Kevin Wright

Partner

Chair, Canadian International Trade, Regulatory and Government Affairs Group

Emailkevin.wright@ca.dlapiper.com

Call+1 604 643 6461

Vancouver

About

Kevin Wright is an experienced competition law and class action defence lawyer. He is the ‎Chair of the ‎firm’s Canadian International Trade, Regulatory and Government Affairs Group.‎

In his 30 year career, he has covered all aspects of competition law from complex international and ‎‎national cartel (price fixing) investigations and defence of criminal charges: merger clearance, abuse of ‎‎dominance investigations, advice on marketing and distribution practices and compliance programs. He ‎‎has acted in two of the few fully litigated merger cases before the Competition Tribunal, including an ‎‎appearance in the Supreme Court of Canada and the successful defence of vendors against the ‎proposed ‎dissolution of a ‎merger. While on a secondment early in his career, he was involved in ‎significant merger ‎cases before the European Commission and in the United States.‎

Kevin has been lead counsel in the defence of over 30 class actions across the country. His class action ‎‎experience covers a variety of industries, including automotive, technology, manufacturing, electronics, ‎‎transportation services, food and petroleum. ‎

He has also acted for and advised clients in trade law disputes, including a chapter 11 NAFTA claim filed ‎against the Government of Canada. He has acted in other regulatory proceedings and civil litigation ‎including intellectual property disputes, proceedings under the Canada Transportation Act and ‎appearances before regulatory agencies and a utilities commission.‎

Kevin has been an active member of the Canadian Bar Association National Competition and Foreign ‎Investment Review Section ‎throughout his career. He has ‎served in the past as Chair of its International, ‎Legislation and Policy, Economics and Law, Mergers and Criminal ‎Matters Committees.‎ He was the Chair ‎of the Section’s 2022 Fall Conference, the country’s most significant annual competition law conference.‎

He has spoken and lectured on competition law, class actions and intellectual property law to ‎professional ‎and business audiences on various occasions.‎

For twelve years, Kevin has been an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia Faculty of ‎Law ‎where he teaches competition law.‎

Kevin received a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1990, ‎obtaining the gold medal in honours economics. He then studied law at the University of Toronto, where he ‎graduated with honours in 1993.‎

Areas of FocusClass Actions Regulatory and Government Affairs Litigation, Arbitration and Investigations Intellectual Property Antitrust and Competition Consumer Goods, Food and Retail Infrastructure, Construction and Transport Compliance Global Investigations Transport White Collar and Corporate Crime Business and Commercial Litigation

Bar admissionsBritish Columbia, 1994

EXPERIENCE

Acting for Trulieve Cannabis Corp. (CSE: TRUL) (OTC: TCNNF) in its proposed US$2.1 billion acquisition of Harvest Health & Recreation Inc. (CSE: HARV, OTCQX: HRVSF).
Defence counsel in many class actions involving alleged anticompetitive conduct, including in respect ‎of Automobile Parts, Ocean Shipping Services, Bearings, Optical Disc Drives, Ramen Noodles, ‎Capacitors, Resistors, Lithium Ion Batteries, Diesel Engine Emissions, DRAM, SRAM, Flash Memory, ‎‎Smart Card Chips
Defence counsel in class actions involving allegations of copyright infringement, breach of fuel supply ‎contracts, and improper collection of excise taxes ‎
Counsel to the Vendor Respondents before the Competition Tribunal in CCS/Tervita ‎merger case
Counsel to the Competition Bureau in the Southam Newspapers merger case (including appearance ‎before the Supreme Court of Canada) ‎
Appearance before the British Columbia Utilities Commission Inquiry into Gasoline and Diesel Prices ‎in British Columbia ‎
Acted for Autopro Automation Consultants Ltd. in three-party acquisition transaction with Universal ‎mCloud Corp. and Fulcrum Automation Technologies.‎
Acted for CDW Canada Corp. in its acquisition of Scalar Decisions Inc., a leading technology ‎solutions provider in Canada
Acted for Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. and Sumitomo Corporation in the September 2018 acquisition of the Pogo Gold Mine in Alaska by Northern Star Resources for US$260 million
Advised Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd., Marubeni Corporation and Daishowa North America Corporation in the $465 million acquisition of Daishowa-Marubeni International Ltd. by Mercer International Inc.
Defence of patent infringement litigation involving oil and gas drilling operations, safety-system devices, sawmills, and helicopter logging

Languages

Awards

Chambers Global

Competition Law, (2015)
Competition and Antitrust, (2018 – 2022, 2024 – 2025)

Chambers Canada

Competition/Antitrust: Litigators, (2016 – 2026)

The Legal 500 Canada

Competition and Antitrust, (2016 – 2024)
Dispute Resolution, (2018 – 2019, 2025)

Additional Recognitions

Recognized, Competition/Antitrust Law, Best Lawyers in Canada, (2021 – 2026)
Listed, Expert Guides: Guide to Competition and Antitrust, (2014, 2021)
Listed, Competition Law, Canadian Legal Lexpert^® Directory, (2010 – 2025)
Listed, Competition Law, Lexpert® ALM 500 Directory, (2022 – 2024)
Listed, Litigation, Lexpert® Special Edition, (2023)
Listed, Competition Lawyers & Economists, The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers, (2013 – 2017)
Listed, Competition Law, Lexpert^® Guide to the Leading US/Canada Cross-border Litigation Lawyers in Canada, (2012, 2014, 2017)
Listed, Lexpert Canada’s Leading Litigation Lawyers, (2020)
Listed, Competition, Lexology Index Canada, (2016 – 2023, 2025)
Listed, Who's Who Legal Competition: Lawyers, (2016– 2023)