James Plotkin, Q.Arb.

Commercial arbitration (domestic/international), commercial litigation, IP litigation (copyright; trademark; trade secret), administrative/public law, procurement disputes.

James’ practice focuses on commercial and intellectual property arbitration and litigation. He has argued before all levels of Court in Canada and participated in domestic and international commercial arbitrations. He has also acted as counsel and arbitrator in domain name disputes under both the CDRP and UDRP (.ca; .com; .net).

James has written extensively on commercial arbitration and intellectual property matters (see publications section). He recently co-authored The International Commercial Arbitration Legislation of British Columbia: A Commentary (Thomson Reuters) and is also co-authoring a commentary on Ontario’s domestic and international arbitration legislation. He has delivered several lectures (CBA; IPIC; Osgoode Hall Law School; County of Carleton Law Association etc.) on arbitration, IP and public law topics.

In his spare time, James assists in coaching the University of Ottawa’s Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Team and sits as an arbitrator at the moot.

James has acted as counsel in several domestic and international commercial arbitrations and arbitration-related court proceedings (arbitrator appointments, enforcement applications, set aside applications and appeals. He has adjudicated several domain name disputes, both as a sole panelist and as a member of tripartite panels.

In addition, James has completed the TCAS Gold Standard arbitration course and will soon receive his Q.Arb. designation. He has also participated as an arbitrator at the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot for seven years and has coached the University of Ottawa’s Vis Moot team for the same period.

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Books

• (Forthcoming December 2021) Alexander Gay, Associate Justice Alexandre Kaufman & James Plotkin, Annotated Ontario Arbitration Legislation – Arbitration Act, 1991 & International Commercial Arbitration Act, 2017, 4^th (Thomson Reuters)
• Alexander Gay, Master Alexandre Kaufman & James Plotkin, International Commercial Arbitration Legislation of British Columbia: A Commentary (Thomson Reuters)

Book Chapter

• James Plotkin & Natalie Kolos, “Canada” in Nikolous Pitkowitz eds., Handbook on Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration (New York: Juris, 2018)

Articles

• James Plotkin & Mark Mancini, “Inspired by Vavilov, Made for Arbitration: Why the Appellate Standard of Review Framework Should Apply to Appeals from Arbitral Awards”, (2021) 2 Canadian Journal of Commercial Arbitration 1, 2021 CanLIIDocs 2355
• James Plotkin, “Arbitration’s Primacy? The Law Pertaining to Staying Court Proceedings in Favour of Arbitration”, County of Carleton Law Association 39th Annual Civil Litigation Conference (2019), 2019 CanLIIDocs 4077
• James Plotkin, “The Standard of Review on Appeals From Domestic Arbitral Awards Should be Open to Party Agreement”, (2018-2019) 5 McGill Journal of Dispute Resolution 7, 2018 CanLIIDocs 10648
• James Plotkin, “Deference Deference Shall You do, For This is Arbitral Review: Why Canadian courts should exercise maximal deference when reviewing commercial arbitral awards for legal errors”, (2018) 27 Canadian Arbitration and Mediation Journal 1
• James Plotkin, “The Impact of 3D Printing on Canadian Trademark Law: Selected Issues and Potential Solutions”, (2017) 33 CIPR 63, 2017 CanLIIDocs 3527
• James Plotkin, “The Model for a Path Forward: A Proposal for a Model Law Dealing With Cyber-Squatting and Other Abusive Domain Name Practices”, (2015) 27 Denning LJ 204, 2015 CanLIIDocs 4904
• James Plotkin, “The Copyright Implications of Book Editing Apps: Case Study – Story Surgeon”, (2014) 30 CIPR 2, 2014, CanLIIDocs 33197 
• James Plotkin, “The Song Remains (Substantially) The Same: A Modest Proposal For A New Analytical Test In Music Plagiarism Cases”, (2013) 2 Mich Bar J (IT Lawyer) 30, 2013 CanLIIDocs 505
• James Plotkin, “Analyse du règlement Google Books et son rejet par un tribunal de New York”, (2011) 23 CPI 3, 1427
• James Plotkin, “Il existe maintenant un domaine .xxx pour les sites pornographiques mais on ne sait pas trop qui le voulait et pourquoi”, (2011) 23 CPI 3, 1439, 2011 CanLIIDocs 403

• TCAS Gold Standard Course in Arbitration – Toronto Commercial Arbitration Society 2020 – 2021
• Master of Laws (LL.M.) Law and Technology – University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, 2014 – 2015
• Juris Doctor (J.D.) Cum Laude – University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, 2012 – 2013
• Legum Licentiatus (LL.L.) Cum Laude – University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, 2009 – 2012
• D.E.C. – Music (Jazz guitar with specialization in composition/arranging) – Vanier College, Montreal, Quebec, 2005 – 2009