Law History Profiles

Kelsey Sherriff is a Partner at the Vancouver office of Miller Thomson LLP (“Miller Thomson”) where she works directly with the firm’s Civil Litigation Group. While Sherriff deals with a complex array of civil litigation matters, her legal practice primarily focuses on health law, wills and estates, and class actions. 

When Doug McLeod (JD ’09) was in his second year at the Allard School of Law, he accepted a summer student position in Toronto, Ontario. The born-and-raised British Columbian didn’t know a soul in the city. In fact, he had never set foot in Toronto until he had flown there for interviews earlier that week. Fast forward ten years and he now has a multitude of contacts, both professional and personal, an incredibly successful commercial litigation practice within Blakes, Cassels, & Graydon LLP, and legal experiences he wouldn’t have been able to access anywhere else.

Allyson Marta is a graduate from the JD class of 2009 from the law school at UBC. She currently works as an Associate in the Pensions & Benefits Group at the Toronto office of Stikeman Elliott LLP (“Stikeman Elliott”). 

Bethany Hastie is an Assistant Professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law. Hastie first joined the Allard community as a law student, graduating alongside the class of 2009. Following her JD studies, Hastie received her LLM from McGill University at the Institute of Comparative Law. Hastie also completed her DCL at McGill University where she held both a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship and an O’Brien Fellowship in Human Rights and Legal Pluralism. She joined the Law Faculty as a Lecturer in 2015. 

Samantha Cunliffe is a partner in the Business Law Group at McCarthy Tétrault LLP (“McCarthy Tétrault”). She graduated from the law school at UBC in 2008 in the LLB program. Prior to attending law school, Cunliffe obtained a Bachelor of Science in Physics in 2005. She was called to the British Columbia Bar in 2009 and the Ontario Bar in 2018. 

Laura E. Duke graduated with the LLB class of 2008 from the law school at UBC. During law school she was the recipient of the Blake, Cassels and Graydon LLP Prize in Constitutional Law. Upon being called to the British Columbia Bar in 2009, she began working at the Vancouver office of Lawson Lundell LLP (“Lawson Lundell”) where she is now a Partner. Prior to attending law school she received a Bachelor of Arts from UBC in 1999 and a Masters of Arts from the University of Toronto in 2000.

Like many of the members of the board, Nicholas Tsoi dedicates much of his time to community involvement, something that began early on during his years at law school. 

Through LSLAP and the school’s rugby team, Nic found great opportunity to build connections, “There might be one or two highlight classes, you might do a moot, but it’s the relationships that you build that shape your law school experience.” 

After working as a tax lawyer for a year after law school, Allison Suter needed a change. "I found myself wanting to do something different. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I knew that 'something different' would probably include running a business and creating something." That change came in the form of running a photography business, a passion she's always had and started cultivating between graduating from law school and starting her articles.

Tariq Ahmed graduated from law school at UBC’s LLB program in 2008. In recognition of his dedication and involvement during law school, the Faculty of Law at UBC granted Ahmed with the Raymond G Herbert Award which annually honours the best all-round graduating student in reference to academic excellence, athletic involvement, leadership, and moral force of character. In addition to his stellar academic performance and involvement in student governance, Ahmed also acted as a Real Estate Law Tutor with the Sauder School of Business from 2006-2008. 

Mark Colavecchia is a Partner at Harris & Company LLP (“Harris”), a Vancouver-based firm that is also Western Canada’s largest workplace law and advocacy firm. Colavecchia’s practice focuses on a wide range of legal issues relating to labour, employment, and human rights law. He primarily represents management from a variety sectors, lending advice and representation on a plethora of matters ranging from dismissals to seniority issues. His experience in the courtroom is extensive, having appeared before the Federal Court and all levels of court in British Columbia.

