Faculty
Jon Festinger, QC — Festinger Law & Strategy, Vancouver
Lisa C. Fong — Ng Ariss Fong, Vancouver
Tom A. Hakemi — Hakemi & Ridgedale LLP, Vancouver
Valerie Mann — Lawson Lundell LLP, Vancouver
About the Faculty
Jon Festinger, QC is a Vancouver based counsel and educator practicing law through Festinger Law & Strategy. He has been an Adjunct Professor for over two decades at the Allard School of Law, as well as teaching at various times at the UBC Graduate School of Journalism, the TRU Faculty of Law and UVic Law. He is a Professor of Professional Practice at Simon Fraser University and faculty at the Centre for Digital Media, and is also Honorary Industry Professor in the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London.
Jon is a graduate of McGill University's Faculty of Law and in turn became a partner in the Vancouver firm of Owen Bird, General Counsel of WIC (Western International Communications) Ltd., Senior Vice President of the CTV Television Network, and Executive Vice President, Business & General Counsel of the Vancouver Canucks General Motors Place of the NHL. While at CTV, he helped launch VTV (Vancouver Television) and was the station's first General Manager.
He is Past Chair of Ronald McDonald House BC, Chair of viaSport BC, and a member of the Law Society of BC's Rule of Law and Lawyer Independence Advisory Committee.
Lisa Fong is a partner at Ng Ariss Fong and her practice focuses on administrative law. In the area of professional regulatory law, she advises both professional regulatory bodies and professionals. Her work with professional regulatory bodies include advising on governance, registration, quality assurance, inquiry and disciplinary matters, and judicial reviews. Lisa regularly speaks at conferences and provides educational offerings on a variety of professional regulatory and administrative law issues. Ng Ariss Fong publishes an administrative and professional regulatory blog at https://www.ngariss.com/blogs/suite-210.
Tom A. Hakemi is experiened in advising individuals, private and public companies, as well as professional organizations, in a broad range of commercial civil litigation and regulatory proceedings. His practice is focused on complex business disputes often involving alleged breaches of commercial contracts, allegations of fraud, defamation, and/or anti-competitive conduct. He is experienced in advising clients in investigations by regulators such as the BC Securities Commission and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and he has appeared before arbitration tribunals such as the American Arbitration Association and the Judicial Arbiter Group. He advises clients before disputes materialize or enforcement action is taken, and throughout mediation, litigation and appeals, if necessary.
He is admitted to practice in British Columbia and New York. He has formerly served as adjunct professor of law at the University of BC and co-chair of the Civil Litigation Section of the Canadian Bar Association BC Branch.
Prior to establishing Hakemi & Ridgedale LLP, he practiced at firms such as Shearman & Sterling LLP in New York City and Lang Michener LLP in Vancouver.
Valerie Mann is a partner at Lawson Lundell LLP's corporate group. She is the chair of the firm's technology law group and co-chair of the firm's mergers and acquisitions practice group. Her practice is transactional (mergers and acquisitions/corporate finance) as well as advisory. Valerie is the former Managing Partner of Lawson Lundell LLP.
Valerie has extensive experience with mid-market acquisitions and dispositions in a variety of industries, including technology, resources, manufacturing, food, retail, and service industries. A significant portion of her practice is private company acquisitions/dispositions as well as private equity and venture capital fund formations.
Valerie has been recognized as one of the Most Influential Women in BC by BC Business magazine, by the Women's Executive Network as one of Canada's Most Powerful Women: Top 100™, and by Lexpert as a Lexpert Zenith Award recipient, as one of fifty leading women lawyers in Canada. Valerie has also been recognized by Best Lawyers® for mergers and acquisitions, corporate and technology law, by Legal 500 Canada for Technology, Media and Telecoms and by Lexpert for technology transactions.