Law History Profiles

Andrea Menard (LLB ’04) has dedicated her career to working towards a better, fairer and reconciled future. In 2022, she was named one of Canadian Lawyer Magazine’s Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers for her work as an educator who is focused on shedding light on the impact of colonization and systemic discrimination. Recently, Menard was also recognized as one of CIO Magazine’s Top 5 Most Influential Lawyers. 

Carpe Diem. Seize the day. This is the motto that Drew Lawrenson lives by, and it is with this energy and love of life that he came to be where he is today. As Vice President, General Counsel of the Eminata Group, the largest provider of post-secondary education in Canada with 43 campuses enrolling more than 15 000 students, Drew engages with stakeholders to build consensus and works with students, employees, governments, businesses and community leaders from across Canada.

When you meet Douglas Chiu, one of the first things you notice is his grounded, approachable manner – a quality that has served him well over his two decades of practice as a litigator at Hammerco.

After articling at a small firm, Doug says he realized he wanted to focus on helping “regular individuals,” rather than big banks or corporations. “I wanted to help somebody sitting across the table from me.”

Professor Gordon Christie joined the Faculty in 2004 and held the position of Academic Director of the Indigenous Legal Studies Program at the Allard School of Law from 2005 to 2016. During this time, the Allard School of Law generated a specialization in Aboriginal Law. 

Long before she was an academic, UBC Law Associate Professsor Natasha Affolder was actively advocating for the importance of environmental issues. Now, as a leading scholar in the field of the environment and the law, she talks about current trends in environmentalism and what concepts as diverse as transnationalism, human rights and behaviourial psychology have to do with environmental law. 

What are you working on at the moment?

When Lutz Reide (LL.M. ’04) first visited Vancouver to study English in 2000, he was so drawn to the city’s West Coast lifestyle that he knew he’d return one day. Three years later, after earning his law diploma at Vienna University, the German native found himself back in Vancouver ...

Assistant Professor Efrat Arbel is a highly-accomplished alumna and one of the newer members of the Allard School of Law faculty.  

She earned her doctorate from Harvard Law School in 2012, where she worked under the supervision of Dean Martha Minow.  She holds a BA from McGill University, an LLB from UBC, and completed her LLM studies at Harvard Law School before proceeding with her doctorate.  

Allard School of Law Associate Professor Emma Cunliffe is a recent recipient of a Killam Research Fellowship, one of ten awards given to leading UBC scholars, for her research on how judges come to a decision about the facts in a criminal case. The study, which will make up a large part of a soon-to-be-published book called Judging Facts, focuses on areas where a criminal trial has been known to fail or raised concerns.  The book will emphasize judicial factual reasoning as opposed to the reasoning of juries.

Bob Delamar, Director of Business Development for Raysat, Inc. in Vienna, Virginia, thinks big. Always has. No inside-the-box for him. Who knows—maybe it’s the traveling. The next two weeks include stops in Nashville, Vancouver, Tokyo and Beijing—an itinerary mapped in the latitudes and longitudes of the entire globe.

Maybe it’s the influence of larger-than-life former Senator Ray Perrault, a maternal cousin and hero to the young Delamar, who said, “You know, son, I think you’d make a fine lawyer someday.”

Ryan Dalziel is a partner at Norton Rose Fullbright and a member of the LLB class of 2003. He has clerked for Justice William Esson and Justice Mary Newbury at the BC Court of Appeal and for Justice Rosalie Abella at the Supreme Court of Canada. 

Jamie Maclaren, QC has a demonstrated dedication to increasing access to justice and has been significantly involved in pro bono organizations. He is the founding Executive Director of Access Pro Bono, a Vancouver-based organization that provides free legal advice to BC’s low income individuals and non-profit organizations. Furthermore, he is the former Executive Director of Pro Bono Law of BC and of Law Students’ Legal Advice Program (LSLAP) at the Allard School of Law, where he currently volunteers as a supervising trial lawyer and Director. Mr.

Mandeep Gill graduated with LLB class of 2003 from the law school at UBC. She currently works as an Associate at Harper Grey LLP (“Harper Grey”) in Vancouver. As a member of the firm’s Health Law, Professional Regulation, and Critical Injury Law Groups, Gill’s primary focus is on representing clients in civil and disciplinary matters. 

Jordanna Cytrynbaum is a Director at Whitelaw Twining Law Corporation (“Whitelaw Twining”) in Vancouver. Her legal practice largely focuses on commercial litigation. At Whitelaw Twining she leads both the Commercial Speciality Group and the Employment Law Specialty Group. Cytrynbaum’s ample litigation experience has brought her before all levels of court as well as administrative tribunals. In addition, Cytrynbaum has extensive experience advising and representing clients through arbitration processes. 

Mary Anne Bobinski, BA, JD, LLM, served as dean of the Allard School of Law from 2003 until 2015. Under her leadership, the law school experienced more than a decade of sustained renewal and growth marked by new programs, enhanced teaching and research, and expanded international reach. 

Jari was an elite speed skater and competed in community, regional, provincial, national and international competitions during his competitive career from 1983 to 2000. Following his retirement from competitive speed skating, Jari coached athletes ranging in age from 3 to 75 and from beginner to national/elite level at the Burnaby Haida Speed Skating Club and six Fraser Valley speed skating clubs from 2000 to 2005... 

Mark Fancourt-Smith graduated from the law school at UBC’s LLB program in 2002. Prior to attending law school, Fancourt-Smith received an Honours Bachelor of Arts from Queens University in English, Biology, and Philosophy in 1994. During his early legal career Fancourt-Smith worked as an Associate with Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP from 2003-2010. He is currently a Partner at Lawson Lundell LLP (“Lawson Lundell”) in Vancouver, having joined the firm in 2010. 

Lee Schmidt is an Allard Alumnus from 2002. She worked as an Indigenous rights lawyer at a Vancouver firm before joining the Peter A. Allard School of Law in 2017 as the Associate Director Indigenous Legal Studies. She maintains a part-time law practice and is called to the Bar of British Columbia. Schmidt is a member of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation.

If Brodie Swartz had been asked while attending law school in what capacity he planned to work after graduation, one would have been surprised by his answer, given his success as Vice President, Legal at the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) Administration Corporation in downtown Toronto.

“I never would have thought in a million years that I’d be working at a pension plan and enjoying it,” he said in a phone interview.

It is cases like these which weigh heavily on Deanna Okun-Nachoff (’02), the 36-year-old executive director and staff lawyer at the West Coast Domestic Worker’s Association. As the only lawyer within the organization, Okun-Nachoff handles cases involving domestic workers who face deportation because of illness ...

Miranda Lam is a partner in the commercial litigation group at McCarthy Tétrault where she focuses on diverse forms of shareholder disputes and is the retail sector lead for the national Retail and Consumer Markets Group. She dedicates her practice to problem solving and seeking the best possible resolution for her clients. 

Ms. Lam graduated from the law school at UBC in 2002. She clerked at the BC Supreme Court before joining Davis LLP and subsequently McCarthy Tétrault LLP.