The lawyer who reads all the fine print
— and the terms and conditions.
Rachelle Wabischewich has been known to work through a shareholder dispute at ten thousand feet, on a ridge trail in the Alps, which tells you most of what you need to know about how the files get read. Twelve years at the Ontario bar, a practice anchored in shareholder and oppression disputes, and a reputation for reading the contract a third time after everyone else has stopped.
Rachelle was called to the Ontario bar in 2014, after an honours undergraduate degree at York, where she graduated summa cum laude, and a J.D. at Western. The practice she has built since then lives in commercial litigation: shareholder and oppression disputes, contract enforcement, corporate governance conflicts, urgent injunctive relief, and the mediations and arbitrations that resolve half of the above without a trial.
She runs her files the way she reads her contracts: from the first line to the last, without skipping the attachments. Clients do not always notice the third read. Judges and arbitrators tend to.
"The facts rarely change between the first read and the tenth. What changes is what you are prepared to ask about them."
Commercial Litigation
Strategic advocacy in complex business disputes across Ontario courts, from early assessment and pre-trial motions through trial and final judgment.
Shareholder & Oppression Disputes
Remedies for unfair prejudice, governance breakdowns, and buy-out disputes under the Ontario Business Corporations Act, including oppression applications and derivative actions.
Contract & Corporate Disputes
Breach of contract claims, fiduciary duty actions, and disputes arising from governance failures, partnership breakdowns, and commercial agreements.
Urgent Commercial Remedies
Injunctions, preservation orders, and focused motions on tight timelines where delay causes irreparable commercial harm and decisive action is essential.
ADR & Negotiated Resolution
Mediation and arbitration strategy aligned with risk tolerance, cost, and business objectives, achieving durable outcomes without the expense of full trial.
Appellate Strategy
Disciplined records, focused facta, and clear oral submissions before the Ontario Court of Appeal and Divisional Court on leave motions and full appeals.
Representative, not exhaustive. Identifying details generalised.
Education
B.A. (Hons), summa cum laude, York University · 2009
J.D., Western University · 2013
Admissions
Ontario Bar · Called 2014
Courts
Superior Court of Justice · Commercial List
Court of Appeal for Ontario
Eight questions, answered at the end of the dock.
We found her at the end of the family cottage dock, the one she has been returning to since she was small enough to be zipped into a life jacket. Sea-dooing, boating, snowmobiling in January, or simply lying flat on the boards with a book, the place has done its work on her for thirty-odd summers, and counting. We asked the sort of questions you cannot put on a firm website without them sounding rehearsed. The answers follow, lightly trimmed.
01 · Always in the bag
Lip balm, a pack of eyeglass wipes, and a spare pen, because the first one always fails on the wrong page.
02 · Listening to
Led Zeppelin, mostly. On a loop that, somehow, does not get old.
03 · Giving time to
My husband, Denis. We work together, which is its own kind of togetherness. The weekends are for the other kind.
