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Emma Irving

Emma Irving

Partner

Emma Irving

Partner

Vancouver

D+1 604 648 6502

Local time

Emma Irving is co-leader of the national Class action group and partner in Dentons’ Litigation and Dispute Resolution group in Vancouver. She represents national and regional clients in a variety of different commercial and regulatory disputes. Emma’s practice encompasses most areas of commercial litigation with a focus on contract and transactional disputes, administrative law, personal injury defence, class actions and product liability.

Emma has considerable experience in the transportation and mining sectors. She has acted in cases involving derailments, maritime claims, joint venture agreements and mineral tenure claims, as well as in regulatory matters involving the British Columbia Trucking Commissioner and the British Columbia Gold Commissioner.

Emma also has experience in estates litigation and has acted for both individuals and financial institutions in connection with estate matters.

Prior to joining Dentons, Emma clerked for the British Columbia Supreme Court.

Experience

The Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited: Acting as co-lead counsel to CFCL in successfully opposing certification of a proposed class action in Cleaver v. The Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited, 2025 BCSC 910, relating to the company’s brief 2018 pilot of anonymous video analytics technology in certain shopping malls across Canada. The BC Supreme Court dismissed the certification application in its entirety, finding there was no basis in fact to support core common issues or an identifiable class, and that the majority of the plaintiffs’ claims spanning intrusion upon seclusion, negligence, statutory privacy breaches, and breaches of Quebec law were bound to fail. The Court also held that findings of privacy regulators, including a joint investigative report by federal and provincial commissioners, were inadmissible for the truth of their contents and could not support certification.
Mother 1 v. Solus Trust Company and others, 2019 BCSC 200: Representing a minor beneficiary, Child 3, in an estate case in the British Columbia Supreme Court where the deceased died without a will, leaving five children, by five different women, and an estate in excess of CA$10-million. Successfully defeated the claim of Mother 1 to entitlement to the estate, leaving all funds to the five children.
Class Action Defence: Defence counsel in a number of class action proceedings involving allegations of price fixing, breaches of the federal Competition Act, and breaches of the British Columbia Privacy Act and Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act.
Wan v. The National Dental Examining Board of Canada, 2019 BCSC 32 and Kabiri v. The National Dental Examining Board of Canada, 2018 BCSC 1938: Successfully defended applications for judicial review brought by foreign trained dentists seeking review of the National Dental Examining Board appeal committee’s decisions upholding the petitioners’ failing skills exam grades.
Confidential client: Advising client in the context of a regulatory audit conducted by the British Columbia Trucking Commissioner.
Confidential clients: Advising in connection with a variety of personal injury tort and contract claims, arising from motor vehicle accidents and product liability claims.
Suzhou Raybot Material Tech Corp. v. Zhu, 2018 BCSC 1241, leave to appeal denied: Successfully acted for the corporate plaintiff in obtaining a series of interim freezing orders and defending an application for leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal.
Confidential client: Successfully represented mining client at a reconsideration hearing before the British Columbia Gold Commissioner. The Gold Commissioner had declared the client’s mineral tenures forfeit for alleged breaches of the Mineral Tenures Act. On reconsideration, the Gold Commissioner reversed his prior decision
Lotzkar v. Canadian National Railway, 2015 BCCA 434: Acted as co-counsel for the appellant on an appeal from a dismissal of an application to strike the corporate plaintiff’s claim. The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and struck out the corporate plaintiff’s claim.
Canadian National Railway v. Chiu, 2014 BCSC 75: Acted as co-counsel in successfully defending an application to strike out the plaintiff’s claim for want of prosecution.

Recognition

First recognized in 2020, Emma has been commended for her extensive knowledge and experience in the following respected publication:

The Legal 500 Canada: Dispute Resolution

Honors and Awards

Malcolm MacIntyre Prize in Law – Succession Law, 2011
Allard and Company Prize in Corporations, 2011
Douglas Knowles, Q.C. Annual Internship in Insolvency Law, 2010
Michael E. Moran Memorial Prize – Criminal Law, 2009

Insights

Co-author, "Ocean Pacific Hotels v. Lee: The limits of the duty of honest performance and a lesson in class proceeding amendments," Dentons Commercial Litigation Blog, April 2025
Co-author, "Restrictive covenants: A barrier to housing developments in British Columbia," Dentons Insights, March 2025
Co-author, "Government of British Columbia proposes amendments to the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act," Dentons Commercial Litigation Blog, March 2025
Co-author, "British Columbia Supreme Court reaffirms broad supervisory powers of the BC Farm Industry Review Board," Canada Regulatory Review, January 2025
Co-author, "The Supreme Court of Canada declines to hear appeals from decisions upholding arbitration agreements and embedded class action waivers," Dentons Commercial Litigation Blog, June 26, 2024
Co-author, "British Columbia Court of Appeal upholds residency requirement in Class Proceedings Act," Commercial Litigation Blog, May 31, 2024
Co-author, “Greenwashing: The next "big thing"? Legal framework applicable to Greenwashing: Canada," Dentons Insight, March 27, 2024
Co-author, “Developments in class actions: Perspectives from the UK, Europe and Canada,” Lexpert, December 2023
Featured counsel, Take Five January 2022 BC Edition, OnPoint Legal Research Law Corporation
Co-author, "A Paved Cow Path Is Not What We Had in Mind," Annual Review of Civil Litigation 2020, Thomson Reuters, September 25, 2020
Author, "Beware of secret trusts – BC Court of Appeal upholds deathbed trust," Commercial Litigation Blog, August 12, 2020
Author, "Recent Membership Fee Related Class Action Trends," Commercial Litigation Blog, July 13, 2020
Emma Irving & Claudia Poon, “Moore v. Getahun and Counsel’s Role in Dealing with Expert Witnesses” (2014) 15:4 Commercial Litigation 829.

Activities and Affiliations

Member, Canadian Bar Association, B.C. Branch, Civil Litigation and Wills & Trusts

Community Involvement and Pro Bono

Access Pro Bono Court of Appeal Program – Referral counsel
From 2013 to 2018, Emma was on the organizing committee for the UBC Law School Negotiation Competition, which provides law students with an opportunity to engage in a mock negotiation

Presentations

Co-presenter, “Rise in privacy, product liability and employment class action”, Litigation and Dispute Resolution in Canada: 2022 year in review and future trends, March 30, 2023
Co-Presenter, “Arbitration Clauses,” Keeping up with cross-border class actions webinars, November 8, 2022

Contact information

VancouverLocal time

D+1 604 648 6502

Email me

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Areas of focus

Education

University of British Columbia, 2011, JD

University of British Columbia, 2008, BA

Admissions and qualifications

British Columbia, 2013

Languages

English

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Emma Irving

Emma Irving

Email me

Download vCard

Experience

Recognition

Honors and Awards

Insights

Activities and Affiliations

Community Involvement and Pro Bono

Presentations

At home in British Columbia,
across Canada and everywhere else you do business.

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