Peter V. Aprile
Counter Tax Lawyers
Toronto, ON
Peter Aprile is a senior lawyer specializing in tax dispute resolution and litigation. His vision as Counter’s founder and his everyday role at the firm are one and the same: to be an agent of change, uncovering opportunities and developing strategies that achieve more than anyone expected. A creative thinker, Peter studies problems from all different angles to find what others have missed. He’s also convinced that he likes winning more than most people.
A disdain for unthinking authority and pointless adherence to the status quo led Peter to focus on tax law. Early in his career he joined the firm of Richard Fitzsimmons, one of Canada’s top tax litigators, whose mentorship helped clarify the practices and principles that ultimately led – after Richard’s sudden passing – to the founding of Counter Tax Lawyers. The processes, systems and technology have evolved, but the underlying values are still solidly anchored by those original professional building blocks. Counter is the kind of firm that Richard would have expected to see emerge from a deep rethinking of the fundamentals.
Throughout his career Peter has focused on representing individuals and entrepreneurs in tax disputes with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). He has obtained favourable results – often unforeseen by the other side – for clients with a wide range of issues and at all stages of tax controversy, litigation, voluntary disclosure and taxpayer relief. He frequently appears in the Tax Court of Canada, the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal. Also, Peter’s writing has been published in various tax, legal and business publications including CCH Tax Topics, Canadian Tax Foundation’s Tax for the Owner-Manager and Focus, The Lawyers’ Weekly and Law Times.
Robert J. Bauman
British Columbia Court of Appeal
Vancouver, BC
The Honourable Robert J. Bauman is the Chief Justice of British Columbia, Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal for British Columbia and Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal of Yukon.
He was appointed as a justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 1996; as a justice of the Court of Appeal for British Columbia in 2008; as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 2009; and as Chief Justice of British Columbia in 2013. Prior to becoming a judge, he was in private practice with Bull, Housser & Tupper in Vancouver. He worked largely in the areas of local government and administrative law. While practicing law, he taught administrative law at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law as an adjunct professor from 1991 to 1996.
In 2012, and again in 2013, Chief Justice Bauman was named by Canadian Lawyer Magazine as one of the “Top 25 Most Influential” in the justice system in Canada. In 2012,
he was also presented with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Commemorative Medal for contributions to Canada. As well, Chief Justice Bauman is the 2012 recipient of the Anthony P. Pantages, QC Medal for outstanding contributions to the field of justice, presented by The Justice Institute of British Columbia Foundation. Chief Justice Bauman was the recipient of the 2013 TLABC Bench Award by the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia. From 2013 to 2016, he held the position of Vice-Chair of the Canadian Judicial Council. Chief Justice Bauman is the founding Chair of Access to Justice BC.
Adam Michael Dodek
University of Ottawa-Faculty of Law
Ottawa, ON
Adam Dodek is Dean and Full Professor at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law, Common Law Section. He is the author of Solicitor-Client Privilege (2014) and the co-editor of Regulating Judges: Beyond Independence and Accountability (2016) (with Richard Devlin); In Search of the Ethical Lawyer: Stories from the Canadian Legal Profession (2016) (with Alice Woolley); and Judicial Independence in Context (2010) (with Lorne Sossin). He was one of the founders of the Canadian Association for Legal Ethics (CALE). In 2017, Professor Dodek received the Mundell Medal for Excellence in Legal Writing and in 2018 he received the Canadian Association of Law Teachers (CALT) Award for Academic Excellence.
Rebecca Durcan
Steinecke Maciura Leblanc
Toronto, ON
REBECCA DURCAN is a partner at Steinecke Maciura LeBlanc. Rebecca acts as general counsel, prosecution counsel and independent legal counsel to several Ontario regulators.
Rebecca graduated from Queen's University in 1997 with an Honours Degree in History. She then attended the University of Windsor and graduated with her Bachelor of Laws in 2000. In 2006, Rebecca obtained her Masters in Laws (Health) from Osgoode Hall. In 2016, Rebecca obtained her Certificate in Risk Management from the University of Toronto.
