Friends Who Argue

On this episode of Friend Who Argue, we’re sharing Part 1 of our behind-the-scenes look at the work of The Advocates’ Society’s (TAS) Modern Advocacy Task Force (MATF) and its final report, the Right to be Heard: The Future of Advocacy in Canada. Task Force member Alex Shelley interviews TAS president Deborah E. Palter and TAS Director and MATF Chair Peter Osborne about how the report was conceived, researched and drafted. Listen to Part 2 for a discussion about the findings of the report.
Download a copy of the Task Force’s final report here: digital version / print-friendly version.

Alexandra Shelley is a senior associate at Torys LLP. Her practice focuses on litigation and dispute resolution in a variety of areas, including corporate/commercial litigation, securities, construction and real estate.
Deborah E. Palter is a partner at Thornton Grout Finnigan LLP and President of The Advocates' Society. She is recognized as a leading advocate with a broad commercial litigation practice. She regularly acts for individuals, corporations and financial institutions providing creative advice and strategies for litigating and resolving complicated business disputes.
Peter Osborne is a partner at Lenczner Slaght LLP and sits on the TAS Board of Directors. He is one of Canada’s leading trial and appellate counsel and a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. His advocacy practice includes securities matters, commercial disputes, insolvency and restructuring cases, class actions, governance issues and advice. Peter is a regular instructor for CLE programs of The Advocates' Society.
Land Acknowledgement
The Advocates’ Society acknowledges that our offices, located in Toronto, are on the customary and traditional lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinabek, the Huron-Wendat and now home to many First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples. We acknowledge current treaty holders, the Mississaugas of the Credit and honour their long history of welcoming many nations to this territory.
While The Advocates’ Society is based in Toronto, we are a national organization with Directors and members located across Canada in the treaty and traditional territories of many Indigenous Peoples. We encourage our members to reflect upon their relationships with the Indigenous Peoples in these territories, and the history of the land on which they live and work.
We acknowledge the devastating impacts of colonization, including the history of residential schools, for many Indigenous peoples, families, and communities and commit to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusiveness in an informed legal profession in Canada and within The Advocates’ Society.

This episode features a conversation about private international law hosted by Gabriel Poliquin (Olthuis van Ert) with retired Supreme Court of Canada Justice Louis LeBel and Paul-Erik Veel (Lenczner Slaght). Marking the 10th anniversary of the foundational Supreme Court of Canada Club Resorts v Van Breda decision (written by the Honourable Louis Lebel on behalf of the Court) – which brought greater certainty to the question of when Canadian courts will assume civil jurisdiction, the guests discuss the positive nature of conflict of laws rules, the influence of civil law judges and the evolution of private international law in the internet age.

The Honourable Louis LeBel was appointed a justice of the Quebec Court of Appeal in 1984, and was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2000, retiring in 2014. He is now counsel at Langlois in Montreal and Quebec City. He received an honorary doctorate of laws degree from Laval University in 2001 and from the University of Ottawa in 2010, was awarded both the Medal of the Quebec City Bar and the Medal of the Quebec Bar, and was named a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2017. He has been an honorary member of the American College of Trial Lawyers since 2004.

Paul-Erik Veel is a partner at Lenczner Slaght in Toronto, where he practices commercial litigation with a focus on class actions. He appears regularly before Courts across the country, including at the Supreme Court of Canada. Paul-Erik is known for his groundbreaking use of legal data analytics to inform the practice of litigation, for which he was named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers of 2022 by Canadian Lawyer Magazine. In addition to his many activities, he also lectures in private international law at the University of Toronto. Paul-Erik clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada from 2009 to 2010 for the Honourable Louise Charron.

Gabriel Poliquin is counsel at Olthuis van Ert based in Ottawa. He focuses his practice on all aspects of civil and commercial litigation but with a special focus on public law including proceedings against the Crown. Mr. Poliquin is a trained mediator and offers alternative dispute resolution services in civil and commercial matters. When not acting in public or commercial law matters, Gabriel teaches private international law as a lecturer at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law. Gabriel clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada from 2010 to 2011 for the Honourable Louis LeBel.

