Omar Ha-Redeye of Fleet Street Law is participating in the lively debate on the future of articling in Ontario. The full panel consists of:
Lee Akazaki is a partner with Gilbertson Davis Emerson LLP and certified civil specialist in civil litigation. Akazaki, who graduated from the University of Toronto and was called to the bar in 1990, is a past president of the Ontario Bar Association. He is a founding member of the Law Society’s Barrister Advisory Group (PD&C), and acts as a compulsory moot court course supervisor at U of T’s Faculty of Law. Akazaki writes regularly for a number of legal trade publications and blogs at leeakazaki.com.
Doug Ferguson was a partner and a civil litigator at the London, Ont., firm of Bitz, Szemenyei, Ferguson & MacKenzie before returning, in 2003, to his alma mater, the University of Western Ontario, as director of community legal services. Ferguson spearheaded the founding of the Association for Canadian Clinical Legal Education, where he serves as the inaugural president. Ferguson was recently awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for his community work.
Omar Ha-Redeye practices health law and civil litigation out of Fleet Street Law in Toronto. He completed his law degree at the University of Western Ontario and is currently working on his LLM at Osgoode Hall. He has an extensive media and social media background and is frequently consulted on legal issues. In 2011, Ha-Redeye was named one of the top 12 social media influencers practising law in Canada. He blogs at omarha-redeye.com.
Jasminka Kalajdzic joined the University of Windsor Faculty of Law in July 2009 after 12 years in private practice as a civil litigator. Kalajdzic’s current research focuses on critical analysis and empirical investigations of class action litigation, legal ethics, and access to justice. Kalajdzic is the author of a book and several articles in peer-reviewed journals. She is co-authoring a text on class action law with Chief Justice Warren Winkler, Justice Paul Perell, and Randy Bennett.
Mitch Kowalski practises commercial law in Toronto and writes regularly for legal industry publications. Kowalksi is author of Avoiding Extinction: Reimagining Legal Services for the 21st Century and teaches innovation at the Western University of Ontario and the University of Ottawa law schools. Kowalski co-founded lawTechCamp. Before opening his own boutique firm, Kowalski practised with two Toronto firms and acted as in-house counsel for the City of Toronto.
Catherine McKenna is co-founder and executive director of Canadian Lawyers Abroad. McKenna began her legal career in Asia as legal advisor with a United Nations peacekeeping mission. In Canada, she worked for Stikeman Elliott LLP specializing in competition, international trade and constitutional matters. McKenna is president of the Banff Forum and a board member of the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto.
Antonin Pribetic practises at Steinberg Morton Hope & Israel LLP specializing in commercial and civil litigation, arbitration and intellectual property law. Pribetic advises foreign counsel on the prosecution and defence of actions in Canada to assist with the coordination of international debt recover efforts. Pribetic is a certified member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He has written for several legal trade publications and maintains The Trial Warrior Blog.
Garry Wise practises employment and family law as well as civil and estate litigation at Wise Law. Wise has completed advanced training in family law mediation. He has written for several legal trade publications and has appeared as a speaker on social media and digital security issues facing the legal profession. Wise maintains the award-winning Wise Law Blog.