The Canadian Law Awards announced its shortlist of deals last week, ahead of the May 5 awards gala
With last week’s announcement of the 2026 Canadian Law Awards’ shortlist of Canada’s most exceptional deals, Canadian Lawyer and Lexpert finished unveiling the complete list of shortlisted deals, individuals, teams, and initiatives that the awards’ esteemed panel of judges will review before revealing award winners in May.
For Paul Fruitman, a partner at Lax O'Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb LLP and one of this year’s Canadian Law Awards judges, one of the most challenging aspects of his job stems from the high quality of this year’s award submissions.
“There are more worthy nominees than there are awards,” Fruitman says.
“Another challenge is the breadth of practice areas the [awards] cover; judges will be far more familiar with the subject matter of some nominations than others,” he added. “Assessing some of the nominations involves climbing a steep learning curve.”
Winners of the 2026 Canadian Law Awards will be announced on May 5 at an awards gala at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
Each year, Canadian Lawyer and Lexpert aspire to celebrate the most outstanding contributors and contributions to Canada’s legal industry. After awards submissions closed in January, the Canadian Law Awards team reviewed each submission across 23 awards categories and selected this year’s Excellence Awardees – the shortlist of notable individuals, teams, and initiatives that could take home Canadian Law Awards in May.
The Excellence Awardees were announced in March. Last week, Canadian Lawyer and Lexpert unveiled its shortlist of deal nominees.
These shortlists are now being reviewed by a panel of judges, who will select the final winners.
Fruitman says that when it comes to deals, he is often looking for “outsized impact – how is a deal or a case building on or improving the specific area of practice[?]” He adds that he also looks out for “cases or deals that present creative solutions to problems.”
There’s still time to register for the awards gala, which will be hosted by award-winning journalist, former national news anchor, and global keynote speaker Farah Nasser.
See a complete list of last year’s winners here.
