About Stephen Gleave
My Journey
One of Canada’s premier labour and employment attorneys, Stephen Gleave has practiced law since 1990, having represented clients in hundreds of major legal disputes, including complex arbitrations, trials, and injunctions. In the process, he has helped his clients avoid serious business risks, saved companies millions of dollars, and become one of the most distinguished authorities on labour and employment law in Canada.
Before joining DLA Piper in 2019, Stephen spent most of his career at Hicks Morley, a Toronto-based law firm where he cultivated a strong reputation as a skilled trial lawyer. He has acted as counsel in some of the country’s most prominent employment law cases over the last three decades, and is particularly sought after for expertise on executive compensation, wrongful dismissal, and retirement benefits. Stephen has represented companies in commercial litigation regarding shareholder disputes, including oppression claims, rights of first refusals, and expulsion of shareholders.
Recent cases include a dismissal of a class action suit over retiree benefits on behalf of a major Canadian insurance company; a dismissal of a claim of forfeiture brought by an insurance advisor who lost his retirement payments for wrongfully competing after leaving an insurance company; upholding of a forfeiture of executive compensation plans on behalf of a Canadian bank; obtaining advanced payments for minority shareholders in sale of shares disputes; and a leading case on how to value shares in an insurance brokerage dispute, among many others.
Stephen has extensive experience in the emerging field of digital forensics. Foreseeing its ubiquity, he pursued rigorous training around its applications in the law, and he now teaches these in-demand methods to other lawyers.
He earned his LL.B. at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and later undertook his graduate studies in law at Oxford University. He is a member of both the Canadian Bar Association and the Law Society of Ontario, and he has been named in The Best Lawyers in Canada, Best Lawyers Global Business List, and The Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory.
Stephen is now expanding his practice nationally through DLA in Alberta.
