40 LEXPERT MAGAZINE
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JUNE 2018
interested throughout his career in ensur-
ing the profession operates according to its
ethical obligations and in the interest of
its clients. He represented the Canadian
Bar Association as an intervenor at the Su-
preme Court in a successful constitutional
challenge to the application of money-
laundering laws to lawyers in Canada. Fer-
ris was elected as a Bencher Law Society of
BC in 2014, was acclaimed as Second Vice-
president for 2018 and will be President in
2020. He has been a UBC trial advocacy
instructor and Access Pro Bono volunteer
and was inducted as a Fellow of the Litiga-
tion Counsel of America.
Monique Jilesen
Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP
Corporate Commercial Litigation
Monique Jilesen is litigation counsel in
complex proceedings and plays a leadership
role at her firm as a member of the Manage-
ment Committee and Strategic Council
and as the partner responsible for Finance
& Pricing. She has worked on significant
commercial litigation matters, including
the Algoma CCAA and oppression pro-
ceedings and the Sears CCAA proceed-
ings. Committed to mentoring, Jilesen is
an advocate for diversity and inclusion.
She is a member of the Toronto Commer-
cial List Users' Committee, an Executive
Member of the Advocates' Society Com-
mercial List Practice Group and past Chair
of the Gale Cup Moot. Jilesen was awarded
the 2017 Douglas K. Laidlaw Medal for
Excellence in Advocacy.
Reena Lalji
CIBC
Corporate Commercial Litigation
As CIBC Senior Litigation Counsel, Re-
ena Lalji has been lead in-house counsel
on matters that have gone to the Supreme
Court of Canada and that have significant-
ly impacted both CIBC and the financial
industry as a whole. Lalji is the first in-
house counsel to serve on e Advocates'
Society's Board of Directors. She is a fre-
quent panelist and skills instructor with
e Advocates' Society and Co-chaired
the 2017 Women in Litigation Sympo-
sium. Lalji has also volunteered with the Is-
maili Muslim community and was actively
involved in developing and launching the
Jubilee Games in Dubai, UAE.
Mathieu Piché-Messier
Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
Corporate Commercial Litigation
Mathieu Piché-Messier is the Regional
Leader of BLGs Commercial Litigation
Group in the Montréal office. Most of his
practice is devoted to trial and litigation
matters, inclusive of mediation, specializing
in preparing and enforcing extraordinary
remedies. Piché-Messier participated in the
parliamentary committees of the National
Assembly responsible for reform of the
Québec Code of Civil Procedure. He re-
cently completed the Leadership Program at
Harvard Law School. He is a Fellow of the
American Bar Association Foundation and
has sat on the boards of several legal, chari-
table and cultural organizations.
Celeste Poltak
Koskie Minsky LLP
Class Actions
Celeste Poltak's class actions practice focus-
es on acting for marginalized groups against
governments and large corporations. Poltak
helped to achieve a landmark settlement on
behalf of Sixties Scoop survivors, which was
one of the largest class-action settlements
in Canadian history, and she is counsel in a
class proceeding against Canada on behalf
of LGBTQ2I members of the Canadian
Armed Forces, RCMP and federal public
service for damages caused by the LGBT
Purge. Poltak is at the forefront of promot-
ing change, legal education and scholarship
in the area of class actions practice, holding
numerous time-consuming positions to ad-
vance these goals.
Johanna C. Price
Peacock Linder Halt & Mack LLP
Corporate Commercial Litigation
Johanna Price acts in a wide range of com-
mercial, energy, construction and general
litigation matters and occasionally acts as
Inquiry Officer under the Expropriation
Act. An advocate of alternative dispute
resolution, she has been involved in many
successful dispute resolutions through
negotiation, mediation, arbitration and
judicial dispute resolution. She Chairs the
National Canadian Bar Association, ADR
Section, and is a longstanding member and
Past President of the Association of Wom-
en Lawyers, organizing its first leadership
| ZENITH AWARDS |
