Pleadings as an Advocacy Tool: Drafting, Strategy, and Common Pitfalls

For more than 135 years, the Toronto Lawyers' Association, located within the Courthouse Library, has represented the interests of lawyers practising in the City of Toronto. The association was founded to support its members in three key areas: Knowledge, Advocacy, and Community. To uphold these pillars, the association offers a year-round mix of online and in-person education programs for lawyers, hosts both free and paid events to foster in-person networking, and submits advocacy pieces on behalf of its members to the Ontario bench and bar, all levels of government, and the broader public.

Michael Watson is a partner in Gowling WLG's Toronto office, practising in the area of corporate and commercial litigation, administrative law, and employment and labour relations. Michael handles a wide variety of commercial, energy, constitutional and administrative matters. He has appeared before all levels of courts in Ontario, in the Federal Court of Canada, and in the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as the trial and appellate courts of Alberta. Throughout his career, Michael has been heavily involved in legal education in Ontario, in the fields of civil procedure and trial advocacy. He is recognized as one of the leading experts on civil procedure in the province, speaking to Ontario Superior Court judges on various trial advocacy and civil procedure topics, as well as in various programs for The Law Society of Ontario, The Advocates' Society, Osgoode Hall Law School and L'Université de Moncton. Michael is adjunct professor of law at Osgoode Hall Law School, where he has taught Civil Procedure II (advanced topics in civil procedure) to upper year students since 1985. He has also been a senior instructor at the Intensive Advocacy Workshop at Osgoode Hall Law School since 1984, and is a recipient of the Law School's Adjunct Faculty Distinguished Service Award. From 1994 to 2004, he was provincial head of the Civil Litigation Section of the Law Society of Ontario's Bar Admission Course. Michael is also a member of Ontario's four-member Civil Rules Secretariat, which advises the Civil Rules Committee on revisions to the Rules of Civil Procedure. Michael is an experienced amateur astronomer and astrophotographer, has held various executive positions as a member of The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, and as its legal counsel.

Kira Domratchev is a litigation lawyer and partner in Gowling WLG's global Private Client Services Group. She is an accredited Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) as a full member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) Canada. Using her ability to find common ground with clients and opposing counsel, Kira strives for practical resolutions to litigation disputes through mediation and other alternative means of dispute resolution, where possible. She offers dependable, responsive and consistent help in navigating clients through complex and emotionally taxing litigation disputes. Based in Toronto, Kira's practice is focused on contentious estate, trust and capacity matters. Prior to joining Gowling WLG, Kira spent nearly four years practicing estate, trust and capacity litigation at a prominent Toronto boutique firm. Kira regularly appears before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (including the Estates List and the Commercial List) and the Court of Appeal for Ontario. Further, Kira's paper entitled "Is an RESP a Trust? … And So What If It Is?", 40 E.T.P.J. 257, 2021 was cited favourably by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Labatte v Labatte, 2022 ONSC 4787. As preferred counsel for LawPRO, Kira regularly acts on matters related to professional negligence with respect to estate and trust issues including the defence of solicitor negligence claims and applications to rectify wills and trusts. As a member of the Education Committee of the Toronto Lawyers' Association, Kira routinely organizes and participates as a speaker at various continuing legal education seminars. She also sits on the executive committee of the Ontario Bar Association's Elder Law Section Executive and Trusts and Estates Law Section Executive. Kira is also a regular volunteer with Pro Bono Ontario Free Legal Advice Hotline providing advice on estate, trust and capacity issues and was included on the Pro Bono Ontario Honour Roll in 2023. As part of the Commercial/Estate List Amicus Program, Kira has also acted as Amicus Curiae to assist the Court in advancing the position of a self-represented party in a fair and efficient manner. Kira also participated as a speaker in a series of videos recorded for the Amicus Program.