Joseph Groia is a principal of Groia & Company Professional Corporation. He practices securities litigation, acting as counsel in a wide range of civil, quasi-criminal, criminal and administrative cases. During his career as a securities litigator Mr. Groia has acted as counsel in many of Canada’s most important securities cases including: Asbestos, Bre-X, Canadian Tire, Cinar, Hollinger, Torstar/Southam, Phillip Services and YBM. In January 2008, Mr. Groia was featured as a premier Canadian securities lawyer in Canadian Lawyer Magazine.
Mr. Groia received his B.A. and J.D. from the University of Toronto and was called to the Ontario Bar in 1981. In 1985 he joined the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) as the associate general counsel responsible for litigation matters; subsequently, from October 1987 — March 1990, he was the OSC’s Director of Enforcement. He joined Heenan Blaikie’s Toronto office in 1990, where he practiced corporate and securities litigation as a partner until he left to start up Groia & Company on January 1, 2000.
Mr. Groia is a frequent speaker and presenter of law papers at various educational programmes, including the McGill University Meredith Lectures, the Peat Marwick Memorial Lectures, the Law Society of Upper Canada Special Lectures, the Langdon Hall Securities Law Practitioners’ Programme, and the Oxford Conference on International Securities Fraud. In 2007, Mr. Groia and Ms. Pamela Hardie published Canada’s first and only textbook on securities litigation, “Securities Litigation and Enforcement". A second edition followed in 2012.
Mr. Groia has been ranked as one of Canada’s 500 Leading Lawyers (Lexpert) since 2000 and is consistently rated as one of Canada’s top securities litigators by the same publication. Mr. Groia’s most noteworthy professional accomplishment was his leadership of the team that successfully defended Mr. John Felderhof in the 10 year OSC prosecution of charges arising out of the collapse of Bre-X Minerals Ltd.
In May 2015, Mr. Groia was elected to serve as Bencher at the Law Society of Upper Canada.
In June 2018 his conviction for professional misconduct by the Law Society was overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada, and he was acquitted of charges with costs. This finally brought to an end the issues arising out of his successful defence of John Bernard Felderhof in the Bre-X Minerals case.
Practice Area
Securities Litigation
Corporate Litigation
Publications
Securities Litigation and Enforcement with Pamela Hardie, presently in its 2nd edition
Teaching
Guest Lecturer at Toronto, Queens, Osgoode, Western, Windsor, McGill, Calgary;
Guest Lectures at the LSO, Barreau du Quebec, Oxford, Advocates’ Society, CBA, OBA, BCBA, Memorial University
Education
1979 - LL.B. / J.D. Toronto
1976 - B.A. Toronto
Notable Cases
Asbestos Corp.
Atlas Cold Storage
BP
Canada Malting
Canadian Tire
Cinar
Hollinger
Philip Services
R. v. Felderhof
Torstar/Southam
YBM Magnex
Highly Notable Cases
Joseph Groia v. Law Society of Upper Canada