Gabrielle K. Kramer  

Gabrielle Kramer is a partner in the Toronto office of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. She has a public law practice focusing on issues related to the environment, regulatory defence, municipal law, expropriations law and real estate.

Gabrielle has appeared as counsel before all of the courts in Ontario and the Supreme Court of Canada, and has extensive appellate experience. She represents a variety of private and public sector clients before the Environmental Review Tribunal, Ontario Municipal Board, Joint Board, and Boards of Inquiry and Negotiation. Gabrielle is able to work in French.

• Prosecuting and defending varied environmental litigation for industries and private individuals; defending environmental offences; and conducting discoveries, pre-trials, trials, arbitrations, appeals, mediations and negotiations.
• Acted for U.S.-based venture capital firm Bedrock Industries in acquisition of Stelco steel manufacturing plants for approximately CAD $500 million. The transaction included arrangements governing historic environmental liabilities.
• Providing insurance coverage services, including legal opinions, litigation and document management services to leading insurers respecting environmental insurance issues.
• Providing coverage advice to excess insurer of Enbridge in respect of Michigan oil spill; serving as counsel to American Defence Committee in Exxon litigation involving refineries and service stations across the United States and Canada.
• Drafting environmental insurance policies for a number of leading insurers.
• Defending professional liability claims, including for environmental consultants, environmental contractors, real estate appraisers, listing agents and brokers.
• Advising on environmental aspects of corporate, commercial and real estate transactions, including the conduct of extensive environmental due diligence in connection with both international and Canada-wide acquisitions and financing transactions.
• Defending and challenging the exercise of public administrative authority.
• Acting in projects including Toyota Development in Woodstock, and York Region Rapid transit, road extensions and widenings, intersection installations, landfill sites, reservoir sites, and sewage treatment.

Speaker/Chair

• “Understanding Soil and Groundwater: Part 2,” Ontario Bar Association, Co-presenter, April 9, 2018.
• “Grime and Punishment – The Escalating Cost of Environmental Fines and Punishment," BLG Client Seminar, April 9, 2017.
• “Anatomy of an Environmental Claim,” Rims Conference, Co-Presenter, September 2016.
• “Navigating Pollution Coverage: A Shifting Landscape,” 4th Annual Canadian Construction Insurance Law: Minimizing Liability at the Crossroads (Lexpert, June 2, 2016, Toronto).
• A Midwest Side Story: Stepping up Contamination Claims, April 2016 Client Seminar, Co-Presenter.
• Utilizing Municipal Expropriation Powers for Economic Development, 2015 OEA Fall Seminar Presentation.
• Navigating Environmental Risk Around the World, Rims Conference 2015, Co-Presenter with ACE INA Insurance.
• "The Legacy of Kawartha Lakes: Managing the Risks of Flow-Through Contamination," BLG's Municipal Law Client Seminar, April 2014.
• "Canadian Environmental Regulatory Changes and Their Implications for EIL Insurance," RIMS Canada Conference, October 2013.
• "Effective Due Diligence in Managing Transportation Spills: Legal and Engineering Perspectives," International Sites & Spills Expo, November 2012 (with Mathew Allen and Giffin Koerth).
• Conference Chair, Forum of Necessity: 2012 Advanced OEA Discussion, Ontario Expropriation Association, October 25-26, 2012.
• "Spills, Trucking and Clean-up Solutions," International Sites & Spills Expo, November 2011.
• "Inco Claim 'Smoke and Mirrors': Ontario Court of Appeal Reverses $36-Million Dollar Damages Award," and "Is there Room for Fairness? The Environmental Review Tribunal Post-Appletex, BLG Client Seminar, October 2011.
• "Damages for Environmental Losses: The Challenges and the Risks," OBA Institute, Insurance Law Section, Session titled "Property Claims: A Primer," February 2011.
• "New Rules for Brownfield Development in Ontario; Class Actions: Inco and its Aftermath," BLG Client Seminar, September 2010.

Publications

• Co-Author, "Administrative Monetary Penalties in Force for Ontario Cap and Trade Program," BLG Environmental Bulletin, January 2018.
• Co-Author, Toxic Real Estate Manual, 2016+, Thomson Reuters. Release Note.
• Co-Author, "When Innocence is no Defence: The Legacy of the Kawartha Lakes Decision," Pulse, Ontario Risk and Insurance Management Society, March 2013.
• Co-Author, "Supreme Court Rules on the Status of Environmental Clean-Up Orders under the CCAA," BLG Environmental Alert, December 2012.
• "Ontario Court of Appeal Reinvigorates Absolute Pollution Exclusion," BLG's Canadian Insurance Law Newsletter, Fall 2011.
• "Smith v Inco : Polluter Must Pay Landowners $36M," The Lawyers Weekly, August 27, 2010.
• "Smith v Inco : Environmental Class Action First," BLG Alert, July 2010.
• Co-Author, "Ontario MOE Overhauls Key Brownfields Regulation," Enviromation, CCH Canadian Ltd.
• "Foreseeability Cannot Be Viewed Through a Retrospective Lens," BLG's Environmental Law News, Winter 2010.
• "Dirty Dirt: Measuring Damages for Toxic Torts," Canadian Insurance Business Magazine, January 2010.

Contributor

• Interviewed, “Small Environmental Impacts Must be Reported,” Canadian Property Management, November 4, 2013.
• New Law of Expropriation. This text is relied on by lawyers, appraisers and government authorities in assessing expropriations claims.

• Selected by peers for inclusion in the 2019 edition (and since 2016) of The Best Lawyers in Canada® (Insurance Law)
• Recognized in the 2019 edition of Best Lawyers in Canada (Environmental Law)