Daniela Pacheco on what makes an excellent litigator — and how her firm leads the way
This article was produced in partnership with Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers
Daniela Pacheco has learned a great deal in her years as one of Ontario’s leading plaintiff-side medical malpractice lawyers, but one lesson stands out: the most essential qualities of a powerhouse litigator.
“There are so many things along the way we can mentor and instill, but equally, there are critical traits that can be helpful to have from the start,” Pacheco, partner at Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers, says.
“We’re in an area of law where self-starters tend to do well. We’re not doctors, so what happens in the care and treatment of our clients is a medical mystery — to be effective, a lawyer needs to have an intrinsic and intense curiosity to turn over every rock and every leaf to get to the bottom of it.”
Along with the drive to continually learn in the ever-evolving areas of medicine and law while recognizing you’ll never know it all, another critical quality is tenacity. The overwhelmed system calls for a persistent advocate to get the job done, and at Neinstein, putting your client’s case at the forefront of everybody else’s agenda — “Returning your case to the top of everyone’s inbox to remind them that you’re not going away - that’s the best thing to do,” Pacheco sums up with a laugh — is considered core to the role.
The firm values that grit, but hand in hand is developing relationships; you want opposing counsel to pick up your phone call, despite the millions of other things going on. Maintaining a deep and authentic empathy for all of the participants, none of whom want to be in the situation, is key to achieving success in the field.
“This job will humble you in so many ways; it’s important to maintain that human connection,” Pacheco adds. “That’s a characteristic any young lawyer doing this work would do well to foster, and everybody at Neinstein has it, from the top to the junior associates.”
Medical malpractice is among the most complex and resource-intensive areas of legal practice, marked by unique and nuanced systemic, procedural, and client-facing barriers. Judicial backlogs and a sluggish process for accessing medical records create significant, built-in delays.
The upfront investment is substantial. Contingency-based firms often spend thousands on medical records and expert reports before a claim is even filed. This creates a barrier to access to justice, especially for vulnerable clients relying on what Pacheco describes as “a limited patchwork of provincially and some federally funded social services.” She adds that “the reality is there is a lack of meaningful support for the long road of litigation.”
Evolving pressures in Ontario’s healthcare system are increasingly shaping the types of medical malpractice claims coming through the door. One of the most prominent trends Pacheco identifies is delayed access to specialists, particularly in cancer cases, which directly impacts timely diagnosis.
Referrals are often rejected if multiple issues are listed, or patients are bounced back to their GPs when specialists decline to take on certain concerns. The result: missed windows for intervention and more clients suffering life-altering consequences.
Another post-pandemic trend is diagnostic confusion stemming from COVID-19. Symptoms of non-COVID infections are misread or dismissed, leading to missed opportunities for timely treatment.
“COVID is not the only infection,” Pacheco adds. “We’re still seeing delays in diagnosing other conditions because it was initially thought someone had COVID or something similar.”
In a system that increasingly relies on specialists and integrative care but cannot consistently deliver timely access, these issues are red flags for a litigation landscape likely to become even more crowded. That rising complexity makes it even more critical that any legal reforms reflect how medical malpractice litigation already operates and the barriers plaintiffs face.
Recent proposals to front-load Ontario’s Rules of Civil Procedure fall short when applied to medical malpractice claims. Plaintiff-side lawyers already take this approach, Pacheco notes, and true cost savings and efficiencies come not from procedural shifts but from a more collaborative, dialogue-driven model.
“We as counsel should work to resolve cases that need resolving earlier, so what are the ways to improve that? That’s the remaining question mark from a systemic perspective. It’s for that very reason that curiosity to uncover the full story is so important in what we do.”
What’s often overlooked, she notes, is that the most meaningful case development often happens during the discovery phase. It’s not just procedural; it’s foundational. Medical malpractice claims often hinge on subtle lapses in judgment, interpretation, or follow-up. These rarely surface until discovery forces them into focus.
“It’s vital — over half of my cases really get built at that stage,” she says. “The whole reason we’re there is to explore the issues with the defendants who made the decisions, to understand their rationale and see how their perspective unfolded. Discovery is often where these cases come alive.”
Ultimately, the ideal scenario is for only the most significant cases to proceed through to a trial. That requires lawyers who can manage the process from end to end, and that’s been Neinstein’s deliberate evolution: building a deep bench of litigators who combine those core characteristics with razor-sharp courtroom acumen.
What Neinstein does exceptionally well is recognize lawyers who are built for this kind of work, and the firm’s reputation is a testament to that.
While many firms have a small medical malpractice group with one or two lawyers prepared to take a case to trial, Neinstein stands apart. From lawyers to staff, the entire firm is equipped intellectually, emotionally, and professionally to handle complex files from start to finish.
“We’re able to help a lot of people; there’s so much insight and input into the big litigation that we do,” Pacheco says. “That’s something that’s really evolved within the firm — we are a close-knit group who collaborate regularly with each other.”
It’s that collective capability, built with intention and grounded in shared values, led by trial-ready lawyers who embody the unteachable traits required for success, that clients can count on.
“We’ve had the distinct pleasure of developing a group of those types of advocates — an intensely curious, hardworking, humble, empathetic group — because we know that’s what works best in this business.”
