Duncan C. Boswell

About Duncan C. Boswell

Duncan Boswell advises and defends businesses in banking, mining and construction when corporate and commercial disputes land in court or arbitration, with clients across Canada, the United States and Asia. Duncan is a partner in Gowling WLG's Toronto office and co-heads the Toronto Advocacy Department there. Before law, Duncan was an engineer.

Duncan holds an honours BSc in chemical engineering from Queen's University and an LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School, and was called to the Ontario bar in 1991. Duncan's résumé also includes a clerkship at the Supreme Court of Canada with Justice Peter deC. Cory. Across some 30 years of practice, Duncan has run trials, arbitrations and appeals at every level of court, appearing before the Supreme Court of Canada as well as Ontario's and Alberta's appeal courts, and has reported decisions on everything from shareholder and contract fights to product liability, mining, environmental and insolvency questions.

In 2017 Duncan stood up at the Supreme Court of Canada to argue for the Johns respondents in Pintea v. Johns, an Alberta appeal on what civil contempt requires. Also in 2017, Law Times turned to Duncan for comment on Teva's $5.5-million cheque fraud appeal against its banks, a case Duncan wasn't part of, and Duncan called the Court of Appeal's ruling a practical one. Duncan had also written a commentary on the issues with Gowling associate Erin Farrell after that ruling.

Teaching has long run alongside the litigation. For several years Duncan taught Civil Litigation in the Law Society of Upper Canada's Bar Admission course, and Duncan speaks often on e-discovery and electronic evidence, including at Osgoode Hall Law School programs for civil litigators. In 2025 Duncan chaired OsgoodePD's Property Disputes: Strategies and Remedies program.