the May 13th Ontario Superior Court decision that “Uber was a bandit taxi company,” and that “The City (Ottawa) was negligent in enforcing the 2012 By-law.”

In his closing submission in November, Conway said of the plate holders and industry members ignored by Ottawa “…Their stories have been ignored for far too long. Their experiences have been sidelined as meaningless and not worthy of recognition. To add insult to injury, the City has painted what happened to them as merely the result of natural forces of competition.

“Importantly, during the entire two-month trial, the City did not tender any evidence from those who actually had the decision making authority. When given the chance to present the evidence about the thought process that led to the regulatory change that the City decided to make at the time, the City decided to shield those unnamed individuals instead of tendering their evidence. This decision speaks volumes about the  confidence the City has into propriety of its conduct.”

As noted on the firm’s website, Conway was founded in 2014 and is a boutique litigation firm located in Ottawa. “We are experienced litigators, but above all else we are advocates, researchers, and creative problem-solvers. Our mix of unique experience and perspectives, paired with our analytical rigor and intellectual curiosity, creates the right balance for complex litigation. We routinely litigate some of the most sophisticated and complex cases and we are actively sought out by clients to handle their personalized litigation needs.”

Marion Sandilands and her associate Joseph Russi of Conway Litigation will provide the main presentation today and will remain on the Zoom to take as many questions as time permits.

Government Relations (GR) specialist Jeff Polowin, originally slated to present alone on May 30th, will also be on the webinar to explain the role GR played over the eight years since the lawsuit was filed in 2016. Together, he and Sandilands will give an overview of what occurred in Ottawa and the implications for other municipalities moving forward. Polowin will field questions with Sandilands in order to cover both the legal and the GR elements of a municipal strategy.

“We were cheering when the decision came in,” Sandilands told Taxi News of the May 13 decision. “The entire team is obviously pleased to see that all of the hard work we have done over these years led to success…we certainly have learned a lot through all the preparation; it was a deep dive.”

In fact, when asked by media in the May 13th press conference why the Metro Taxi vs Ottawa lawsuit succeeded when other lawsuits have failed, Metro’s Marc Andre Way replied, “I think our law firm just did a better job.”

May 30 Zoom webinar time moved to 2pm (EST)

The time for CTA Zoom webinar on May 30th has been changed slightly to 2pm (EST) instead of 2:30 as originally scheduled. To register for the webinar, visit the “CTA Events” page and follow the link provided at the top of this page.