Christine is the Senior Counsel, General Counsel’s Office & Director, Information Governance at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP. As Senior Counsel, she oversees the negotiation of the Firm’s engagement terms with its clients and commercial contracts with its service providers. In her capacity as the Firm’s first Director of Information Governance, Christine provides strategic advice on enterprise systems and data architecture to align the Firm’s technology roadmap with its Information Governance (IG) mission. She draws upon both the risk and IG aspects of her role to contribute to the Firm’s AI Working Group.
Christine began her legal career in the securities group at another major Canadian law firm. She also has experience in teaching, which she uses to develop training programs at the Firm and is excited to bring to the students at Osgoode.
Sondra is Senior Innovation Counsel and leads the Practice Innovation team at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP. She is responsible for identifying opportunities to improve legal processes internally and implementing and managing legal technology, including artificial intelligence, to drive efficiency at the firm. Sondra also works closely with clients to provide legal operations guidance and create new solutions that address novel legal and business needs.
Sondra has been actively involved in the legal technology industry, including working as an AI practice consultant and legal knowledge engineer at a Canadian legal technology company. In those roles, she used machine learning to train models to identify legal concepts in contracts and advised law firms across North America on the integration of machine learning in their practice.
Following her admission to the Ontario Bar in 2012, Sondra practiced at a law firm in Toronto where she focused on M&A and securities.
Chris is the Practice Group Leader of Blakes’ Intellectual Property group and is involved in all aspects of intellectual property protection and exploitation, including in corporate transactions, commercial agreements, licensing, and patent and trademark prosecution.
Tax Partner at PwC and PwC Law. Previously 27 years at Canada’s largest law firm restricting its practice to taxation. Extensive transactional and controversy experience.
Mr. Weisberg is a graduate of the Queen’s University Faculty of Law and has been a criminal lawyer for over twenty years.
The Law Society of Upper Canada recognized Mr. Weisberg’s expertise in criminal law when they deemed him a Specialist in Criminal Law in 2011. Mr. Weisberg is also a member of the Complex Case Rate Panel, a government initiative to keep leading counsel involved in complicated murder cases. He is recognized by Best Lawyers for Criminal Defence.
During his career, Mr. Weisberg has successfully defended allegations of homicide, sexual assault, domestic assault, drinking and driving, conspiracies, and fraud charges. Mr. Weisberg also regularly conducts appeals having argued cases in the Court of Appeal for Ontario and the Supreme Court of Canada.
Mr. Weisberg has served four terms on the Criminal Lawyers’ Association Board. He is currently serving on the executive as a Vice President for the organization.
Partner with Aird & Berlis LLP in Toronto.
Certified Specialist by the Law Society of Ontario in Municipal Law: Local Government & Land Use Planning and Development.
Co-Author of the Annotated Municipal Act, 2nd Ed., Ontario Municipal Act & Commentary, the Annotated Ontario Building Code Act, A Comprehensive Guide to the City of Toronto Act. and Annotated Land Development Agreements.
Editor-in-Chief of the Municipal & Planning Law Reports, the Real Property Reports and the Digest of Municipal & Planning Law.
Jodi practices labour, public and administrative law at Paliare Roland Rosenberg Rothstein LLP in Toronto. Her practice involves regular appearances before a variety of administrative decision makers in the areas of human rights, labour relations and workers compensation. She also regularly assists clients with judicial review applications and appeals. Before law school Jodi completed both a BA and MA in Cultural Anthropology.
Michael Lacy is a criminal appellate and trial lawyer. He practices throughout Canada and has appeared as counsel at the Supreme Court of Canada and provincial appellate courts throughout Canada.
Matthew Gardner is a Partner at Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP and is a Certified Specialist in Environmental Law by the Law Society of Ontario. Matthew practices environmental law and environmental litigation. He provides advice and solutions about environmental due diligence and compliance to a wide range of clients including industrial corporations, the construction and land development sectors and municipalities. Matthew also provides advice and solutions about contaminated land issues, environmental risk management, environmental transactional due diligence and regulatory compliance. Matthew regularly appears before the Courts and administrative tribunals. He also assists clients under inspection or investigation by federal, provincial and municipal environmental regulators, and defends clients against environmental regulatory prosecutions.
Dean Embry has been a criminal defence lawyer since his call to the bar in 2004 and is a partner at Embry Dann LLP. Dean conducts a primarily trial practice which includes the representation of clients on a wide variety of matters including homicide, serious personal injury offences and drug offences. A substantial portion of Dean’s practice involves the representation of accused dealing with mental health issues and he appears regularly before the Ontario Review Board. Dean has lectured at the University of Toronto faculties of Law and Criminology and at Osgoode Hall Law School.