BA (Queen’s), JD (Queen’s), LLM (Toronto), SJD candidate (Toronto), of the Bar of Ontario
Brooke MacKenzie is the co-founder of MacKenzie Barristers P.C., where her practice focuses on civil appeals and professional liability and regulation. She is also completing her SJD (doctoral degree in law) at the University of Toronto. Her doctoral research explores the scope and justification for lawyers’ monopoly on the practice of law and engages with how emerging technologies involved in the provision of legal services ought to be regulated to improve access to justice and protect the public interest. Prior to co-founding MacKenzie Barristers, Ms. MacKenzie was a litigator at McCarthy Tétrault LLP, where her practice focused on professional liability matters, commercial disputes, and opinions.
Ms. MacKenzie has a particular interest in appellate advocacy, having appeared as counsel before the Supreme Court of Canada, Ontario Court of Appeal, Federal Court of Appeal, Ontario Superior Court, and the Federal Court. She has also represented members of regulated professions in respect of complaints, investigations, and discipline proceedings before the Law Society of Ontario, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, and the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board. In addition to her advocacy practice, she provides legal opinions and practical advice on legal professional obligations, including confidentiality and privilege issues, law practice management, and conflicts of interest.
In 2017, Ms. MacKenzie 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.
Ms. MacKenzie’s writing on legal ethics, civil procedure, civil justice reform, tort law, and constitutional law has been widely published, including in the Supreme Court Law Review, Canadian Bar Review, Queen’s Law Journal, Annual Review of Civil Litigation, and the Osgoode Hall Law Journal. She is regularly invited to speak at law schools and continuing professional development events on litigation practice and professional responsibility issues.