EDITOR
Our Editor, Lisa Munro, is a partner at Lerners LLP, whose practice is limited to work as an arbitrator in domestic and international commercial arbitrations (both ad hoc and under institutional rules). She brings to this role more than 25 years of experience as counsel in commercial/business litigation and both international and domestic commercial arbitration. She is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb) and a member of the board of directors of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (Canada Branch). She has obtained the ADR Institute of Canada’s Qualified Arbitrator (Q.Arb) designation. She is also a roster arbitrator with Arbitration Place, the Toronto Commercial Arbitration Society, and the Vancouver International Arbitration Centre (VanIAC).
Lisa has particular expertise in the following areas of practice:
- Business and contractual disputes
- Shareholder disputes, including oppression remedy claims
- Commercial tenancies & real estate disputes
- Directors’ and officers’ liability
- Accountants’ and auditors’ liability
As a former member of the Lerners LLP Executive Committee and Managing Partner of the Toronto Office of Lerners LLP for 12 years, Lisa has unique insights and skills to resolve business-critical issues. She is a frequent speaker on issues relating to arbitration for the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (Canada Branch), the Toronto Commercial Arbitration Society (TCAS), Osgoode Professional Development, Canadian Bar Association, and The Advocates’ Society. She is a member of the primary faculty who is teaching the 2021/2022 TCAS Gold Standard Course in Domestic and International Commercial Arbitration, the successful completion of which satisfies the requirements for the ADRIC Q.Arb. designation.
Lisa and Cynthia Kuehl have also collaborated on Conversations About Arbitration, a series of talks covering the essentials of arbitration.
If you would like to consider nominating/appointing Lisa as arbitrator and would like to know whether she would be able to accept a nomination/appointment, please click here.
CONTRIBUTORS
Peter D. Banks – Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
Peter D. Banks is a partner in BLG’s Calgary office practicing commercial and construction litigation and arbitration. With over 20 years of experience, Peter has acted on many significant matters in both domestic and international arbitrations, particularly with respect to large industrial and infrastructure projects.
Peter has a BCL (with distinction) from the University of Oxford, and an LLB (with distinction and gold medallist) and BEd (with distinction) from the University of Alberta. He clerked for the Hon. Justice Major at the Supreme Court of Canada and has since appeared at the Supreme Court as counsel on four cases.
Philippe Boisvert – Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
Philippe is a partner at Borden Ladner Gervais in Montréal. Prior to returning to Canada in 2021, Philippe worked for eight years on the international arbitration team at the Paris office of a leading international law firm. Philippe has a broad commercial practice encompassing complex domestic and cross-border disputes, notably in the fields of construction and infrastructure and in the enforcement of arbitral awards in Canada. He regularly represents clients before arbitration tribunals (both domestic and international) and courts. Philippe is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb) and is the current President of the Young Canadian Arbitration Practitioners (YCAP). He has been recognized as a Future Leader in arbitration by Who’s Who Legal.
Stephanie Clark is an associate at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP in Calgary. Her practice focuses on complex commercial litigation and arbitration, particularly with respect to energy and environmental, contract, and construction matters. She has conducted domestic and international arbitrations before a variety of tribunals under institutional and ad hoc rules, and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
Jim McLandress – Blairgowrie Conflict Management
Jim is an independent arbitrator, mediator, and educator based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. During his 30 years of practice, he has presented and overseen hundreds of cases before all levels of domestic courts and a dozen administrative tribunals, both domestic and international. Serving some 20 years as General Counsel at two major corporations, he has drafted and negotiated hundreds of agreements of all types and complexities and advised boards and executives on all manner of issues. Serving for over 20 years as a board member and chair of various organizations, he understands the challenges of making the difficult decisions.
Joshua Crowe – Woods LLP
Josh is a lawyer at Woods LLP, where he practices in civil and commercial litigation across a number of industries. While his practice is diverse, he is particularly known for his contributions to cases involving large infrastructure and construction projects, as well as cases involving professional liability, employment matters and intellectual property.
Josh was first introduced to international commercial arbitration as a participant in the 23rd annual Willem C. Vis Moot, where his efforts were recognized by an honourable mention as a top pleader. He has since acted as counsel in several international and domestic arbitrations and has had the distinct privilege of serving as tribunal secretary in both international commercial and investor-state arbitrations.
Jonathan Eades – BC Ministry of the Attorney General
Jonathan Eades KC is a lawyer at the BC Ministry of the Attorney General, Legal Services Branch, Litigation Group. He has two decades of international and domestic arbitration experience as counsel overseas and in Canada. He serves as Co-Chair of the BC Attorney General’s Arbitration Advisory Group and in 2018 helped coordinate major revisions to BC’s International Commercial Arbitration Act, RSBC 1996, Ch. 223 and a complete overhaul of the domestic Arbitration Act, SBC 2020, Ch. 2. He has appeared as counsel in several of the leading Supreme Court of Canada cases considering the interface between arbitration and the courts.
Christopher Elrick – Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
Chris practices commercial litigation, international arbitration and administrative law. His practice focuses on complex business and contractual disputes, injunctions, shareholder disputes, breach of fiduciary claims, investor-state arbitration, as well as the enforcement and recognition of foreign judgments, arbitral awards and letters rogatory. In his regulatory practice, Chris acts for natural resource companies in administrative hearings and judicial reviews. He has appeared before all levels of court in BC, the Federal Court and administrative tribunals. He has also appeared as counsel in international arbitrations in Chapter 11 disputes arising under NAFTA and is familiar with the major institutional rules governing arbitral proceedings. Chris serves on the Board of Directors of Young Canadian Arbitration Practitioners.
