Malcolm N. Ruby

About Malcolm N. Ruby

Malcolm N. Ruby is a partner in Gowling WLG's Toronto office, where the work centres on class actions, securities litigation and disputes that cross the border. Ruby has recently taken on cases for disabled veterans, victims of gun violence, and other disadvantaged individuals and groups.

In Toth v. Canada, 2019 FC 125, Ruby headed the Gowling WLG team for a class of disabled Canadian veterans, and the final settlement compensated class members for harm caused by discriminatory policies and practices. In 2025, Ruby was counsel for the plaintiff in St-Jean v. Canada, 2025 FC 2000, a proposed class action challenging how indexation adjustments to veterans' benefits were prorated. Other class proceedings have dealt with product liability (drugs and medical devices included), pensions and consumer protection, and many reached across the country or beyond it.

Ruby presents papers at conferences and seminars on class actions and conflict of laws, and does so regularly. Canadian Lawyer magazine put Ruby on its Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers list in 2020. That same period included lead counsel work on Canada (Attorney General) v. Galderma Canada Inc., 2019 FCA 196, which Managing Intellectual Property America named its Impact Case of the Year.

Called to the Ontario bar in 1986, two years after graduating from Queen's Law, Ruby has built a long record with public enforcement bodies. The Ontario Securities Commission, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice have all been clients in cases where enforcement didn't stop at the border. Sovereign immunity and the enforcement of foreign judgments are another thread. Courtroom experience spans trial and appeal courts in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec, along with the Supreme Court of Canada.