Ryan Phillips

Ryan Phillips is a Partner at JSS Barristers. He practices in most areas of civil litigation and administrative law, focusing on corporate and commercial disputes, professional negligence (non-medical), privacy and access to information, judicial reviews, construction, and insurance.

Education

Ryan graduated from law school at the University of Saskatchewan, achieving a Dean’s List standing for academic excellence. In law school, he competed in the Gale Cup criminal-constitutional moot, and he studied abroad for a semester at Bond University on the Gold Coast of Australia. He was called to the British Columbia bar in 2012 before he moved to Calgary and joined JSS Barristers in 2014. Since 2021, Ryan has been a guest lecturer for the civil procedure law class at the University of Calgary.

Civil Litigation Career

Ryan acts for a wide variety of individuals, companies, and administrative bodies, including for the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta in judicial reviews, and for the Alberta Lawyers Indemnity Association in defence of professional negligence claims. He has successfully represented clients in many commercial arbitrations and at all levels of courts in Alberta in various applications, trials, and appeals, and in the superior courts of British Columbia and Saskatchewan. Ryan has also successfully defended against leave applications to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Experience

Some of Ryan’s representative experience or seminal cases are:

0678786 BC Ltd v Bennett Jones LLP, 2021 ABCA 62 and 2021 ABCA 197

Fitter International Inc v British Columbia, 2021 ABCA 54

Awards and Recognitions

In 2022, Ryan was recognized for his Corporate and Commercial Litigation practice by Best Lawyers. Since 2020, he has been named Future Star, every year, by Benchmark Litigation. Previously, he was named on Benchmark Litigation's Top 40 & Under Hot List. 

Publications 

"Protecting Privacy in the Era of AI"

National Magazine, Canadian Bar Association, March 16, 2021
Co-Author (with Matthew Scott)

"Contractual Interpretations and the 'Surrounding Circumstances' - Six Years After Sattva"
JSSBarristers.ca, June 9, 2020
Co-Author (with Kaila Eadie)

"Is My Business Covered for Insurance Losses Caused by COVID-19?"

JSSBarristers.ca, April 17, 2020
Co-Author (with Maureen McCartney-Cameron)

"Forum Shopping for Limitation Deadlines"

Statute of Limitations in International Commercial Claims, by David Franklin (Toronto, Ontario: Thomson Reuters, 2016), pp. 839-846
Co-Author (with Bryan Duguid QC, FCIArb)

"Third Party Claims in Construction Disputes"

CBA Construction Law Section, October 2019
Co-Author (with Geoff Boddy and Andrea MacLean)

Speaking Engagements

 Interviewee
"Alberta Health Services sues Calgary mayoral candidate for $1.3M over threats to health-care workers", Global News Calgary (https://globalnews.ca/video/rd/5f0d7008-cbee-11eb-bf7e-0242ac110007/?jwsource=cl), June 12, 2021.