UBC Law Alumni Association
2009/2010 UBC Law Alumni Board of Directors:
Executive Members
President - Rod Urquhart
Vice President - The Honourable Mr. Justice James Williams
Treasurer - Michael Feder
Secretary - Warren Smith
Board of Directors
Dan Bennett
Maggie Campbell
Garret Chan
Marylee Davies
Jennifer Devins
Professor Robin Elliot, QC
Mark Fancourt-Smith
Anna Feglerska
Kerry Grieve
Craig Jones
Kat Kinch
Derek Lacroix, QC
David Miles
David Neave
Ryan Parsons
The Honourable Mr. Justice Jon Sigurdson
Gordon Weatherill
Board Bios
Rod Urquhart - President
Rod graduated from UBC Law in 1985 and has practised law since he was called to the bar in 1986. He was elected President of the UBC Law Alumni Association in December 2009, and also serves on the UBC Faculty of Law Dean's Advisory Council. His areas of practice include commercial, real estate, insurance, estates, employment, administrative, personal injury, torts and construction litigation. He has represented clients in all levels of court in BC as well as in the Federal Court. In addition to his courtroom experience, Rod has represented clients before various administrative tribunals, including the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists, the College of Dental Surgeons and the Workers' Compensation Board. He has also acted as an independent appeals officer, hearing appeals related to victim of crime compensation. Rod is a member of a number of subsections of the Canadian Bar Association as well as a longstanding member of the Trial Lawyers Association of BC, the American Association for Justice and the Vancouver Bar Association. Rod also serves as a volunteer for the Western Canada Society to Access Justice, providing pro bono legal services for individuals.
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The Honourable Mr. Justice James Williams - Vice President
Justice James Williams is a graduate of UBC Law, Class of 1984. He practiced in Vancouver, primarily in the areas of criminal litigation and professional disciplinary matters from the time of his call to the Bar in 1985 until he was appointed to the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 2002.
He has been a member of the Board of the UBC Law Alumni Association since 2004, and currently is the Vice President of the Association.
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Michael Feder - Treasurer
Mike graduated from UBC Law in 2003. He practices as a litigator in the Vancouver office of McCarthy Tétrault LLP, with an emphasis on commercial disputes and public law matters. He has served as a law clerk of both the Supreme Court of Canada and the Court of Appeal for British Columbia, and as a trustee of the Vancouver Public Library. Mike is currently pro bono counsel for the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association and a member of the Legislation and Law Reform Committee of the Canadian Bar Association's British Columbia branch.
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Warren Smith - Secretary
Warren is the Regional Director (BC) for The Counsel Network, Canada's leading national legal recruitment agency, based in their Vancouver offices. Warren provides senior level recruitment and consulting services, including attraction and retention strategies, for national and international clients seeking to recruit Canadian legal talent. Warren has published both locally and nationally on matters pertaining to legal careers and the legal industry in Canada, and is a frequent guest speaker and panelist on the state of the Canadian legal market.
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Dan Bennett
Dan Bennett is a partner with Bull, Housser & Tupper LLP and conducts a commercial litigation practice with extensive experience in corporate, real estate and natural resource matters. Dan, a 1986 graduate, was also an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia law school teaching legal writing and civil procedure from 1989 until 2005 and is a member of the Court Rules Revision Committee. He has lectured extensively in continuing legal education programs on a variety of topics and is a former chair of the Civil Litigation section of the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association.
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Maggie Campbell is an associate in the Vancouver office of Davis LLP where she practices civil litigation. Ms. Campbell articled at Davis and joined the firm as an associate in 2007.
Raised in Vancouver, Ms. Campbell holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts (English Literature) from the University of British Columbia.
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Garret Chan
Garret runs the strategy division of "T", a luxury tea company based in Canada. He consults in the fields of brand management and strategy and has taught Mergers Acquisitions as an Adjunct Professor at UBC Law School. Garret holds a B.Sc. (Biochemistry) and LL.B. from UBC and a LL.M. from NYU.