Rebecca co-authored the Annotated Statutory Powers Procedure Act, Second Edition (Thomson Reuters) and Prosecuting and Defending Professional Regulation Cases (Emond Publishing).
Rebecca regularly speaks about regulatory issues at the Canadian Network of Agencies for Regulation (CNAR), Council on Licensure, Enforcement and Regulation (CLEAR), Ontario Bar Association, Advocates Society, and Continuing Legal Education of British Columbia.
Rebecca was elected as Bencher to the Law Society of Ontario from 2018-2019. In this capacity, she assisted with the regulation of lawyers and paralegals in Ontario in the interest of the public.
Lisa Deborah Eisen
Family Law A La Carte
Toronto, ON
Lisa Eisen was called to the Ontario Bar in 1995 and earned her Associate Certified Coach credential in 2013. She spent the early part of her legal career working as a facilitator of negotiation and mediation workshops across Canada and the Caribbean. Through that experience, she became familiar with adult learning principles and continues that work providing legal coaching to clients and Legal Coach training to lawyers.
Lisa has been working as a family law lawyer for many years, representing clients at all stages of the process. Lisa co-authored a chapter on family law in Ontario for the European Lawyer Reference, Second edition 2013. Lisa has worked with Community Legal Education Ontario (CLEO) on their Steps to Justice (Family Law) family law content and is currently working with CLEO on the development of the family law substantive content and questions for the A2JGuided Interviews (Family Law).
In 2016, Lisa founded Family Law: A La Carte where she provides unbundled family law and legal coaching services to clients. Lisa served as an expert advisor on the design of a training program for legal coaches as part of a Law Foundation (Ontario) research project. Lisa has also participated in unbundling conferences and training programs in the United States (Denver & Chicago). Lisa has spoken at a number of conferences and law schools about unbundling and legal coaching. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Limited Scope Family Law Services Project. Lisa now trains lawyer and legal professionals to provide legal coaching services to their clients.
Irwin W. Fefergrad
Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario
Toronto, ON
He has the distinction of being the first lawyer in the history of the Law Society of Ontario to achieve a double specialty in Civil Litigation and in Health Law. He currently maintains his specialty in Health Law. In private practice for nearly 30 years, in 2000 he was appointed the Registrar of the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario.
Mr. Fefergrad also held the position of Executive Director of the Canadian Dental Regulatory Authorities Federation (CDRAF) and of the International Society of Dental Regulators, an organization addressing regulatory concerns on an international level.
In October 2015, Mr. Fefergrad was appointed as co-chair of the Transparency Working Group (TWG), created by the Human Health Resources Strategy Division of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC), to facilitate the coordination and development of guidance for health regulatory colleges in the implementation of transparency and accountability initiatives.
Mr. Fefergrad is the Chair of the Advisory Group for Regulatory Excellence (AGRE) in Ontario.
He was appointed Assistant Professor (adjunct) at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Dentistry where he is the Course Director of the Ethics, Professionalism and the Law program.
Gillian Hadfield
University of Toronto Faculty of Law
Toronto, ON
Gillian Hadfield is Professor of Law and Professor of Strategic Management. Her research is focused on innovative design for legal and dispute resolution systems in advanced and developing market economies; governance for artificial intelligence (AI); the markets for law, lawyers, and dispute resolution; and contract law and theory. She teaches Contracts; Problems in Legal Design; Legal Design Lab, and Responsible AI.
Prior to rejoining the University of Toronto in 2018, Professor Hadfield was the Richard L. and Antoinette Schamoi Kirtland Professor of Law and Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California from 2001 to 2018. She began her teaching career at the University of California Berkeley and was previously on the University of Toronto Faculty of Law from 1995-2000. Her book Rules for a Flat World: Why Humans Invented Law and How to Reinvent It for a Complex Global Economy was published by Oxford University Press in 2017.
