Gluckstein Lawyers Welcomes Steve Rastin

Gluckstein Lawyers entered into three strategic partnerships in 2020 to expand its reach in Ontario and offer clients an enhanced level of innovation, expertise and experience in the coming years. After building a stellar reputation for its work in traffic accidents, the firm founded in 1962 by Bernard Gluckstein has become an industry leader in the field of catastrophic injury and medical malpractice with a particular focus on birth injury.

Experienced Medical Malpractice Lawyers

To further solidify that standing, Gluckstein Lawyers welcomed Richard Halpern as a senior lawyer acting exclusively for injured people in medical negligence cases, with a focus on infants injured at or around the time of birth. “Our firm has some of the most pre-eminent litigators in the country and can handle the most complex personal injury cases. Our goal is to be the leading birth injury firm in Canada,” says managing partner Charles E. Gluckstein. Guided by his detailed understanding of medical issues, developed through more than 30 years of representing those seriously injured at birth, Halpern has earned a national reputation for his proficiency in the field. He has written extensively on obstetrical matters, the cause of newborn injury, and legal and trial strategies for malpractice cases. In the past decade, he has delivered more than 70 presentations to professional groups including a recent paper titled Birth Trauma Litigation: Proving the Cause of Newborn Neurologic Injury. The addition of Halpern comes in the same year that Gluckstein Lawyers set its sights on expanding its reach across Ontario.

Gluckstein lawyers expands its reach

In July 2020, Gluckstein teamed with Ottawa civil trial lawyer Derek Nicholson, forming Nicholson Gluckstein to better serve clients in our nation’s capital region. Following that, Gluckstein agreed to a partnership with Barrie-area litigator Steve Rastin. Rastin Gluckstein will serve clients in central Ontario with offices in Barrie, Midland, Collingwood and Orillia. He brings with him extensive experience in long-term disability claims, employment law and other civil litigation areas.

Proving the highest standards of advocacy

With the addition of Halpern and Rastin, Gluckstein Lawyers will now have three past presidents of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association (OTLA). Charles Gluckstein served in the role in 2013. Nicholson says he got to know all three through the OTLA and was eager to work with them. “I’m excited, not just because of what the partnership brings but because of people like Charles, Steve and Richard who are all great lawyers and great people. They have a wealth of experience and a depth of practice,” he says. “I judge people by who I am dealing with, not what the deal is. We have some of the best people in the country. They are a great group and I wanted to be part of that. It is a great organization.” Nicholson, who has practised for 40 years and recently secured one of the largest settlements in Canadian history, winning more than $15 million for clients who were catastrophically injured in a motor vehicle accident, says the partnership offers a team of trial-hardened litigators who have the skills and expertise necessary to fight for the rights of their clients. “What it is going to do for clients is provide more strength, more depth. Those of us in the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association have always tried to help improve the position of people who are injured,” he says. “It’s a lonely world out there when you are a victim of an injury, whether it is malpractice, products liability, being hurt on a property or in a car accident.”

Together we make a difference

For Rastin, the choice was clear when joining forces with another firm. “I was only going to make a transition like this if I could move to an organization where I had a high degree of confidence in the integrity, work ethic, competence and likeability of the people I am going to work with,” he says. “What Gluckstein offers is bench strength. They have leading-edge lawyers starting with Bernard Gluckstein, the founding partner, and Charles Gluckstein, the managing partner.“When you are trying to provide the best service and attempting to ensure you are ready to operate in the COVID world, partnering into a firm with the best lawyers, the most cutting-edge technology and the best support team is only going to enable you to serve clients better,” Rastin adds. Charles Gluckstein says he is excited by the mergers and the prospect to better serve clients. “Steve and I have known each other for more than 10 years for our work at OTLA,” he says. “Both Steve and I view the industry as changing and have discussed working together in the field of class actions and mass torts with Derek Nicholson. This vision has now become a reality as the three of us have formalized a partnership. We look forward to handling complex litigation across the country going forward.” The firm hopes to expand throughout Simcoe-Muskoka and into the Sudbury and North Bay regions. Gluckstein Lawyers’ founder, Bernard Gluckstein, has for more than five decades been acknowledged as one of Canada’s most prominent personal injury lawyers. His success in the courtroom won him accolades and has helped build the reputation of Gluckstein Lawyers as an honest and caring law firm that embraces the philosophy of “full-circle care.”

Innovation and legal technology

Today, his son Charles Gluckstein drives the firm in innovation and thought leadership. His transformative mindset and expansive embrace of technological advancements in the provision of legal services provide better and faster resolutions to all client cases. He is also recognized for his active support of the medical and disability communities. Charles Gluckstein also acts as an advocate to assist other lawyers in understanding and embracing legal technology and related strategies in their practices. He frequently presents at conferences, both locally and worldwide, promoting the modernization of the profession. From its headquarters in downtown Toronto, the recent expansion by Gluckstein Lawyers allows the firm to serve more people from across Ontario with the same professionalism and compassion clients have come to expect.