John Melia is a leading construction and commercial litigation lawyer. Over the past 25 years, he has acted on hundreds of complex disputes and has extensive trial, arbitration, and appeal experience. He is renowned for his ability to effectively navigate high-stakes, multi-party disputes involving major infrastructure and institutional projects. His clients include international and national contractors and subcontractors, municipalities and institutional owners, professional engineers, bonding companies and construction insurers across Canada.

John’s experience spans the full spectrum of construction law, including contract review, project delivery and financing, public and private procurement, course of construction, construction liens, delay claims and deficiency and warranty disputes. He excels at efficiently evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of an issue and taking timely, strategic and decisive action to reach a resolution. His balanced but resolute approach helps clients secure the best possible outcome.

In addition to his litigation expertise, John is a highly regarded and sought after construction and commercial disputes mediator and arbitrator. He offers a practical and evaluative approach to mediations and a collaborative and efficient approach to arbitrations.
John grew up in the construction industry. He has been fascinated with the engineering, planning, and coordination behind large-scale builds ever since he got his hands dirty at a young age working on major projects.

A Lexpert-ranked construction lawyer since 2021, John was also featured in the 2022 Lexpert Special Edition on Canada’s Leading Infrastructure Lawyers.