Circle Barristers is a litigation boutique specializing in administrative law, constitutional law, and class actions. We are leaders in cases where these practice areas intersect.
We believe in using law to achieve social justice and advance the public interest. We help our clients come full circle while pushing legal boundaries through thoughtful, creative arguments.
Our clients include private individuals, corporations, politicians, Canadian and foreign governments, industry trade associations, NGOs, and public sector agencies. We often collaborate with other law firms.
We have appeared before courts across Canada, including the Supreme Court of Canada, Ontario Court of Appeal, Federal Court of Appeal, and British Columbia Court of Appeal. We also have experience with public inquiries and arbitrations.
Lawyers
Sujit Choudhry
Principal
Sujit Choudhry has a broad public law practice in administrative law and constitutional law, including in appeals, arbitrations, judicial reviews, and public inquiries. He is increasingly engaged in class actions against governments, including under the Charter of Rights.
Before founding Circle Barristers, Sujit was a full-time constitutional law scholar at the University of Toronto, New York University, and UC Berkeley. He has edited nine books on constitutional law, and published over 100 articles, reports, book chapters, and working papers. He has lectured or spoken in three dozen countries, and advised constitutional and peace processes across the world.
Sujit’s work has been cited with approval by the Supreme Court of Canada, the Supreme Court of New Zealand, and provincial courts across Canada.
Mani Kakkar
Principal
Mani Kakkar has a broad litigation practice with a focus on class actions and constitutional law.
Mani has appeared before trial and appellate level courts in Ontario, British Columbia, and New York on complex class actions and constitutional challenges. She has also represented clients at trials, appeals, arbitrations, judicial reviews, and public inquiries.
Throughout her career, Mani has maintained a commitment to advancing the law in the public interest. Before founding Circle Barristers, Mani worked at top tier law firms in New York and Toronto. There, she represented many asylum seekers, victims of international human trafficking, and children escaping violence or war in their home countries.
Class Actions
At Circle Barristers, we are experts in class actions. Class actions are a cost-effective way for a group of people who have faced similar harm to seek justice through a single case.
Class actions are an important access to justice tool. They compensate those directly harmed. But they also prevent others from experiencing harm in the future because they can change the law and modify the behaviour of those legally responsible.
We have worked on privacy, employment, constitutional, competition, and consumer protection class actions. In particular, we are experts in class actions where the harm suffered includes violations of the Charter of Rights and/or human rights codes, or negligence by a government body.
PRACTICE AREAS
Administrative and Constitutional Law
At Circle Barristers, we specialize in administrative and constitutional law.
We are engaged in some of the most important cases across Canada. These include:
The Public Order Emergency Commission and Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference
The challenge to the 2022 Public Order Emergency
The Lost Canadians case (Bjorkquist v. AGC)
The challenge to the US-Canada Safe Third Country Agreement
We also frequently appear for interveners in high-profile public law appeals.