Professor Hadfield served as clerk to Chief Judge Patricia Wald on the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit. She was the Daniel R. Fischel and Sylvia M. Neil Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Chicago (Fall 2016), the Eli Goldston Visiting Professor (Spring 2012) and the Sidley Austin Visiting Professor (Winter 2010) at Harvard Law School, and the Justin W. D'Atri Visiting Professor of Law, Business and Society at Columbia Law School (Fall 2008.) She was a 2006-07 and 2010-11 fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and a National Fellow at the Hoover Institution in 1993. She also has held Olin Fellowships at Columbia Law School, Cornell Law School, and USC and is a member of the Comparative Law and Economics Forum. She is past president of the Canadian Law and Economics Association and a former director of the American Law and Economics Association and the Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics and a member of the American Law Institute. She is on the editorial committee for the Annual Review of Law and Social Science and previously served on the editorial boards for Law and Social Inquiry and the University of Toronto Law Journal.
Professor Hadfield is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Future Council for Agile Governance and co-curates their Tranformation Map for Justice and Legal Infrastructure; she previously served on the Forum’s Future Council for Technology, Values and Policy and Global Agenda Council for Justice. She is currently a member of the American Bar Association’s Commission on the Future of Legal Education, and the Dubai Courts of the Future Forum. She is a Senior Policy Advisor for OpenAI in San Francisco, and an advisor to courts and several organizations and technology companies engaged in innovating new ways to make law and policy smarter, more accessible, and more responsive to technology and artificial intelligence including the Hague Institute for the Innovation of Law, the National Center for State Courts, LegalZoom, Responsive Law, Sagewise (building a digital jurisdiction for blockchain technology and smart contracts) and RhubarbFund (developing a blockchain-based system for online dispute resolution.)
Lena Koke
Axess Law Professional Corporation
Toronto, ON
Lena Koke is CEO of Axess Law, a law firm based in Toronto, which aims to use technology and best retail practices to make law more efficient, affordable and transparent for Canadians. Axess Law is recognized as being on the forefront of innovation in law, having received several industry awards including finalist for Financial Times’ Most Innovative Law Firms North America, Lexpert’s Rising Star Award and Canadian Lawyer Magazine’s Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers.
Lena enjoys exploring traditional industries to find new efficiencies and holds a J.D. from the University of Toronto’s Law School and an M.B.A. from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.
Hilary Ann Linton
Riverdale Mediation & mediate393/311/47
Toronto, ON
Hilary Linton was called to the Ontario bar in 1987. She practised civil and family litigation and then started an ADR practice in 2001. She focuses her energy on helping clients find the most appropriate dispute resolution process for their family, and on teaching professionals- across Canada and internationally-- how to choose and design the most appropriate process for each family.
As the provider of mediation and information services in Toronto's family courts, Hilary knows how effective the courts can be as access to justice machines. And as a private family mediator, arbitrator and FDR trainer, she routinely is dismayed at the costs and impacts on families of needless litigation. Connecting the right clients with the right process is both art and science, and it can be done.
Brooke Meredith Grace MacKenzie
MacKenzie Barristers Professional Corporation
Toronto, ON
Brooke MacKenzie is a lawyer at MacKenzie Barristers P.C. in Toronto and a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. Her research and writing focus on legal ethics and professional regulation as well as civil justice reform. Brooke has a particular interest in how emerging technologies can improve the practice of law and the efficiency and effectiveness of our civil justice system. Her doctoral thesis engages with how Canadian law societies can embrace artificial intelligence in the provision of legal services to serve unmet legal needs while protecting the public interest.
Brooke's practice concentrates on civil appeals as well as issues of professional responsibility and liability. She has appeared as counsel before the Supreme Court of Canada, Ontario Court of Appeal, Federal Court of Appeal, Ontario Superior Court, and the Federal Court, as well as various administrative bodies. She regularly advises lawyers, law firms, and other businesses on professional responsibility issues.
