About Virginia
“Drawing on a deep knowledge of financial law and insolvency, Virginia applies legal insights to assist clients in solving complex issues.”
Banking/Insolvency Lawyer in Toronto
Virginia Torrie is a lawyer in Toronto, focused on serving mid-sized law firms and General Counsel Offices that need independent legal expertise on banking, insolvency, and fintech matters. Virginia also provides advice on the division of powers and federalism analyses within these fields. Her published writing has been cited by the Ontario Court of Appeal, la Cour d’appel du Québec and several lower courts.
A nationally recognized expert and thought leader, Virginia has appeared before audiences at universities, financial institutions, labour groups, alumni associations and professional conferences including the Annual Review of Insolvency Law and the Insolvency Institute of Canada Annual Conference. She has provided testimony as an Expert Witness to the Senate Committee on Banking, Commerce and the Economy (BANC), appeared on TV news, and been interviewed for periodicals such as the Globe and Mail.
Before starting her practice, Virginia worked as a law professor at University of Manitoba Faculty of Law for nearly eight years, where she served as Associate Dean (JD Program), Chair of the Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise and the Law, and received awards for teaching and research excellence. During her time in the academy, Virginia wrote numerous articles and books, including a ground-breaking account of the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act and a study of landmark cases and the influence of federalism on Canadian insolvency law. She also held an appointment as an Academic Visitor at the National University of Singapore. Virginia is currently the Estey Chair in Business Law and Associate Professor at the University of Saskatchewan and an Affiliated Researcher with the Desautels Centre. She continues to do academic research, advise graduate students and assist with graduate program development within her areas of expertise, both in Canada and internationally.
Since 2018, Virginia has served as Editor-in-Chief of the Banking and Finance Law Review, a leading financial law journal. Her activities include establishing an annual Fintech Issue, Canada’s first law student writing competition on fintech, and an editorial fellowship for doctoral candidates.
An active member of the legal community, Virginia served as an elected member of bar council for the Manitoba Bar Association and Chair of its Insolvency Section, as well as on the Executive of the Insolvency Section of the Canadian Bar Association. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba and the Selection Committee for the Walter Owen Q.C. Book Prize (administered by the Canadian Foundation for Legal Research.)
Education
J.D. (Osgoode Hall Law School of York University)
LL.M. (Osgoode Hall Law School of York University)
Ph.D. (Kent Law School, University of Kent)
Law Societies
Ontario
Publications
Virginia is the author of over 40 publications in the fields of banking, insolvency and fintech, including:
“Crypto-Asset Regulation in Canada: Developments and Governance Considerations” (2023) 39.3 B.F.L.R. (co-authored) (Thomson Reuters)
“What every director needs to know about insolvency” in Richard Leblanc, ed, Handbook on Board Governance, 3rd ed (Wiley, forthcoming 2023)
The 2023 Annotated Bank Act with Associated Regulations (co-authored) (Thomson Reuters, 2022)
Debt and Federalism: Landmark Cases in Canadian Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law, 1896-1937 (co-authored) (UBC Press, 2021)
Reinventing Bankruptcy Law: A History of the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (University of Toronto Press, 2020)
“AI Governance Frameworks for the Banking Sector” (co-authored) in Nydia Remolina Leon & Aurelio Gurrea-Martinez, eds., Artificial Intelligence in Finance: Challenges, Opportunities and Regulatory Developments (Edward Elgar, 2023) 115-141 pp.