48 lawyers · Established 1982 · City of Toronto, Middlesex County (London), City of Hamilton and 1 more location
One of 2,276 law firms listed in Toronto, and one of 311 handling Employment & Labour Law.
Filion Wakely Thorup Angeletti LLP works for management, and only in labour and employment law. Its more than 50 lawyers, based in four offices, work hand in hand with in-house counsel, executives, managers and HR staff on any part of the relationship between an employer and its employees.
Clients run from Fortune 500 companies to public sector professionals. To understand how those workplaces really run, Filion lawyers have toured sites as varied as paper mills, automotive manufacturers, schools and stage production companies.
That sector knowledge shows up in specific work. Mining operations get guidance on bargaining strategy, health and safety compliance and dispute resolution. Long-term care providers get advice on collective agreements, grievances, anti-harassment policies and pay equity, and financial institutions can have the firm draft contracts for executives and senior staff.
Carissa Tanzola is the firm's current managing partner. Before joining Filion, Tanzola served as a Vice-Chair at the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal.
The firm's roots go back to 1953, when Ferguson, Montgomery, Cassels and Mitchell opened a full-service practice in Toronto. The present firm dates from 1982. That year Roy Filion, Q.C., Warren K. Winkler and David I. Wakely struck out on their own to form Winkler, Filion & Wakely, which acted only for employers, across every part of labour and employment law.
A little over ten years later Winkler was appointed to the court now known as the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, and in 2007 succeeded Roy McMurtry as Chief Justice of Ontario. After that 1993 appointment the firm moved into Southwestern Ontario with a London office and added Peter Thorup, becoming Filion, Wakely & Thorup. It later recognized London partner Frank Angeletti and took its current name.
Growth carried on with a third office, in Hamilton, in 2013 and a fourth, in Kitchener-Waterloo, in 2022.
Filion lawyers sit at the bargaining table as employer spokespersons and also advise from behind the scenes. They appear regularly in proceedings of every kind before the Ontario Labour Relations Board and the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
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On the employment side, the firm drafts employment contracts and workplace policies built for each client, and it designs and runs benefit plans.
Filion helps employers deal with accommodation requests and answer human rights complaints. That work runs from preparing responses and submissions to mediations and appearances as counsel at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
The firm represents employers at the WSIB and at the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal.
Health and safety files include Ministry of Labour inspections and investigations, appeals of Ministry orders and the defence of regulatory charges.
For construction employers, Filion handles sector-specific collective agreements and jurisdictional disputes.
The firm builds pay equity plans and practices with employers, together with their unions where that applies, and acts for employers on applications before the PEC and PEHT.
Its litigators appear frequently before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Divisional Court, the Ontario Court of Appeal and the Federal Court of Appeal.
Filion works with school boards and independent schools on a wide set of issues.
The firm guides employers through return to work, from accommodation requests through to disputes over short-term and long-term disability claims.
Wheelchair accessible
By appointmentFilion's policy is not to gatekeep. The aim is to equip clients with the knowledge they need to make well-informed decisions, and to build lasting relationships by getting to know each client's business and helping it reach its goals.
When a dispute arises, the firm regularly recommends alternative dispute resolution as an efficient, cost-effective route. On health and safety, it favours a preventative, proactive approach to staying compliant.
A designation granted by the Law Society of Ontario, not a self-declared area of focus.
Employment & Labour Law
Administrative & Regulatory Law
The Toronto office is at 333 Bay Street, the Bay Adelaide Centre, an office complex in the city's Financial District. The complex's towers share an underground concourse that runs beneath Temperance Street and ties into the PATH network.
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Bankruptcy & InsolvencyReal Estate LawBusiness & Corporate LawThis 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 the firm’s own website. Verify licence status in the Law Society of Ontario directory ↗
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