Mr. Galligan is a founding member of ADR Chambers. He was appointed to the Supreme Court of Ontario in February 1970 and to the Ontario Court of Appeal in February 1989. In December 1995, he retired from the Bench and commenced his practice in Alternative Dispute Resolution.
During his early career, Mr. Galligan practiced as a litigation counsel. He appeared and argued matters in the Supreme Court of Canada, the Exchequer Court of Canada, the Court Martial Appeal Court, the Ontario Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice and in most of the County Courts in the eastern part of the Province of Ontario. He was involved as Counsel in a number of cases reported in the Law Reports in the Supreme Court of Canada, the Ontario Court of Appeal and the High Court of Justice.
Mr. Galligan was a sessional lecturer at the University of Ottawa Law School from 1960-1970. He was appointed a member of The Law Society of Upper Canada, Special Committee on Legal Education, in April 1970.
Following his appointment to the Bench, Mr. Galligan participated in numerous professional and educational programmes which were presented to the Judiciary and the Legal Profession.
Since becoming a member of ADR Chambers, Mr. Galligan has acted as an arbitrator and as a mediator on numerous matters. The range of issues with which he deals is broad. It encompasses corporate and commercial disputes, shareholder disputes, termination of employment, personal injury, environmental contamination, rental determinations, valuation of businesses, family law issues, breach of contract, and related matters. On behalf of the Attorney General of Ontario, he has conducted investigations and reported on them.
Mr. Galligan is also a member of ADR Chambers International panel of Arbitrators and Mediators . He is available for all forms of ad hoc and institutional assignments in arbitration and mediation.
At the present time, Mr. Galligan's practice is principally that of an arbitrator in corporate and commercial disputes. He conducts arbitrations pursuant to the International Commercial Arbitration Act and the Arbitration Act (Ontario). Among the matters which he has arbitrated are:
- a dispute between international life insurance companies about whether reserves were determined in accordance with generally accepted actuarial standards as provided for in an agreement for the purchase and sale of a life insurance business;
- a dispute between a transportation company and its insurance underwriters arising out of a marine casualty which occurred during heavy weather in the Sea of Japan, just east of the coast of Siberia;
- determinations, as a claim's officer, of disputes which had to be resolved as part of proceedings under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act ("CCAA") in relation to a major steel company;
- a dispute as to the value to be placed upon the shares held by the deceased majority shareholder of a steel fabricating corporation;
- a dispute about the "working capital" calculation in the sale of one of its divisions by a public company, which provides products and services to the aerospace industry;
- a dispute about petroleum contamination, and the remediation thereof, of lands upon which had been located two large bulk storage and distribution facilities;
- a dispute about whether a partner retiring from one of the big five international accounting firms was entitled to his "withdrawal amount";
- a dispute, in the receivership of a trust company, about whether the receiver was required to repurchase a portfolio of mortgages because of its vendor's warranty against environmental contamination of the lands which were subject to the mortgages;
- a dispute about the application of the "salvage" and the "sue and labour" conditions of a policy of insurance to vandalism at the site of a high-rise multi-unit condominium development;
- a dispute as to the entitlement of a promoter to exercisable options for shares in a public company carrying on mining activities in West Africa.
From time to time, Mr. Galligan acts as chair of discipline committees of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada and of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries.
