Frank Addario is the principal of Addario Law Group and leads the firm’s criminal, quasi-criminal, white collar criminal defence and investigations practice.
Frank has been counsel on numerous individual and corporate investigations, criminal trials in the Superior Court of Justice and appeals in criminal matters before the Ontario Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada.
Large organizations, public companies, and chartered banks retain Frank to conduct internal investigations and to respond to enterprise-threatening events. He regularly advises public bodies, non-profits and oversight agencies, including the Toronto Police Services Board, about regulatory, criminal and constitutional law. Few lawyers in Canada have Frank’s experience in managing the overlapping demands of concurrent criminal and regulatory investigations and the media to guide organizations safely through a crisis.
Frank has been listed in Best Lawyers International since 2008. In 2016, he was selected by his peers for inclusion in Best Lawyers in Canada. He was selected as Best Lawyers’ 2015 Toronto Criminal Defence Lawyer of the Year. Named one of the 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada in 2010 and past President of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association (CLA), he has frequently appeared as counsel before the Supreme Court of Canada. He regularly represents individuals and corporations under investigation or who are the target of enforcement proceedings by police and regulatory agencies. He was nominated by his peers as one of the country’s leading Business Crime Defence and Investigations practitioners in Who’s Who Legal: Canada. Last year he was nominated by his American colleagues to become a fellow of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers as the only active Canadian criminal lawyer. The criteria for acceptance as a fellow of the ABCL include the highest standards of professional ethics and criminal defence litigation skills.
Frank is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the premier organization of trial lawyers in North America. Membership is extended by invitation and only after rigorous peer review. Fewer than 1 percent of the bar in any U.S. state or Canadian province is invited to join the College.
Frank is also a director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
In 2011 Frank was given the Lexpert Zenith Award for contributing to Access to Justice for his work in leading the CLA in a boycott of Legal Aid in order to bring attention to the chronic underfunding of the program and force the government to provide better access to justice for its poorest citizens. In 2012 he received the Dianne Martin Medal for Social Justice Through Law. Osgoode Hall Law School awards this medal to a member of the Canadian legal community who has demonstrated a commitment to using the law as a means for achieving social justice.
Frank is frequently asked to distill criminal law issues for large organizations, general counsel and the media. He writes and speaks about criminal law, civil liberties and related topics to lawyers and to the wider public on a regular basis.
NOTABLE CASES
- R. v. MacIsaac, 2015 ONCA 587
- R. v. Badgerow, 2014 ONCA 272
- R. v. Cook, 2014 ONCA 170
- R. v. Conception, 2014 SCC 60 (WATCH WEBCAST)
- R. v. Rocheleau, 2013 ONCA 679
- U.S.A. v. Nguyen, 2013 ONSC 4842
- R. v. Frimpong, 2013 ONCA 243
- R. v. Huang, 2013 ONCA 240
- R. v. Cole, 2012 SCC 53 (WATCH WEBCAST)
- R. v. A.R., 2012 ONCJ 268
- R. v. Cole, SCC File No. 24268
- R. v. Cole (2011), 269 C.C.C. (3d) 402 (Ont. C.A.)
- R. v. Yadegari (2011), 276 O.A.C. 322 (Ont. C.A.)
- R. v. Turpin (2011), 272 C.C.C. (3d) 340 (Ont. C.A.)
- R. v. A.R., 2011 ONCJ 810
- R. v. Badgerow (2010), 260 O.A.C. 273 (Ont. C.A.)
- R. v. Grant, [2009] 2 S.C.R. 353
- R. v. Batisse (2009), 241 C.C.C. (3d) 491 (Ont. C.A.)
- Branch v. Ontario (Ministry of the Environment) (2009), 93 O.R. (3d) 665 (Ont. Sup. Ct.)
- Tele-Mobile Co. v. Ontario, [2008] 1 S.C.R. 305
- R. v. Luedecke (2008), 236 C.C.C. (3d) 317 (Ont. C.A.)
