About Us

Federation President Jill Perry was appointed in March 2018 to represent the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society on the Council of the Federation. She is the Managing Lawyer (Family) with Nova Scotia Legal Aid in Sydney, Nova Scotia, where she has worked as a staff lawyer since 2001. Her current practice is concentrated in the area of child protection. She is a past chair of Nova Scotia Legal Aid’s Children and Family Services Act Committee.

Called to the Bar in 2001, Jill received her LLB from the University of Victoria in 2000, her MA (History) from Memorial University in 1997, and her undergraduate degree in history from McGill University in 1994.

Jill served as President of the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society (NSBS) in 2015-2016. She was first elected to the NSBS Council in 2007 as a member for Cape Breton District, completing three consecutive terms in that position prior to her election as a Vice-President of the Barristers’ Society. She is a long-standing member of the Steering Committee for the National Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters.

Jill’s community work has included coaching soccer for young children and serving on local boards.  She is currently a board member for the Cape Breton YMCA.

Jill lives in Sydney with her husband, two children, and dog. She enjoys spending time outside in the beauty of Cape Breton Island.

Jacqueline Horvat was nominated to the Federation Council by the Law Society of Ontario in 2019.  She received her LL.B. from the University of Windsor and was called to the Ontario bar in 2002. In 2011, Jacqueline was elected as a Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada (now the Law Society of Ontario). She was re-elected as Bencher in 2015 and 2019. In her third term, she was elected as Treasurer by the Law Society’s governing body (Convocation) and took office in June 2022.

Jacqueline is a litigation lawyer and a founding partner of Spark Law Professional Corporation. She has a broad and varied corporate/commercial litigation practice representing both plaintiffs and defendants in complex (and not so complex) commercial disputes, shareholder oppression disputes, class action litigation, and appeals. She has appeared at all levels of court in Ontario and is highly regarded as a skilled and experienced commercial litigation lawyer.

Splitting her time between Windsor and Toronto, Jacqueline is also an occasional instructor and frequent guest lecturer at University of Windsor’s Faculty of Law. She is also involved in collaborative projects with the University of Windsor, including the Reclaim Pro Bono Project (https://www.reclaimprobono.org/) which provides free legal advice and representation to clients who have suffered online and technology facilitated violence. The purpose of the project is to examine, research, and address pressing issues of social injustice in online environments. Specifically, the project focusses on non-consensual distribution of intimate images, online harassment, sextortion, public disclosure of private facts, voyeurism, and impersonation.

Erin Kleisinger, KC was nominated to the Federation Council by the Law Society of Saskatchewan in 2018. She is currently a partner in private practice with McDougall Gauley LLP in Regina, where she has a varied commercial and litigation practice with a focus on university and privacy law, and acts as counsel to the University of Regina.  Erin has appeared before all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada.

Erin received her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and LLB from Queen’s University and was admitted to the Saskatchewan bar in 1993.  She was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2016.

Erin was appointed by the Benchers of the Law Society of Saskatchewan in February 2014 to fill a vacancy, and was re-elected in 2015. She was elected Vice-President of the Law Society that same year, and served as its President in 2017. While a Bencher, Erin served on the Executive, Conduct Investigation, Equity and Diversity, Access and Governance Committees, and chaired the Professional Standards Committee.

Erin is currently on the faculty of the Law Society’s Trial Advocacy Workshop, acting as its Chair since 2012.  She served two terms as a member of the Provincial Court of Saskatchewan Judicial Council, and is the former President of the Saskatchewan Legal Education Society Inc.  She has also been a sessional lecturer in the Faculty of Business Administration at the University of Regina.

Nicolas Plourde was nominated as a member of the Federation Council by the Barreau du Québec in 2018, after having been a member in 2013—2014. He is a partner in the Montréal boutique law firm Sarrazin Plourde, and is an accomplished litigator with more than 25 years of experience in civil and commercial litigation.

Mr. Plourde earned his law degree from the Université de Montréal and was admitted to the Québec Bar in 1993. In 1997, he became President of the Young Bar Association of Montréal (YBAM), an organization representing lawyers in the greater Montreal area with 10 years of experience or less. In 2008, he served as a founding administrator and Treasurer of Pro Bono Québec, an organization offering free legal services in that province.

