Mercedes Perez

BA (Toronto), MA (Chicago) LLB (McGill), of the Bar of Ontario

Ms. Perez is a partner at Perez Bryan Procope LLP in Toronto.  She has represented clients before a range of administrative tribunals and at all levels of court in Ontario, Federal Court and the Supreme Court of Canada.  Her practice focuses on mental health and capacity law, Charter litigation, disability rights,  police and correctional abuse, elder law and privacy matters.  Ms. Perez represented the appellant in P.S. v. Ontario, 2014 ONCA 900, a successful constitutional challenge to the Mental Health Act which resulted in the first significant amendments to this legislation in over a decade.

Ms. Perez is an active member of the Mental Health Legal Committee and is a frequent speaker on capacity, constitutional and administrative law issues at law conferences and continuing legal education programs.  She recently co-authored the paper “Re-Centering Equality:  The Interplay Between Sections 7 and 15  of the Charter in Challenges to Psychiatric Detention”, published in the March 2016 edition of the National Journal of Constitutional Law.

Ms. Perez received her law degree from McGill University and was called to the Ontario Bar in 2003.  She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto and a Master of Arts from the University of Chicago.  Before co-founding Perez Bryan Procope LLP, Ms. Perez worked for non-governmental organizations in the Dominican Republic and Ecuador, at EcoJustice, and a boutique advocacy firm in Toronto.