- R. v. Sauvé (2004), 182 C.C.C. (3d) 321 (Ont. C.A.)
- R. v. Glad Day Bookshop (2004), 183 C.C.C. (3d) 449 (Ont. Sup. Ct.)
- R. v. Dimitrov (2003), 181 CCC (3d) 554 (Ont. C.A.)
- R. v. Williams (2003), 181 C.C.C. (3d) 414 (Ont. C.A.)
- R. v. O’Connor (2002), 170 C.C.C. (3d) 365 (Ont. C.A.)
- R. v. Ruzic, [2001] 1 S.C.R. 687
- R. v. Barrow (2001), 155 C.C.C. (3d) 362 (Ont. C.A.)
- R. v. Suzack (2000), 141 C.C.C. (3d) 449 (Ont. C.A.)
- R. v. Biniaris, [2000] 1 S.C.R. 381
- R. v. Babinski (1999), 135 C.C.C. (3d) 1 (Ont. C.A.)
- R. v. Laws (1998), 128 C.C.C. (3d) 516 (Ont. C.A.)
- R. v. Caputo (1997), 114 C.C.C. (3d) 1 (Ont. C.A.)
- United States of America v. Dynar, [1997] 2 S.C.R. 462
- R. v. Paintings, Drawings, and Photographic Slides of Paintings (1995), 97 C.C.C. (3d) 290 (Ont. Ct. Gen. Div.)
- R. v. Durette, [1994] 1 S.C.R. 469
- R. v. Greenbaum, [1993] 1 S.C.R. 674
- R. v. DeSousa, [1992] 2 S.C.R. 944
- R. v. Lachance, [1990] 2 S.C.R. 1490
- R. v. N.S., 2012 SCC 72 (WATCH WEBCAST)
- R. v. Côté, 2011 SCC 46 (WATCH WEBCAST)
- R. v. Suberu, [2009] 2 S.C.R. 460
- Canada (Attorney General) v. Horvath (2009), 248 C.C.C. (3d) 1 (Ont. C.A.)
- R. v. A.M., [2008] 1 S.C.R. 569
- R. v. Kang-Brown, [2008] 1 S.C.R. 456
- R. v. Clayton, [2007] 2 S.C.R. 725
- R. v. Shearing, [2002] 3 S.C.R. 33
- R. v. Sharpe, [2001] 1 S.C.R. 45
- R. v. McCallen (1999), 131 C.C.C. (3d) 518 (Ont. C.A.)
NOTABLE MEDIA
-
Addario, Frank and Andrew Burgess, “If you Don’t Care About Privacy, Why Are You Wearing Pants?”, For the Defence, January 2015
- Addario, Frank and Megan Savard, “R. v. Lahiry, Unreasonable Delay and How Life Imitates the Planet Pluto”, For the Defence, June 2013
- Addario, Frank, “Demeanour Faces Up to Its Fair Trial Value”, For the Defence, April 2012
- Addario, Frank, “An Absence of Truth in Sentencing”, The Mark Online, February 24, 2010
- Addario, Frank, “Penny-Ante Legal Aid System Creates Two Tiers Of Justice”, The Toronto Star, September 28, 2009
- Addario, Frank, “Tough-on-Crime Politicians Should Focus on Prevention”, The Globe and Mail, May 25, 2009
- Addario, Frank, “Underfunding The Real Crisis”, The Law Times, April 14, 2008
- Addario, Frank, “Judges are Constitutional Guardians, Not Cheerleaders for the Police”, The Globe and Mail, September 17, 2007
- Addario, Frank and Alan Gold, “The Defence Versus Justice Moldaver”, The Toronto Star, December 2006
- Addario, Frank and Marcus Pratt, “R. v. Ghorvei: The Ontario Court of Appeal Polishes Up Some Bad Apples” (2000), 29 C.R. (5th) 111