Nicolas also has extensive experience in the administrative and regulatory aspects of the legal profession. From 2008—2010, he chaired the Barreau’s Legal Aid Committee and in 2010, was appointed Chair of the Barreau’s Governance and Ethics Committee. In 2009, he was elected Bâtonnier of the Barreau de Montréal, and in 2012 became Bâtonnier of the Barreau du Québec.

Nicolas is also involved in his community. He is currently the President of the Accueil Bonneau Foundation, an organization helping homeless people.

Brook Greenberg, KC was nominated to serve on the Federation Council by the Law Society of British Columbia (LSBC) in 2022. He is currently a member of the Federation’s National Wellness Study Steering Committee. Brook received his LL.B. from the University of British Columbia, and was called to the bar in B.C. in 1998.

He has been a Bencher of the law society since 2016, and will be the LSBC’s Second Vice President in 2023.  Brook currently serves as the Chair of the LSBC’s Discipline Committee, the Mental Health Task Force and the Trust Review Task Force, and is Vice-chair of the Lawyer Development Task Force.

Brook is a partner in the Vancouver office of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP. His practice focuses on complex commercial, construction and forestry litigation. He also teaches civil procedure as an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia.

From 2005 to 2012, Brook served on the board of directors of MOSAIC, a not-for-profit provider of settlement and support services for immigrants and refugees.

Carsten Jensen, K.C., FCIArb was nominated to the Federation Council by the Law Society of Alberta in 2019.

Carsten was President of the Law Society of Alberta from 2013 to 2014, and was first elected as Bencher in 2006. He also served as Chair of several major law society committees, including Credentials and Education and Finance.

Carsten is a partner of JSS Barristers of Calgary. His practice with the firm focuses exclusively on dispute resolution, with an emphasis on corporate and commercial litigation, including commercial class actions, oil and gas disputes, shareholder disputes, multi-party litigation and arbitrations. Carsten also acts for the Alberta Lawyers Indemnity Association in defence of professional negligence claims and on insurance coverage issues. Carsten is a Fellow of the London-based Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb). He is also a member of the Professional Conduct Committee of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

In 1998, during a two-year leave from JSS Barristers, Carsten acted as senior legal officer and team leader at the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) in Geneva, Switzerland. In that capacity, Carsten worked on the Kuwait Oil Company claim for losses caused by oil well fires that were the result of Iraq’s invasion and occupation of Kuwait.

Lynda Troup was nominated to the Federation Council, effective November 2020 by the Law Society of Manitoba.

Lynda has served as a Bencher of the Law Society of Manitoba since 2014, and served as the 100th President of the law society for the  2020-2021 term..  She has also served on a number of law society committees.

Lynda is a partner at Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP in Winnipeg, where she has practiced since her call to the bar in 2004. Her practice focuses on civil and commercial litigation and administrative law. Lynda also provides procedural advice to various administrative bodies and has appeared before all levels of Court in Manitoba, the Federal Court of Canada and various administrative tribunals.

Teresa Donnelly was nominated as a member of the Federation Council by the Law Society of Ontario (LSO) in 2022.  She received her LL.B. from the University of Toronto, and was called to the Bar in 1991.

She was first elected as a Bencher with the LSO in 2015 and re-elected in 2019. Teresa then served as the law society Treasurer (President) for two years, becoming the fifth woman to hold the position in the 200-year history of the LSO. In that role, Teresa focused on the mental health of legal practitioners, reconciliation, the competence and ethical responsibilities of lawyers and paralegals, and the important role that paralegals play in access to justice in Ontario.

Teresa has been a lawyer with the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General since 1994. She has been Assistant Crown Attorney in the Region of Waterloo and the County of Huron, and the Crown Attorney for the County of Huron. As West Region Sexual Violence Crown she was one of 7 full-time prosecutors in Ontario dedicated to enhancing the quality of sexual violence prosecutions and the victim’s experience in the criminal justice system. As a Crown, Teresa has been dedicated to prosecutions involving domestic and sexual violence against women and children.

Stephanie Lisa Roberts became a member of the Federation Council in August 2021, nominated by the Barreau du Québec. A litigator in the Montreal office of the Attorney General of Quebec, Stephanie has been practicing in the field of public law litigation since her admission to the Quebec Bar in 2003. She has pleaded before all judicial bodies in Quebec, including the Federal Court and several administrative tribunals.