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Marylee Davies
Marylee is a Partner whose practice focuses on labour, employment, and human rights law. Marylee represents provincially and federally regulated employers both in the public and private sectors. She regularly appears as counsel before a variety of administrative tribunals, including the British Columbia Labour Relations Board, the Canada Industrial Relations Board, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, and federally and provincially constituted boards of arbitration. She also appears before the Supreme Court of British Columbia and the British Columbia Court of Appeal. Marylee has acted for counsel for Translink, Duke Energy Gas Transmission, University of British Columbia, Greater Vancouver Regional District, City of Vancouver, Vancouver Police Board, TELUS, Council of Forest Industries, and a variety of employers in other industries, including retail, property management, hospitality, technology, forestry, and mining.
In addition to her practice, Marylee conducts training seminars for managers and human resource professionals on a wide variety of workplace issues. She has given presentations and authored and co-authored papers dealing with labour, employment, and human rights issues, including sexual harassment and discrimination; constructive dismissal; illness and disability in the workplace; the labour relations implications of starting a business in the province of British Columbia; and managing problem employees. Marylee is a member of the Board of Directors for the BC SPCA and on the Board for the UBC Law Alumni Association.
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Jennifer Devins
Jennifer advises employers in all areas of labour and employment law, including human rights and privacy law. She also represents both employers and employees in wrongful dismissal actions.
Jennifer received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Honours English from the University of British Columbia in 1999, and returned to U.B.C. to obtain her Law degree in 2004. Jennifer received several awards and scholarships during her time at law school and twice represented U.B.C. at the national Gale Moot Cup Competition. Jennifer continues to be involved with U.B.C., sitting on the Board of Directors of the U.B.C. Law Alumni Association, and acting as a Moot Court judge.
After graduating from Law School, Jennifer worked as a Judicial Law Clerk for five justices of the British Columbia Supreme Court. Jennifer then articled and practiced in the Litigation Department of a large national firm where she was a member of the labour and employment group before joining Roper Greyell in 2008. She was called to the Bar in B.C. in 2006.
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Professor Robin Elliot, QC
Robin graduated from UBC in 1973. He is a Professor of Law at UBC, where he teaches and writes primarily in the area of constitutional law. He worked as the Executive Legal Officer of the Supreme Court of Canada from 1995 - 1997. He frequently serves as a consultant on constitutional matters to governments and law firms, and has been involved in the litigation of numerous important constitutional cases.
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Mark Fancourt-Smith
Mark graduated from UBC Law in 2002. After articling with Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, he joined the Litigation and Dispute Resolution department in 2003, and currently practices in the area of commercial litigation, and technology and intellectual property litigation. Mark joined the UBC Law Alumni Board in September of 2003 and has served as Treasurer from 2003-2009.
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Anna Feglerska
Anna graduated from UBC Law in 1997. After a summer internship with Baker & McKenzie and Clifford Chance, she articled at Fasken Martineau in Vancouver where she remained for 4 years as an associate in the commercial litigation department. In 2002, she joined Marsh Canada where she is now Vice President practicing in the area of directors' and officers' liability and securities law.
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Kerry Grieve
Kerry is a senior associate with Fasken Martineau DuMoulin in Vancouver and is a member of the firm's Insurance and Product Liability practice group. Ms. Grieve received her B.A. from Simon Fraser University in 1984 and her LL.B from U.B.C. in 1990. She has been practicing civil litigation since her call to the B.C. Bar in 1991. In recent years her practice has focused on insurance defense litigation. She acts as counsel for a variety of insurers, including life and disability insurers, as well as provincial and extra provincial automobile insurers, and property and casualty insurers. She has conducted numerous mediations, and has appeared in the B.C. Supreme Court and Court of Appeal. From 2004 to 2007 Ms. Grieve was an Adjunct Professor at the UBC Faculty of Law, teaching a section of the Civil Procedure course. Since 2006 she has served in various capacities on the Executive of the Insurance Subsection of the C.B.A., B.C. Branch, and since 2004 she has been an active member of the Board of Directors of the U.B.C. Law Alumni Association.
