Mark Evans and Nancy Pei recognized as “best of the best” by Expert Guides
Smart & Biggar is proud to announce that firm partners Mark Evans and Nancy Pei are recognized as among the top lawyers in the world in trademarks and life sciences, respectively, by Expert Guides: Best of the Best, a biennial guide naming the world’s leading lawyers, chosen by their peers.
Mark Evans is widely recognized as one of Canada’s leading trademark lawyers and litigators. Representing many of the world's most famous brand owners and personalities, clients seek him out for his sophisticated expertise in trademark counseling, strategy, management, and enforcement/litigation services to help them strategically build and protect the value of their brands. Mark has successfully litigated many commercially important and precedent-setting trademark cases, both at trial and on appeal, and he has twice been selected as “Trademark Litigator of the Year” by Benchmark Canada. At the forefront of the Canadian trademark profession, Mark was named in 2020 as Canada’s Outstanding Trademark Practitioner’ by Managing IP as well as a ‘Global Elite Thought Leader in Trademarks’ by Who’s Who Legal in addition to being listed annually in Acritas Stars, The Lexpert®/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada, The Best Lawyers in Canada, Chambers Global, Who’s Who Legal: Canada, World Trademark Review 1000, The Best Lawyers in Canada, The Legal 500 Canada and MIP’s IP Stars Handbook: Trademark & Copyright. Surveys, clients and colleagues describe him as "The best bar none” and “The ‘go-to’ lawyer” for trademark law.
Nancy Pei is a recognized leader in the field of life sciences IP with an emphasis on pharmaceuticals and biologics. Nancy provides strategic counsel to her innovative life sciences clients on patenting, regulatory and business issues, helping them manage the life cycles of their products and remain competitive in an ever-changing industry. As a licensed pharmacist with over 20 years of experience as a patent litigator, Nancy advocates on behalf of innovative life sciences companies in cases relating to the PM(NOC) Regulations, in patent infringement/impeachment actions, s. 8 cases, related quantification reference proceedings and judicial review applications, and has represented clients before the Federal Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court of Canada and the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. She also provides regulatory advice on matters relating to patent listing, data protection, Certificates of Supplementary Protection, the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board and access to information requests. At the forefront of Life Sciences and Patent law, Nancy has been named a ‘Top Female Legal Practitioner’ in Expert Guides: Women in Business Law and among the “Top 250 Women in IP” by MIP in addition to being listed annually in LMG Life Sciences, Expert Guides: Patents and Life Sciences, Benchmark Litigation, IAM Patent 1000, The Lexpert®/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada, The Best Lawyers in Canada, Who’s Who Legal: Life Sciences and MIP’s IP Stars Handbook: Patents. Nancy has also been the editor of Rx IP Update, the firm's monthly life sciences intellectual property and regulatory newsletter since its inception in 2001. Peers and clients have given Nancy “high praise” and lauded her for demonstrating “knowledge, leadership and advocacy” in life sciences.
Expert Guides: Best of the Best compiles the top practitioners in 15 different areas of law. Their methodology involves asking over 4000 senior practitioners and in-house counsel, in more than 70 jurisdictions, to nominate their industry’s top achievers based on their work and reputation.
Smart & Biggar is Canada's largest firm practicing exclusively in intellectual property and technology law, with offices in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary. We are leaders in intellectual property and technology law and have been serving clients for over a century.