The man in Courtroom 6
— and on the reef at Atlantis.
Denis Grigoras runs civil and appellate files from a 48th-floor office on King Street West, and, as often as not, from a basement, an airport lounge, or a desk on the other side of an ocean. The reading travels. Nineteen years at the bar, two jurisdictions, and a practice built on the unglamorous bits, the margins, the ledgers, the third read of the pleading. Between all that, there are fish.
Denis was called to the Ontario bar in 2007 and to the Nevada bar the year after. From roughly 2012 to 2017 his practice was weighted heavily toward corporate and commercial transactional work: share purchases, private placements, the shareholder agreements and corporate plumbing that keep a deal running. Since then, the centre of gravity has shifted to civil and appellate litigation, anchored by commercial disputes and defamation and reputation matters, with recurring work in shareholder disputes, urgent injunctive relief, and appeals.
He runs his files from intake through judgment, personally. Pleadings, examinations, motions, factum, oral argument: same hand from start to finish. This is not a marketing posture. It is, he will tell you, the only way he knows how to keep a file in his head.
"You have to read the file until you know it better than your client does. Then you have to hand the judge a version of that understanding which reads in twenty minutes, with fifty other files waiting on the desk."
Civil Litigation & Business Disputes
Strategic advocacy on complex civil and commercial matters across Ontario courts, from early case assessment through trial and appeal.
Defamation & Reputation Management
Anti-SLAPP motions, media strategy, and reputation-sensitive disputes for individuals and businesses where public statements cause serious harm.
Injurious Falsehood
Claims for false commercial statements, slander of title, slander of quality, and online business falsehoods that cause measurable economic loss.
Shareholder & Oppression Disputes
Remedies for unfair prejudice, governance breakdowns, and buy-out disputes under the Ontario Business Corporations Act.
Urgent Commercial Remedies
Injunctions, preservation orders, and focused motions where timing is critical and delay causes irreparable commercial harm.
Appellate Advocacy
Disciplined records, focused facta, and clear oral submissions before the Ontario Court of Appeal and Divisional Court.
Representative, not exhaustive. Identifying details generalised.
Education
B.A. (Hons), Western University · 2002
Joint J.D./LL.B., Detroit & Windsor · 2005
Admissions
Ontario Bar · Called 2007
State Bar of Nevada · Admitted 2008
Courts
Superior Court of Justice · Commercial List
Court of Appeal for Ontario
Eight questions, answered before the coffee went cold.
We found him in St. Moritz at the height of an Engadin summer, a still afternoon with the lake gone glassy and the light doing something that will not hold up in photographs, and asked the sort of questions you cannot put on a firm website without them sounding insincere. The answers follow, lightly trimmed.
01 · Always in the (hiking) bag
A 1:25,000 map, a compass, and a portable charger that has never let me down.
02 · Listening to
Unironic 90s dance, usually louder than necessary.
03 · Giving time to
My wife, Rachelle. We work together, which is not the same thing as spending time together. The rest of the week is for the latter.
