In order to receive a payout from General Motors Canada Ltd., dealers who signed the winding-down agreement (WDA) had to submit a signed certificate attesting that they had received independent legal advice. Many dealers, like Gary Decker, went to their local attorneys. Now those firms, ranging from some of Canada’s largest firms, such as Norton Rose Fulbright and McCarthy TÉtrault, to solo practitioners in small towns such as Yorkton, Saskatchewan and Morris, Manitoba—150 practices in all—are targets of a third-party action filed by Cassels Brock & Blackwell. (Clyde & Co, which is representing the 150 firms, declined to comment for this story.)
Cassels Brock argues that if it’s held responsible for negligence in the advice it allegedly gave to the GMCL dealers, the 150 firms and lawyers who gave the dealers the independent legal counsel required under the WDA should pay, too.
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