Brooke has been widely published on litigation topics and ethics and professionalism issues, including in the Supreme Court Law Review, Canadian Bar Review, and Osgoode Hall Law Journal. In 2017, Brooke was awarded the OBA Foundation Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Legal Ethics and Professionalism Studies for her research and writing on conflicts of interest, confidentiality obligations, lawyers' duty of loyalty to their clients, and motions for the disqualification of counsel.
Taryn McCormick
Law Society of Ontario
Toronto, ON
Taryn McCormick is currently Senior Counsel in the Office of the Executive Director, Professional Regulation Division at the Law Society of Ontario. Taryn has been at the Law Society since 2011 and has previously acted as Intake Counsel; Complaints Resolution Counsel; and, most recently, Intake & Resolution Counsel. Prior to joining the Law Society, Taryn was an associate in the Advocacy Group at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP. Her practice focused on commercial litigation, product liability litigation, class action litigation, and family law.
Taryn has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree from Queens University and a Master of Arts degree from Simon Fraser University. Taryn received her LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School and was called to the bar in 2006.
Malcolm Mackenzie Mercer
FORMERLY WITH: McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Toronto, ON
Malcolm is Treasurer of the Law Society of Ontario, a member of the National Committee on Accreditation of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, a former Chair of the Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee of the Canadian Bar Association , past Ethics and Regulatory Team Lead for the CBA Futures Project, a Legal Ethics columnist for Slaw.ca, a member of the Canadian Association for Legal Ethics, past General Counsel to McCarthy Tétrault LLP and counsel to the firm with a commercial litigation practice having been called to the Bar in Ontario in 1984.
Jacqueline Mullenger
Nova Scotia Barristers' Society
Halifax, NS
Jacqueline Mullenger is the Director of Education & Credentials for the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society. She has been running the department for 23 years. Entity regulation and Legal Services Support is the most interesting and challenging part of her job.
Stephen G.A. Pitel
University of Western Ontario
Faculty of Law
London, ON
Stephen G.A. Pitel (B.A. Carleton 1989; LL.B. Dalhousie 1992; LL.M. Cambridge 1995; Ph.D. Cambridge 2002) is a Professor in the Faculty of Law at Western University. His research and teaching is focused on private international law, tort law, civil procedure and legal ethics. He has been an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto and the University of Sherbrooke.
In the field of legal ethics, Stephen is a contributor to Lawyers' Ethics and Professional Regulation (3d ed. 2017) and has co-written several articles. He was the co-developer of Canada's first mandatory first-year law school course in legal ethics. From 2010 to 2014 he was a Goodmans LLP Faculty Fellow in Legal Ethics.
Stephen is the co-author of Conflict of Laws (2d ed. 2016), Private International Law in Common Law Canada: Cases, Text and Materials, (4th ed. 2016) and Statutory Jurisdiction: An Analysis of the Court Jurisdiction and Proceedings Transfer Act (2012). He has written over a dozen articles on private international law.
Stephen's tort law scholarship includes co-authoring The Law of Torts in Canada (3rd ed. 2010) and Cases and Materials on the Law of Torts (10th ed. 2019). He is one of the founders of Western's Tort Law Research Group and was a co-organizer of Obligations VI, a major international private law conference hosted in London in July 2012. He is a co-editor of Emerging Issues in Tort Law (2007) and Tort Law: Challenging Orthodoxy (2013).
Stephen has won several teaching awards including the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations Teaching Award and the Edward G. Pleva Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2019-20 he is serving as the Past President of the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association and as Vice-President of the Canadian Association for Legal Ethics.
