Lawyers from the three firms of the Personal Injury Alliance are not only practitioners — they are among the most cited educators and thought leaders in Canadian personal injury law.
Jim Vigmond of Oatley Vigmond is a past president of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association and pioneered Canada’s first dedicated Personal Injury Advocacy course at Queen’s Law School, where he taught as an adjunct professor. That course is now led by Brian Cameron, also a past OTLA president. Roger Oatley is a past president of The Advocates’ Society and co-authored the foundational text series including the Oatley-McLeish Guide to Personal Injury Practice in Motor Vehicle Cases. Troy Lehman co-authored the third edition of Addressing the Jury, the only book in Canada dedicated to presenting a personal injury jury trial – a text other trial lawyers across the country credit for their results.
At McLeish Orlando, John McLeish, Dale Orlando, and Patrick Brown are each past OTLA presidents — three past presidents at a single firm, a record the association recognized by establishing the John A. McLeish Award in 2000. At Thomson Rogers LLP, George Karahotzitis was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 2024/25 — an invitation-only distinction.
Collectively, PIA lawyers present at conferences hosted by the Canadian Bar Association, The Advocates’ Society, the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association, and medical and rehabilitation organizations across Canada including Toronto Rehab University Health Network’s Annual Brain Injury Conference.
When legal associations and academic institutions call on these lawyers to teach and present, it signals something peer review publications confirm: these are firms that set the standard for how personal injury cases are litigated in Ontario, not firms that follow it.
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