About Alyssa Tomkins

Alyssa Tomkins is a partner in Gowling WLG's Ottawa office whose practice centres on public law and commercial litigation, along with appeals and judicial reviews, and Alyssa works in English or French. The clients behind that work have included individuals and companies, municipalities, Crown corporations and other public bodies, a foreign state, and many public interest advocacy organizations.

Ontario called Alyssa to the bar in 2007, and Alyssa spent 2007 to 2008 clerking for Justice Michel Bastarache at the Supreme Court of Canada. Before Gowling WLG, Alyssa practised at a litigation firm in Ottawa; in April 2022, the Law Society of Saskatchewan's counsel of record in Abrametz, Alyssa among them, changed from CazaSaikaley to Gowling WLG. Alyssa added a call to the Yukon bar in 2021. Alyssa's first degrees, in engineering chemistry and political studies, came from Queen's in 2002.

As lead counsel, Alyssa has argued in Ontario's courts at every level, in BC's Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, before Yukon's appeal court, in both federal courts and at the Supreme Court of Canada. Tribunal hearings, public inquiries and commercial arbitrations are part of the mix too. At the Public Order Emergency Commission, Alyssa was co-lead counsel for the City of Ottawa, and Alyssa has twice led the Speaker of the House of Commons' interventions at the Supreme Court on parliamentary privilege.

Teaching runs alongside the casework. Alyssa coached the University of Ottawa's Laskin Moot team in constitutional and administrative law from 2011 to 2021, a decade of appellate advocacy training, and has taught administrative law at Osgoode Hall Law School as an adjunct professor. Alyssa is also a regular voice at continuing education programs in both languages, from The Advocates' Society and the Ontario Bar Association to the annual congress of AJEFO.

Practice areas

Administrative & Regulatory Law Civil Litigation & Dispute Resolution

Public law, judicial review and the Charter

Alyssa handles judicial reviews and public law appeals, including high-profile matters on Charter values, professional discipline, parliamentary privilege, democratic rights and constitutional questions. Alyssa also led the case for a pro bono litigant who resisted the government's bid to turn a Charter challenge into a judicial review (2019 ONSC 6159).

Commercial disputes

On the commercial side, Alyssa takes on contract fights, shareholder and governance disputes, director and officer liability, insolvency and defamation, plus disputes over large construction and infrastructure projects. Reported examples include acting for three individual defendants facing a claim by a trustee in bankruptcy (2020 ONSC 682) and for a foreign state on a motion to stay a claim (2020 ONSC 2246).

Supreme Court interventions

Alyssa has led interventions at the Supreme Court of Canada for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association on whether the Charter applies to corporations (2020 SCC 32) and for the Canadian American Bar Association in Uber v. Heller (2020 SCC 16).

Our guide: Litigation and Dispute Resolution in Toronto

Education & credentials

  • LL.B. (Summa Cum Laude, Gold Medal), University of Ottawa, Faculty of Common Law (2006)
  • B.Sc. (Engineering Chemistry) and B.A. (Political Studies), with Distinction, Queen's University (2002)
  • Called to the bar of Ontario (2007)
  • Called to the bar of Yukon (2021)

Notable cases

  • Law Society of Saskatchewan v. Abrametz, 2022 SCC 29

    Alyssa was counsel for the appellant Law Society of Saskatchewan and shared oral argument with Paul Daly at the November 8, 2021 hearing on delay in disciplinary proceedings. The Court allowed the appeal, set aside the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal's judgment and sent the remaining grounds back to that court.

  • Alford v. Canada (Attorney General)

    Alyssa was counsel for the intervener Speaker of the House of Commons and presented oral argument in this appeal on parliamentary privilege and the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians Act. The Court dismissed the appeal from 2024 ONCA 306 on May 1, 2026.

Decisions where Alyssa Tomkins appeared as counsel, from public court records. Past cases don't predict future results.

Awards & recognition

Publications & speaking

  • Does Beaulac Reorient Judicial Bilingualism, Official Languages of Canada: New Essays (LexisNexis Canada) (2008)
  • Language Rights (with Ron Caza), Principles and Pragmatism: Essays in Honour of Louise Charron (2014)
  • Best Practices for E-Discovery (with Albert Brunet), CanLIIDocs (2017)
  • Employment Consequences of Criminal Charges and Criminal Convictions, CanLIIDocs (2018)
  • The National Significance of Law Society of Saskatchewan v. Abrametz, Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice, Advanced Judicial Seminar in Administrative Law (2022)
  • Vavilov Theory, Vavilov at 5, University of Alberta Faculty of Law (2025)

Memberships & affiliations

In the community

  • Since 2012, Alyssa has volunteered with Pro Bono Ontario at the Law Help Ontario clinic.

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This listing was generated by AI from public sources in October 2026. It may contain errors, and we can’t guarantee it’s accurate or complete. Before you rely on anything here, verify it on their firm’s website. Confirm Alyssa Tomkins’s licence and standing in the Law Society of Ontario directory ↗

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