Canadian Lawyer InHouse

October/November 2021

Legal news and trends for Canadian in-house counsel and c-suite executives

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6 www.canadianlawyermag.com/inhouse PEOPLE MOVES Black Legal Action Centre strengthens its team Moya Teklu has joined the Black Legal Action Centre as executive director and general counsel. Teklu has a long history of working to eradicate anti-Black racism in the justice system and delivering legal aid services to members of Ontario's Black communities. For the past six years, she worked at Legal Aid Ontario, where she implemented a significant service delivery plan for Black Ontarians, provided critical support during the launch of BLAC and authored LAO's Racialized Community Strategy. She has also delivered anti-racism training to hundreds of judges, justices of the peace, lawyers, regulators, adjudicators and educators across the country. PointsBet snaps up gaming industry lawyer Global online gaming operator, PointsBet, has appointed gaming and sports betting industry lawyer Chantal Cipriano as vice president, legal, compliance and people of its Canadian operations. In this role, she will help the company navigate the Canadian sports betting landscape. Cipriano, who also acts as special counsel for gaming to Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, was a senior director of legal and compliance at fintech company Mazooma. In that role, she assisted in providing real-time, bank-account-level data intelligence and bank-verified payment processing to licensed online gaming and sports betting operators in regulated U.S. markets. AFTER MORE than 20 years at Deloitte LLP, Ken Fredeen has retired, but he has no plans to be idle. Fredeen is busy launching a private corporation — Kenneth J. Fredeen Professional Services Inc. — which will enable him to continue exploring his passion for advancing diversity and inclusion within the legal profession and developing the capacity of the in-house counsel role. "I have done a lot of work in diversity and inclusion, so I would like to continue that work in terms of creating a more inclusive legal profession," says Fredeen. He has held the title of general counsel emeritus and senior partner at Deloitte for the past year, focusing on Indigenous and accessibility initiatives. In that role, he focused on leading Deloitte's initiative around reconciliation with First Nations people in Canada and making the firm more inclusive for people with disabilities. "It was a highlight for me to transition out of a senior general counsel role into something that I think is really important for Canada," he says of his recent role. Before that appointment, Fredeen spent 20 years as Deloitte's general counsel, secretary to the board and a leadership team member. During that time, he witnessed the firm's evolution from an accounting firm into a professional services firm. As a frequent speaker and thought-leader on the role of in-house counsel, Fredeen also hopes to continue his work to support the in-house community through his new corporation. "This new role is a continuation of the work I've done in both areas, and in particular around the inclusion of people with disabilities," he says. "I think the profession has done a really bad job in that area, and we can do much better, so I'd like to play a role there." Fredeen hopes to leverage his platform as co-founder of Legal Leaders for Diversity & Inclusion together with his network of general counsel and law firms to continue his efforts in providing access to the legal profession for people with disabilities. He is currently exploring partnership opportunities and expects to launch his new corporation in the fall. Among his many accolades to date, Fredeen was recently awarded the BLG Stephen Sigurdson Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2021 Canadian General Counsel Awards for his service to the in-house bar. He has also received numerous awards for his work related to creating a more inclusive legal profession. Award-winning lawyer goes solo Ken Fredeen will continue striving to create a more inclusive legal profession through his own corporation "It was a highlight for me to transition out of a senior general counsel role into something that I think is really important for Canada." Ken Fredeen

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