Julie Hopkins – Independent Arbitrator and Mediator
Julie Hopkins is an independent arbitrator based in Calgary, Alberta and a member of Western Arbitration Chambers. For over 26 years, she practiced commercial litigation, arbitration and administrative law at a national law firm where she focussed on complex and technical disputes. Julie is on the panels of a number of arbitral institutions, including the CPR’s Panels of Distinguished Neutrals (Global Panel), ICDR Canada, the Vancouver International Arbitration Centre and the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada. She is the Chair of the Canada Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
Timothy Hughes – Timothy Hughes Arbitration
Timothy Hughes is an independent lawyer in Calgary, Alberta. Qualified to practice in New York, California, Alberta, and Ontario, Tim provides counsel services to clients and law firms in all aspects of arbitration. Before moving to Canada in 2020, he practiced commercial, investor-state, and inter-state arbitration in the New York, Hong Kong, and Washington D.C. offices of leading international firms. Tim has experience in matters concerning public international law, oil & gas, renewable energy, infrastructure, shareholder and joint venture disputes, and the hospitality sector. Before returning to practice in 2022, Tim was the full-time caregiver to his two young children.
Marie-Claude Martel – Litige Forseti Inc.
Marie-Claude is a partner at Litige Forseti Inc. She specialized in arbitration matters and is acting in contractual, construction, co-ownership and shareholders litigation matters. She completed a master’s degree in ADR modes. She is currently teaching arbitration at Sherbrooke University. She is regularly implicated in high-level arbitration files and participated in many cases that set precedent.
Marie-Claude is a member of IMAQ and Canadian Bar Association – Quebec ADR division. She represented IMAQ in front of a Parlementary Commission (Quebec National Assembly) to comment on the legislative reform on the CCP – arbitration sections. She also participated in the reform of the Arbitration Rules of ADRIC. She is currently acting as President of IMAQ’s Arbitration Committee. Recently, she created the Forum des arbitres de l’IMAQ. She is regularly called to act as a speaker in ADR events.
Sarah McEachern – Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
Sarah McEachern is a partner at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP in Vancouver, where she is the regional group manager of commercial and construction disputes. She has extensive experience in all aspects of commercial arbitration disputes as counsel and arbitrator and focuses her practice on resolving complex disputes in the commercial, construction, mining, and energy sectors. She has been named to the Arbitration Place NextGen and VanIAC rosters and was appointed by the Government of British Columbia to serve as roster member for BC’s Bid Protest Mechanism and Dispute Resolution panels under the New West Partnership Trade Agreement and the Canadian Free Trade Agreement. She is recognized for her expertise in Chambers Canada, Lexpert, Who’s Who Legal: Canada, and Benchmark Canada.
James Plotkin – Gowling WLG
James Plotkin maintains a litigation and disputes practice focusing on commercial arbitration and litigation (including arbitration-related court proceedings), intellectual property and administrative law. He holds a “Qualified Arbitrator” (Q.Arb) designation from the ADR Institute of Canada and is an arbitrator on the VanIAC Expedited Procedures roster. He also acts as both counsel and neutral (CIIDRC and Resolution Canada) in domain name disputes. James has written extensively on arbitration and intellectual property matters. He co-authors commentaries and annotations of Ontario and B.C.’s arbitration legislation. In his spare time, James coaches the University of Ottawa’s Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Team, acts as Associate Editor of the Canadian Intellectual Property Review, plays guitar and hangs out with his baby girl, Devon.
Lindsay Rowell – Blakes
Lindsay is a partner at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP in Calgary. She practices all aspects of commercial arbitration and litigation, with a focus on complex contract, energy, construction, and environmental disputes. Lindsay regularly advises clients about domestic and international arbitration and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. She has represented clients at all levels of Court in Alberta, in regulatory proceedings, and in matters before the Supreme Court of Canada. Lindsay is recognized by The Legal 500 Canada 2023 (Dispute Resolution: Alberta) and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Canada 2023.
Myriam Seers – Agora
Myriam Seers is a founding partner at Agora. She specializes in investment treaty arbitration and international commercial arbitration, with a particular focus on disputes arising from the mining, electricity (including renewable energy), oil & gas and transportation sectors, with a particular emphasis on Latin America. She also appears in proceedings to set aside or enforce arbitral awards. She is a member of Arbitration Place’s NextGen roster of arbitrators, the ICC Canada Arbitration Committee Chair, and the Vice-Chair for Canada of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration’s Americas Initiative. She is listed as a Future Leader in Who’s Who Legal: Arbitration and ranked “Up and Coming” in Dispute Resolution by Chambers Canada.
Emily Sherkey – Torys
Emily’s practice focuses on litigation and dispute resolution in a variety of areas, with a particular focus on investor-state arbitration, international commercial arbitration, corporate/commercial litigation and intellectual property.
Emily has appeared as counsel at all levels of court in Ontario, and at the Federal Court. She has also appeared in and has expertise in commercial and investment arbitrations with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA).
Chloe Snider – Dentons
Chloe Snider is co-leader of the Privacy Litigation subgroup and a partner in Dentons’ Litigation and Dispute Resolution and Transformative Technologies groups. Chloe’s practice focuses on complex commercial litigation and arbitration, with particular expertise in information and technology disputes. She is a strategic and critical legal thinker who works efficiently to find practical solutions for her clients. Chloe is a business advisor to local, national and global clients, assisting them manage risk in corporate transactions and commercial relationships.
PAST CONTRIBUTORS
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