Cheryl D’Sa, a civil litigator and the managing partner of Narwal Litigation LLP, became an elected Bencher of the Law Society of British Columbia in May 2020. She was the first visible minority female President of the Vancouver Bar Association and in 2019, Business in Vancouver named her one of the Top Forty under 40. She devotes her practice primarily to plaintiff personal injury and has appeared in all levels of Court in British Columbia.

Morgan Troke graduated from the law school at UBC in the LLB Program with the Class of 2007. Prior to attending law school, Troke obtained a Bachelor of Science in Computing Science from the University of Alberta in 2002. He was called to the British Columbia Bar in 2008 and joined McCarthy-Tétrault LLP (“McCarthy Tétrault”) in the same year, working out of the Vancouver office. Troke was named Partner in 2016 at McCarthy Tétrault and was admitted to the Ontario Bar in 2018. 

Prior to pursuing her LLB, Megan Kammerer attended the University of Alberta where she completed a BA majoring in English and minoring in Women’s Studies. After attending law school, Ms. Kammerer pursued a Masters of Law Programme in Public International Law at the University of Cambridge as a Chevening Scholar. 

In law school, Ms. Kammerer was involved in the Centre for Feminist Legal Studies. She recalls professors who taught her not only what the law is, but “what the law should be.” 

Catherine Chow is a self-proclaimed planner, and becoming a lawyer was always on the agenda. 

“I knew I wanted to be a lawyer ever since I was a young child,” she said. “I wanted to help the underdog at the playground, and maybe perhaps being an immigrant woman of colour, I wanted to help the disadvantaged, which I felt was myself at the time, but also could see the plight of others.” 

Allard Law alum Joven Narwal is a leading trial and appellate lawyer at Narwal Litigation LLP in Vancouver. When he’s not dedicating time to the legal and broader community, Joven, who was an avid martial artist and grappler from the age of 8 until the end of law school, also serves as a director of the British Columbia Wrestling Association and tries to catch every big MMA and boxing event he can while ringside in Las Vegas, when his schedule permits.

It wasn’t a search for the perfect wave in wild West Coast surf that prompted Myron Plett to set up his law practice in Ucluelet, southwest of Tofino on Vancouver Island. “Lord, no,” he says, by phone. “I’m from the Prairies.” Yet he always had a dream of living in a beautiful small town. Above his desk, Plett keeps a photo of his favourite local spot: ocean waters churn under a dash of blue sky as the Broken Group Islands beckon beyond the Lighthouse Loop trail ...

It was a trip to South Africa through the CBA's Young Lawyers International Program in 2008 that led Roanna Tay to a career in protecting refugee rights. The eight-month internship program, which had Roanna working in South Africa's Legal Resources Centre (LRC), opened her eyes to some of the critical issues faced by refugees. "One of our cases at the LRC involved a large group of Somali clients who faced protection needs arising out of the xenophobic violence," explains Tay. "During this time, many faced wide-scale displacement and were unable to renew their documents.

For Christopher Ellett, the Panama Papers were not necessarily the bombshell they have been made out to be in the media. “A smaller disclosure a few years ago made it clear that the banking laws of many tax havens facilitated tax evasion,” he says, adding that “aside from the specific individuals involved, which are still being identified, I don’t think the Panama Papers revealed any great surprises.” Ellet recently graduated from the Peter A Allard School of Law with an LLM in Taxation, and currently works as a barrister and solicitor at Moodys Gartner Tax Law in Calgary. 

Sarah Batut is a graduate of the LLB Class of 2006 from the law school at UBC. Prior to law school, Batut obtained a Bachelor of Science in Animal Biology from UBC in 2002. She joined Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP (“Fasken”) in 2006. She is currently a Partner in the Real Estate group at Fasken’s Vancouver office. 

Ian Balfour was a Paralympic athlete and the law school's Class Valedictorian in 2006, walking away with four scholarships. An inductee of the Sports Hall of Fame in his hometown of Lethbridge, Alberta, he is also a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency and a Team VISA Mentor/Ambassador, mentoring Olympic and Paralympic athletes since 2005.