Michael J. Donaldson, KC,

Michael is well regarded for his dispute resolution practice, offering strength in litigation and arbitration. He is noted for his particular strength in representing power clients in contentious commercial proceedings.
- Chambers Canada, 2021 Guide

Mike has practiced energy, commercial, and securities litigation, and commercial arbitration in Calgary for over 25 years. He has extensive experience with claims in the electricity, oil & gas, midstream, petrochemical, and pulp & paper industries both before the courts and in complex commercial arbitrations.

Mike has appeared as counsel in over 100 reported cases before all Alberta Courts, the Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court of Canada, the Alberta and B.C. Securities Commissions, and other regulatory tribunals, and has been counsel in dozens of private commercial arbitrations. He has also argued several precedent-setting cases that have helped to delineate the jurisdictional boundaries between the courts and arbitration panels in commercial arbitrations, and established important principles regarding enforcement and annulment of arbitration awards.

Due to his notable reputation, Mike is recognised by Best Lawyers in Canada, Lexpert, Chambers Canada, and Benchmark Canada for his litigation, arbitration, and appellate advocacy work.

In addition to maintaining a busy practice, Mike is an adjunct professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law and has taught effective writing, legal drafting, and written advocacy courses to lawyers and business people in law firms, industry, government and regulatory bodies. He has also published several articles in Canadian and US law journals. Mike also holds an LLM from Columbia Law School where he was a James Kent Scholar in 2017.

• Law Society of Alberta, Member
• Canadian Bar Association, Member
• Calgary Bar Association, Member

• Thomson Reuters "Stand-out Lawyer" 2022-2024
• Chambers Canada 2024: ranked for Litigation: General Commercial - Alberta (Band 4)
• Best Lawyers in Canada 2013-2024: recognised for Alternative Dispute Resolution, Appellate Practice, and Corporate and Commercial Litigation
• Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory: 
  • recommended as a leading practitioner for Commercial Arbitration (2024)
  • recommended as a leading practitioner for Litigation - Corporate Commercial (2021-2024)
  • recommended as a leading practitioner for Directors' & Officers' Liability (2014)
• The Advocates' Society's Alberta Excellence in Mentoring Award 2022
• Litigation Counsel of America, Fellow
• Benchmark Litigation Canada Awards 2020: Impact Case Award for TransAlta Generation Partnership v Balancing Pool
• Benchmark Canada: The Guide to Canada’s Leading Litigation Firms and Attorneys, 2013-2023: recognised as a Litigation Star
• Lexpert's 2007 Guide to U.S./Canada Cross-Border Litigation Lawyers—one of Canada's 30 "Litigation Lawyers to Watch"
• Lexpert Magazine's Top 40 Lawyers Under 40 in Canada in 2006
• James Kent Scholar and Milton B. Conford Prize in Jurisprudence, Columbia Law School (LL.M. Class), 2017

Michael has experience in the following areas:

• Securities Litigation
  • Bringing and defending claims against issuers, directors and officers in shareholder and derivative claims for oppression, breach of fiduciary duty, Securities Act violations and other causes of action
  • Counsel to shareholders and issuers in Stock Exchange appeals and in other challenges to corporate transactions before the Securities Commissions and Courts
  • Representation of directors, officers and issuers in disciplinary proceedings before the Securities Commissions
  • Counsel to Special Litigation Committees and to directors and officers facing Special Litigation Committee investigations

• Commercial Litigation
  • Broad range of experience representing parties in contract and tort-based commercial claims
  • Private corporation shareholder/officer/director disputes
  • Counsel to financial institutions in claims relating to alleged breaches of account agreements and financing documents and in negligence and misrepresentation claims
  • Counsel to corporate trustees in claims arising out of administration of trusts
  • Cross-Border litigation, including coordination of inter-related claims in Canada and the United States, management of U.S. litigation on behalf of Canadian clients, and enforcement of Letters Rogatory and Letters of Request from U.S. Courts

• Energy Litigation
  • Representation of operators and non-operators in  contractual disputes involving joint ventures, royalties, accounting, operators' duties and fiduciary duties in the oil & gas, power and mining industries 

• Intellectual Property Litigation
  • Copyright, trade-mark and patent infringement litigation in the Alberta and Federal Courts

• Commercial Arbitration
  • Counsel in arbitrations under Alberta's legislated Power Purchase Arrangements and in related court proceedings
  • Domestic arbitrations of various commercial issues under the Alberta Arbitration Act
  • International commercial arbitrations
  • Litigation over enforcement of domestic and international awards, applications to set aside awards, and judicial assistance and intervention in domestic and international arbitrations