Amy Salyzyn
University of Ottawa Faculty of Law
Ottawa, ON
Amy received her J.S.D from Yale Law School for her dissertation exploring the judicial regulation of lawyers in common law jurisdictions. She also received her LL.M. from Yale Law School and her J.D. from the University of Toronto Law School, where she was awarded the Dean's Key upon graduation. Before entering academia, Amy served as a judicial law clerk at the Court of Appeal for Ontario and practiced at a Toronto litigation boutique. Her litigation practice included a wide variety of civil and commercial litigation matters including breach of contract, tort, professional negligence, securities litigation and employment law as well as administrative law matters. Amy has written extensively in the area of legal ethics, lawyer regulation, the use of technology in the delivery of legal services and access to justice, having now published over 10 articles in Canadian and international peer-reviewed journals on the topic. She is also the author of two book chapters, including a chapter on client confidentiality in the leading Canadian legal ethics textbook.
Darcia A.C. Senft
The Law Society of Manitoba
Winnipeg, MB
Darcia Senft is employed with The Law Society of Manitoba as General Counsel and Director of Policy and Ethics. In that capacity, she provides opinions on matters affecting the Law Society and governance of its members and provides advice and direction to lawyers relating to professional responsibility and ethics. For approximately 13 years, she also prosecuted members who were charged with professional misconduct or incompetence. Prior to that, she was Director of Discipline at the Law Society and oversaw the work of the complaints investigation unit.
Darcia was called to the Manitoba Bar in 1988 and to the Ontario Bar in 1993. She has been an active member of her profession having served as a Bencher of the Law Society and a non-Bencher member of various committees. She is also a Life Council Member of the Manitoba Bar Association (for having served 3 two-year terms as an elected member of Bar Council) and is a previous member of its Executive. From 2016 - 2019, she was a member of the CBA Ethics and Professional Responsibility Sub-Committee and served as its Chair for two of those years. Currently, Darcia serves as Chair of the Federation of Law Societies Access to Legal Services Exchange Group. She is also a member of the Legal Help Centre's Program Committee. In February of 2019, Darcia was appointed to the newly created Advisory Board for the Public Interest Law Centre.
Darcia has been an occasional instructor for the Law Society's CPLED program and a presenter at Law Society CPD programs. For several years, she was a sessional lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba where she co-taught the Legal Profession and Professional Responsibility or "ethics" course.
Deborah K. Smith
Nova Scotia Supreme Court
Halifax, NS
The Honourable Deborah K. Smith was appointed Associate Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia in 2004.
Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she graduated from Dalhousie Law School (as it was then known) in 1983. She was admitted to the Nova Scotia Bar in 1984 and practiced law in Halifax, concentrating on civil and family law, until her appointment to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia in 2001.
Associate Chief Justice Smith began her judicial career in the Family Division of the Supreme Court and moved to the General Division upon her appointment as Associate Chief Justice.
Associate Chief Justice Smith has been an active and involved member of the Canadian Judicial Council. She has served in many roles, including Chair of the Council’s Education Committee for two terms (2008-2010 and 2014-2018), a member of the Council’s Executive Committee (2008-2010 and 2014-2018) and a member of the Council’s Priorities and Planning Committee (2011-2013). In addition, she served for many years as a member of the Board of Governors for the National Judicial Institute (2008-2010 and 2014-2018).
Associate Chief Justice Smith’s primary focus over the last decade has been on judicial education. As Chair of the Council’s Education Committee, she was instrumental in ensuring that the education provided to judges in Canada is of high quality and relevant. She chaired the Canadian Judicial Council’s Education Committee during their redrafting and modernization of the Council’s Professional Development Policies and Guidelines.
As co-chair of the Canadian Judicial Council’s Judicial Independence and Appointment Process Committee, she is presently helping to redraft and modernize the Ethical Principles for Judges.
Associate Chief Justice Smith has lectured at numerous continuing legal education conferences, the Nova Scotia Bar Admission course, New Judges’ School and for the National Judicial Institute.
Lorne M. Sossin
Superior Court of Justice
Toronto, ON