Land Acknowledgement
The Advocates’ Society acknowledges that our offices, located in Toronto, are on the customary and traditional lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinabek, the Huron-Wendat and now home to many First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples. We acknowledge current treaty holders, the Mississaugas of the Credit and honour their long history of welcoming many nations to this territory.
While The Advocates’ Society is based in Toronto, we are a national organization with Directors and members located across Canada in the treaty and traditional territories of many Indigenous Peoples. We encourage our members to reflect upon their relationships with the Indigenous Peoples in these territories, and the history of the land on which they live and work.
We acknowledge the devastating impacts of colonization, including the history of residential schools, for many Indigenous peoples, families, and communities and commit to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusiveness in an informed legal profession in Canada and within The Advocates’ Society.

In Part 2 of this two-part series, our panel continues their discussion on Indigenous laws and legal traditions, with a focus on the way forward. They discuss some of the work that is already taking place in Indigenous communities to revitalize Indigenous legal traditions and to exercise governance authority within the Canadian context more broadly, including over water. They also discuss some of the opportunities for more areas of Indigenous jurisdiction, and how to take steps to implement the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Aimée Craft is an Indigenous (Anishinaabe-Métis) lawyer from Treaty 1 territory in Manitoba and an award-winning professor and researcher at the University of Ottawa. Since 2013, Professor Craft has led research on Anishinaabe water law. Her award-winning book, Breathing Life Into the Stone Fort Treaty, focuses on understanding and interpreting treaties from an Anishinaabe inaakonigewin (legal) perspective. Professor Craft is the former Director of Research at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and the founding Director of Research at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. She is a current member of the Speaker's Bureau of the Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba.

Professor Alan Hanna is an Assistant Professor at the University of Victoria, where he teaches in both the JD and the JID programs. He is of mixed Blackfoot, French and Scottish heritage, and is connected to the Secwepemc through marriage. Professor Hanna’s research focuses on Indigenous laws and jurisdiction, governance, rights and title, and environmental sustainability under Indigenous legal traditions, Aboriginal law and jurisprudence, and the intersections between all these systems. Professor Hanna also sits on the Legal Advisory Panel of RAVEN Trust and the Board of Directors of the Indigenous Bar Association in Canada.

Christina Gray is a lawyer with JFK Law LLP, with a focus on litigation and Indigenous governance. Christina is a Ts’msyen citizen from Lax Kw’alaams in northern British Columbia and Dene from Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories. As a scholar, Christina’s graduate research focuses on issues of gender representation within the Ts’msyen legal order and governance system. Christina is also a Yellowhead Institute Research Fellow, which is a First Nations-led think tank rooted in community networks and committed to Indigenous self-determination.

Aria Laskin practices Aboriginal, environmental and constitutional law in JFK Law LLP’s Vancouver office. She has appeared in front of all levels of court in British Columbia and Ontario, the Federal Court, the Supreme Court of Canada and a range of administrative and arbitral panels.
Land Acknowledgement
The Advocates’ Society acknowledges that our offices, located in Toronto, are on the customary and traditional lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinabek, the Huron-Wendat and now home to many First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples. We acknowledge current treaty holders, the Mississaugas of the Credit and honour their long history of welcoming many nations to this territory.
While The Advocates’ Society is based in Toronto, we are a national organization with Directors and members located across Canada in the treaty and traditional territories of many Indigenous Peoples. We encourage our members to reflect upon their relationships with the Indigenous Peoples in these territories, and the history of the land on which they live and work.
We acknowledge the devastating impacts of colonization, including the history of residential schools, for many Indigenous peoples, families, and communities and commit to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusiveness in an informed legal profession in Canada and within The Advocates’ Society.

