Bennett Jones
Ashley Paterson has a complex commercial practice focused on class action, product liability, consumer protection and privacy litigation.
Ashley has worked on several particularly influential cases, including successfully defeating certification of a multiple model product liability class action, and defending a class action involving one of the largest data breaches ever reported. She has extensive experience in the defence of medical device and pharmaceutical class actions, including pelvic mesh, hernia mesh, and inferior vena cava filters. Ashley has also acted for defendants in product liability cases related to allegedly defective automobile airbags, gear shifters, printer paper, electrical power bars, guardrails, and water heaters.
Much of Ashley's work is international in scope and she frequently works with clients facing cross-border litigation. As an experienced litigator with a broad background in the defence of complex class actions, Ashley regularly works collaboratively with U.S. counsel on parallel matters.
Ashley is praised as being “an excellent lawyer” and, before becoming partner, she was ranked as an “Associate to Watch” in the category of Litigation: Products Liability by Chambers & Partners (2018 and 2019). In addition to her practice, Ashley is a member of the Ontario Bar Associations' Class Actions Law Section Executive. The Executive is responsible for facilitating learning, advocacy and networking on behalf of the OBA's Class Actions Law Section. Ashley is also a member of the Canadian Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and the Defence Research Institute.
Ashley regularly speaks and writes in the above-noted areas and is a frequent attendee of industry conferences. She has published extensively in the above-noted areas, both at the international level and locally.