Specializing in constitutional and aboriginal law, Stephanie has acted in major cases involving land claims and the aboriginal rights of various aboriginal communities in Quebec. Her practice in constitutional law has also involved successful representation for various provincial ministries in claims based on the rights and freedoms protected by the Charter.

Stephanie is very involved in the mentoring of young lawyers. She is a professor at the École du Barreau, where she teaches civil evidence and representation.

She is also involved in the legal community as a member of the board of directors of the Barreau du Québec, and sits on various committees of both the Barreau and the Federation of Law Societies of Canada.

Louis-Martin Beaumont was nominated to Federation Council by Chambre des notaires du Québec in 2017. He is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Chambre des notaires, and chairs the Continuing Education Committee. Mr. Beaumont is also as a member of the Investment Committee of the Chambre des notaires, and serves as a member of the strategic committee leading the ongoing digital initiative of the Chambre des notaires, which aims to implement paperless transactions in notarial work.

Me. Beaumont was first elected to the Board of Directors of the Chambre des notaires du Québec in 2011, having served for several years as a member of the Laval Advisory Committee and the Disciplinary Committee of the Chambre des notaires.

He received his licence in 1993, and is now the third generation to hold the reins of the family firm that was established in 1950 in what is now the city of Laval, Quebec.

Justin Robichaud, KC was nominated to serve as a member of the Federation Council by the Law Society of New Brunswick in 2022. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree and his Bachelor of Law (LL.B.) from the Université de Moncton and was called to the bar in 2011. He was appointed King’s Counsel in 2021.

He is a founding partner of Fidelis Law Droit, a boutique litigation firm in Moncton, New Brunswick. His practice is focused mainly on personal injury and insurance law litigation. Justin is also a sessional lecturer at the Université de Moncton Law Faculty where he teaches Insurance Law.

Justin was elected President of the Law Society of New Brunswick (LSNB) for the 2022-2023 term, becoming the youngest member to hold this position in the history of the law society. Since first being elected as a Council member of LSNB, he has been active on many law society committees including the Admissions Committee, the Bar Admission Program Committee, the Continuing Professional Development Review Task Force, and the Bar Review Task Force. Justin also served as President of the New Brunswick Branch of the Canadian Bar Association in 2018-2019.

Active in his community, he is a soccer coach with the local youth league, a board member of the Beausejour Family Crisis Centre, and a public representative on the Complaints Committee of the College of Physiotherapists of New Brunswick.

Frank E. DeMont, KC was nominated to the Federation Council by the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society in September 2021.

Frank was a member of Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society Council (NSBS) from 2015 to June 2019, and served as President in 2018-2019. He has chaired a number of the Society’s committees, and continues to chair the NSBS Code of Professional Conduct Committee (since 2016) and the Professional Responsibilities Policy and Procedures Committee (since 2018).

Frank has been a leader in the Multi-disciplinary Practices initiative and Trust Account reforms in Nova Scotia. Since 2012 his work has been increasingly as an Arbitrator and Mediator but he continues to represent a small group of Corporate and Municipal enterprises. Prior to 2012 Frank’s work was centered around Corporate and Commercial law.

For the first 15 years of his practice, Frank worked mostly in Criminal law including a period as a staff lawyer with Nova Scotia Legal Aid. During that time Frank made five appearances in the Supreme Court of Canada, most notably for the R. v. Borden case relating to DNA and search and seizure, and the Curragh Resources case, in which Frank was seconded to act for one of the managers of the Westray Mine in matters arising from the May 1992 mine disaster.

Frank is particularly proud of his small role in obtaining the posthumous pardon of Viola Desmond.

Don MacKenzie was nominated to the Federation Council by the Law Society of Prince Edward Island in 2018. He currently serves as Legal Counsel for L’nuey, the PEI Mi’kmaq Rights-based organization that was created by the First Nation Leadership in the fall of 2019.  L’nuey is a sister organization to the Mi’kmaq Confederacy of Prince Edward Island, where Don previously worked as Executive Director of the Mi’kmaq Confederacy .