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Craig Jones
Craig Jones is Supervising Counsel of the BC Attorney Generals Constitutional & Administrative Law Group. He works in Vancouver and Victoria conducting and supervising the provincial government's constitutional and administrative litigation. He earned his LL.B. from UBC in 1998 and a Masters from Harvard in 2002. In addition to the Law Alumni he has been active with the BC Civil Liberties Association, the Pivot Legal Society, and the Uniform Law Conference of Canada. In addition to his government job, Craig teaches a summer course in litigation at the University de Sherbrooke, Quebec.
Kat Kinch
Kat Kinch articled with Harper Grey and following her call to the Bar of British Columbia joined the firm as an associate. Prior to articling, she served as a judicial law clerk at the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver.
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Derek Lacroix, QC
Derek is the Executive Director of the Lawyers Assistance Program of B.C. Derek practiced law in B.C. from 1975 to 1993 and was also called to the bar in Oregon in 1995. Since 1987 Derek has made personal development, spiritual growth, and working with others his avocation and he obtained a Diploma in Counseling in 1996 and a Ph.D. in 2003. He began work with the LAP in 1997. Derek was appointed a QC in 2004 for his work in the legal profession.
He has published articles on the health problems facing lawyers, helping others, stress and depression. He has spoken at conferences on the role of volunteers, reaching out to others, stress, and addictions. He also leads workshops on many topics concerned with Healthy Living. He is active on several non-profit boards and is a Commissioner of the ABA Commission on Lawyers Assistance Programs.
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David Miles
David articled in Vancouver prior to returning to Kelowna where he has started his own firm with Richard Montgomery called Montgomery Miles. In his spare time he volunteers with various local community groups, spends time with friends and family and trains for his next triathlon. David became an ex officio member of the UBC Law Alumni Association when elected President of the UBC Law Students' Association in 2002 though he remains a member of the Board to this day. You can find out more about Dave or his firm by visiting his firm's website at www.montgomerymiles.com.
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David Neave
David Neave is a Partner at Blakes, practising corporate commercial litigation and criminal law, including defending white collar crime offences. He has extensive experience in defending class proceedings and individual claims brought in competition, restraint of trade, products liability, securities and banking cases. He is rated in The Best Lawyers in Canada 2010 and The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory for his expertise in class actions.
David regularly appears before all levels of British Columbia courts and various regulatory tribunals. He is a member of the Class Action, Civil Litigation and Securities Subsections of the Canadian Bar Association.
David joined Blakes after a 20-year career with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. As part of its commercial crime section for 11 years, he conducted stock market manipulation investigations and a variety of complex fraud and theft investigations. Just before leaving the R.C.M.P., David acted as in-house counsel to the senior management of the R.C.M.P. in British Columbia.
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Ryan Parsons
Ryan Parsons is an associate at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP in Vancouver. After a judicial clerkship with the Court of Appeal for British Columbia, Mr. Parsons was called to the British Columbia Bar in 2004. He graduated from the University of British Columbia in 2003 with a Bachelor of Laws. He previously received a Bachelor of Arts in History from Simon Fraser University in 1997.
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The Honourable Mr. Justice Jon Sigurdson
Justice Jon Sigurdson is a graduate of UBC Law, Class of 1973. After practicing in Vancouver as a litigation lawyer for about 20 years, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 1994. He was president of the UBC Law Alumni Association from 2004-2009.
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Gordon Weatherill
Gordon Weatherill practices primarily in the area of complex litigation, with a focus on commercial litigation, insurance recovery, commercial litigation, construction and engineering litigation, products liability, and environmental litigation. His experience covers virtually every legal aspect of those fields.
He appeared as counsel in the Supreme Court of Canada, the British Columbia Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court of British Columbia and the Northwest Territories, Supreme Court of Nunavut, the Nunavut Court of Appeal, the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench and the B.C. Utilities Board. He has also acted as counsel in many significant arbitrations and mediations.
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