In this episode, Chris Horkins sits down with his colleague Kayla Smith, a TAS member committed to making a difference for aspiring young Black lawyers in Canada. They discuss Kayla’s involvement in various initiatives and tackling the “pipeline” issue for increasing diversity in the legal profession. They touch on the importance of representation, including the recent historic appointment of Chief Justice Michael H. Tulloch, Ontario’s first Black Chief Justice, and explore effective allyship and how lawyers and firms can support and be allies to their Black colleagues.
Kayla Smith is a litigation associate at Cassels Brock and Blackwell LLP in Toronto with a broad commercial litigation practice. Kayla was called to the bar in 2021 and received her JD from the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law, where she graduated as the Valedictorian of the Class of 2020. During law school, Kayla was an Executive Member of the Black Law Students’ Association of Canada. Kayla is an advocate for increasing access to legal education for Black students in Canada. She is the founder of the Lloyd Dean Moot, an oral advocacy competition geared to support undergraduate students with an interest in the law, and the JD Bridges Foundation, a non-profit aimed at providing financial support and mentorship to Black students in the law school application process.
Chris Horkins is a partner in the Litigation Group at Cassels Brock and Blackwell LLP. His broad commercial litigation practice includes expertise in franchise law, product liability, securities litigation, and class actions. Chris is a member of the 10+ Standing Committee of The Advocates’ Society.
Land Acknowledgement
The Advocates’ Society acknowledges that our offices, located in Toronto, are on the customary and traditional lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinabek, the Huron-Wendat and now home to many First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples. We acknowledge current treaty holders, the Mississaugas of the Credit and honour their long history of welcoming many nations to this territory.
While The Advocates’ Society is based in Toronto, we are a national organization with Directors and members located across Canada in the treaty and traditional territories of many Indigenous Peoples. We encourage our members to reflect upon their relationships with the Indigenous Peoples in these territories, and the history of the land on which they live and work.
We acknowledge the devastating impacts of colonization, including the history of residential schools, for many Indigenous peoples, families, and communities and commit to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusiveness in an informed legal profession in Canada and within The Advocates’ Society.

In this episode, Webnesh Haile speaks with Neha Chugh, the 2022 recipient of The Advocates’ Society’s Catzman Award for Professionalism and Civility. Neha and Web discuss non-linear career paths, the line between zealous representation and incivility, practical tips for remaining civil, and the role of professionalism in fostering the administration of justice.
The Catzman Award recognizes the qualities exemplified by Justice Catzman throughout his distinguished career, including:

• An exemplary knowledge of the law;
• Integrity, fairness and civility;
• Generosity of time and expertise, with a commitment to mentorship and/or legal education; and
• Dedication to the highest ideals of the legal profession.

Neha Chugh is a partner at Chugh Law, a firm based in Cornwall, Ontario which provides services in criminal law (including victim/witness representation), family law and child protection law. A graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School, Neha’s practice focuses on conducting effective trials and managing fair resolutions, with a specific focus on youth and adult mental health, litigation, and research. She has conducted a wide range of judge-alone and jury trials including break and enters, sexual assaults, assaults, mischiefs, drinking and driving, and cases in front of various tribunals in Ontario.
Webnesh Haile is a construction and infrastructure lawyer and the principal lawyer at Traction Legal, specializing in providing fractional in-house counsel and project shadowing services. Ranked since 2021 in Best Lawyers in Canada for Construction Law, Web previously practiced construction law with two of Canada's top national construction law firms. Web drafts and advises on the negotiation of standard form and bespoke construction contracts and provides legal support and represents clients engaged in dispute resolution, including negotiation, mediation, adjudication, litigation and arbitration.
Land Acknowledgement
The Advocates’ Society acknowledges that our offices, located in Toronto, are on the customary and traditional lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinabek, the Huron-Wendat and now home to many First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples. We acknowledge current treaty holders, the Mississaugas of the Credit and honour their long history of welcoming many nations to this territory.
While The Advocates’ Society is based in Toronto, we are a national organization with Directors and members located across Canada in the treaty and traditional territories of many Indigenous Peoples. We encourage our members to reflect upon their relationships with the Indigenous Peoples in these territories, and the history of the land on which they live and work.
We acknowledge the devastating impacts of colonization, including the history of residential schools, for many Indigenous peoples, families, and communities and commit to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusiveness in an informed legal profession in Canada and within The Advocates’ Society.