Don was called to the bar in P.E.I. in 1992. He began his career in private practice in Charlottetown working on many files relating to Indigenous issues and the Mi’kmaq community. He joined the Mi’kmaq Confederacy of P.E.I. as legal advisor in 2006, and assumed the role of Director of Intergovernmental Affairs the following year. He was appointed Executive Director of the Confederacy in January of 2014.  In addition to the general oversight of the organization, Don continues as legal counsel and lead negotiator on Indigenous and treaty rights matters.

Mr. MacKenzie also served as President of the Law Society of Prince Edward Island for the 2015-16 term.

Ian Patey was nominated to the Federation Council by the Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2020.

He was first elected as a Bencher of the Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2015, and served as President for the 2019-2020 term. He has also chaired the law society’s Accounts and Finance, Complaints Authorization, and Mandate Review committees.

Ian was appointed public nominee to the Discipline Panel of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2009 and served in that capacity with the Institute and its successor organizations until 2018. He served on the Board and Executive Committee of The Rooms Corporation from 2012 to 2018. The corporation is responsible for the provincial museum, archives and art gallery. Ian also served on the host committee of the 2016 Newfoundland and Labrador Summer Games.

As a partner in the St. John’s firm O’Dea Earle, Ian maintains an active practice in union side labour and employment law, civil litigation, real estate, wills and estates, and criminal law. He has appeared at boards of arbitration, numerous administrative tribunals, and all levels of court in the province as well as the Federal Court (Trial Division).

Ian received his Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in 1997 from Memorial University and his law degree in 2000 from the University of New Brunswick. He was called to the Newfoundland and Labrador Bar in 2001.

David A. McWhinnie was nominated to the Federation Council by the Law Society of Yukon in 2018. He is a criminal trial lawyer with substantial criminal appellate experience, currently in private practice in the Yukon.

Mr. McWhinnie served as a federal prosecutor for nearly 30 years, retiring from the Public Prosecution Service in 2017 as General Counsel. His prosecution duties took him across all three northern Territories. He also served in the federal Crimes against Humanity/War Crimes unit, and later in the Proceeds of Crime section.

First called to the Alberta bar in 1984, Mr. McWhinnie was previously active in the bars of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. A member of the Discipline Committee of the Yukon Law Society, Mr. McWhinnie also serves as an outside mentor/practice advisor to the Yukon Legal Aid program.

Tracy Bock became a member of the Federation Council in November 2022, nominated by the Law Society of the Northwest Territories. He received his LL.B. from Western University, and was called to the Bar in New Brunswick in 2006. He was subsequently called to the bar in the Northwest Territories in 2009, and Nunavut in 2020.

Since moving to Yellowknife, Tracy has been active in volunteer positions with the law society, and served as President in 2018 and 2019. He continues to be active on a number of committees.

Tracy currently works as Executive Director of the Legal Aid Commission of the Northwest Territories.  He previously served as Legal Counsel with the Government of the Northwest Territories’ Department of Justice representing the government in a variety of civil proceedings, inquests, and arbitrations.  Tracy also practiced criminal defence law for over a decade in the Northwest Territories.  His years of travel throughout the north in the course of this work sparked his ongoing interest in the promotion and implementation of access to justice initiatives in Canada’s remote northern communities.

Mark Mossey was nominated by the Law Society of Nunavut to serve on the Federation Council in November 2022.  He previously served on Council as Nunavut’s representative during the 2013-2014 term prior to becoming the President of the Law Society of Nunavut in 2014.

Mark is currently the Executive Legal Officer in the Office of the Chief Justice of the Nunavut Court of Justice. During the 2019 and 2020 academic years Mark taught civil procedure, trial advocacy, and a course on poverty, equality, and the law at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Law’s Nunavut Law Program in Iqaluit.

Mark was called to the Bar in Ontario in 2004 and in Nunavut in 2010.  He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Alberta in 2000 (with Distinction), his LLB from the Faculty of Law at Queens University in 2003, and his Masters of Law degree (with Merit) from the London School of Economics in 2018.

Mark articled with Fasken Martineau DuMoulin in Toronto, then then practiced as a civil litigator in Sudbury, Toronto, and Ottawa prior to moving to Iqaluit in January 2010 with his spouse Amber and infant daughter.  There, he served in the role of Poverty and Civil Law Counsel with the Legal Services Board of Nunavut. Mark and Amber now have four hockey-playing children and dedicate a significant portion of their lives to driving to more hockey practices than anyone would imagine possible each week.  And they love it.