Law History Profiles
Displaying 121 - 140 of 607
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.”
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.
David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, has awarded UBC Law Associate Professor Benjamin Perrin the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition of his significant contributions to Canada. Professor Perrin was nominated by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute for Public Policy for his work at the forefront of the human trafficking issue as a driving force for important legislative changes and policy improvements.
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.
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.
Professor Shigenori Matsui joined the Faculty at the Allard School of Law in 2006. Professor Matsui is currently the Director of Japanese Legal Studies and is the Acting Director of Korean Legal Studies. He is also affiliated with the Centre for Business Law. Beyond the Allard School of Law, Professor Matsui is the Co-Director of the Centre for Japanese Research at UBC.
Lisa Mackie is a Partner at Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP (“Alexander Holburn”), working as the leader for the firm’s Strata Property Practice Group. She also is a member of the firm’s Insurance and Real Estate practice groups, lending her expertise on real estate, residential tenancies, and strata agreements. She also chairs the Women’s Forum at Alexander Holburn which promotes business development and networking opportunities for women, particularly lawyers, paralegals, and clients.
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. “This ambassadorship has allowed me to help younger athletes,” says Balfour, “and athletes who are going through the same issues I went through.”
Michelle Quigg is the Roster Coordinator for Access Pro Bono and an immigration lawyer whose most recent work has been with stateless clients. She is passionate about increasing access to justice, particularly as it relates to helping individuals who have fallen through the cracks of Canada’s immigration, refugee and citizenship system. She provides pro bono services to individuals and to Battered Women Support Services (BWSS). Together with her husband, Michelle has two wonderful children.
What inspired you to go to law school?
“One recurring theme amongst many historical and contemporary figures who inspired me was that they were all lawyers,” says Allard Law alum Vivian Kung. “I thought that a legal background would be extremely helpful to me regardless of the career I ultimately pursued.”
From working on a case involving an 18th century Spanish shipwreck filled with treasure to helping Jay-Z resolve his dispute with Bacardi, Allard Law alum Rahim Moloo has become an established name in international disputes.
Born in Victoria in 1968, Peter D. Whyte was a child of immigrants. His formative years were spent in a West Vancouver household which was never quite stereotypically Canadian, yet was not stereotypically anything else either. He did not learn to play hockey, but instead became a tennis ace. He was exposed early to the delights and the burdens of excruciatingly correct English grammar which, as we will discuss below, has found its way into his formal writing style. Oh, the things up with which he had to put! Does one yet detect a vestigial British lilt in his occasional word?
Agnes Huang, an activist and journalist who has devoted her career to date to championing the causes of women refugees and women of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, served as lay counsel for a number of refugee women before deciding she needed an insider’s perspective on the system she was trying to beat.
“I think of myself as being a left-leaning feminist of Aboriginal heritage,” says Amber Prince. “My philosophies are in line with Atira’s and my outlook informs all of my work with women.” Although she was not aware that this type of work existed when she was a law student, she grew into it with the help of her colleagues. Halfway through her master’s program, she was offered the position of Legal Advocate for Atira. She accepted.
For many, the thought of going to court over a small claims dispute can be an overwhelming prospect. Peter A. Allard School of Law alumna Shannon Salter is hoping to make the task a little easier as the chair of the newly-created BC Civil Resolution Tribunal.
When it opens later this year, the Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) will be the first online tribunal in Canada, and one of the first in the world. This tribunal will allow people to make choices about where, when and how they resolve their strata property and small claims disputes.
I had the pleasure of meeting with Myrna McCallum the recently appointed Director of Investigations at UBC. Myrna is Cree-Métis from northern Saskatchewan. She was a single mom of young children during her time at law school. Racism, exclusion and the over-representation of Indigenous peoples in prisons and the justice system overall in Saskatchewan, prompted her to pursue a career in law. Myrna joined the law school in 1998 and again in 2002. She graduated with her LL.B. in 2005.
Why did you choose to attend Allard Law?
Associate Professor Cristie Ford joined the Faculty at the Allard School of Law in 2005, where she is currently the Director of the Centre for Business Law. Professor Ford holds a BA from the University of Alberta, a JD from the University of Victoria, and LLM and JSD degrees from Columbia University. As the recipient of a Killam Faculty Research Fellowship in 2012/2013 and a George Curtis Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence in 2015/2016, Professor Ford is recognized as both an esteemed researcher and educator.
Lisa Kerr graduated from UBC in 2005. She is currently completing her doctorate at New York University and is planning to become a law professor. We caught up with Lisa in May 2014 to learn more about her, her research, and her time as a law student at UBC.
What is your research on?
Sanjeeta Johal graduated with LLB class of 2005 from the law school at UBC. She currently works as an Associate at Whitelaw Twining Law Corporation (“Whitelaw Twining”). Her legal practice primarily focuses on personal injury law. With extensive litigation experience, Johal has appeared before the Supreme Court of British Columbia, the British Columbia Provincial Court and the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal.