Host
Jeffrey A. Rose, KC — Vancouver
About the Host
Jeff Rose, KC was called to the bar in 1984 and shortly thereafter joined M. Edward Mortimer, KC in the practice of family law, which was always Jeff's specialized area of practice.
In 2005, he was appointed Queen's Counsel by the Honourable Wally Oppal, KC, Attorney General of BC. Jeff was later awarded the BC Leaders in Learning Award by CLEBC for exceptional contributions to the profession.
Jeff has co-chaired and contributed to over 70 family law courses and conferences. He has been on the Editorial Board of the BC Family Practice Manual, Financial Issues in Family Law, and the Family Law Sourcebook.
Jeff currently holds a position as a Practice Advisor at the Law Society of BC.
Special Guests
Cheryl D'Sa — Narwal Litigation LLP, Vancouver
Eli Gershkovitch — CEO, Steamworks Group of Companies, Vancouver
Wendy A. King — Senior Vice President, Risk, ESG, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Capstone Copper, Vancouver
Shelina Neallani — The Lawyers Assistance Program of BC, Vancouver
Vernon J. Pahl — Guild Yule LLP, Vancouver
Sue Paish, KC — CEO, Digital Technology Supercluster, Vancouver
Sharon Sutherland — Mediate BC, Delta
About the Special Guests
Cheryl D'Sa, a civil litigator, dispute strategist, and mediator is the managing partner at the firm, Narwal Litigation LLP.
Cheryl is an elected bencher of the Law Society of BC, Past President of the Vancouver Bar Association and recipient of Business in Vancouver's Top 40 under 40 award. In 2021, she was awarded an Excellence Award in the category of Female Trailblazer of the Year by Canadian Lawyer Magazine's Canadian Law Awards. Ms. D’Sa has also taken on leadership roles for the CBA, BC Branch. In August 2013, she was appointed to the CBABC Scholarship Task Force, whose mandate is to review entrance scholarship commitments at three of BC's law Schools (UVic, UBC, and Thompson Rivers University) and explore options for generating funds to meet existing and future commitments.
Cheryl has over 13 years of experience in both insurance defense and plaintiff personal injury. Working as an ICBC defence lawyer earlier in her career has given Ms. D'Sa a wealth of knowledge which she now applies to her plaintiff files.
Ms. D'Sa is active in providing continuing education programs in the legal and medical professions. She created and taught a three-part series of lectures at the UBC Medical School on Personal Injury Law. Ms. D'Sa was honoured to be the only plaintiff personal injury lawyer invited to present at the CIRA Medical Seminar "Chronic Pain: A Multidisciplinary Approach" in 2014 where she discussed recent BC Supreme Court cases involving psychological aspects of chronic pain.
Mentorship is important to Ms. D'Sa who received both her BA and LLB from UBC and continued to serve the University as a mentor to law students through the CBABC/UBC Faculty of Law Mentorship Program for five years. She has also been a mentor with the CBABC Women Lawyers Forum for two years and a mentor for the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers Ladies Social. Ms. D'Sa has also been a guest speaker at Allard Law where she was asked to discuss her plaintiff personal injury practice and the many benefits of practicing in a boutique firm. She has twice been a Guest Judge for the Civil Chambers Advocacy Exercise as part of the Professional Legal Training Course and has also been a Moot Court Judge at Allard Law.
After graduating in 1990 from the University of Toronto with a law degree, Eli Gershkovitch launched a successful law practice in Vancouver, as well as started research on the craft brewery business. In 1995, he opened his one-of-a-kind Steamworks Brew Pub with a small portfolio of six craft beers. By 2013, he had built a full-scale brewery that soon ballooned into one of Western Canada's largest craft breweries.
Eli's law degree has been put to good use; his former Vancouver practice included so much legal work on clients' liquor licences that he became familiar with the rules and how to get them to work on his behalf. As a business owner, he still practices law—it's just that he's now his only client.
Two-time Grey Cup winner, Vernon Pahl began his adult life as a line backer for the CFL's Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the 1980s. But after retiring at the tender age of 32, he pursued a career in law.
As a partner of Vancouver's Guild Yule LLP, he practices in the areas of municipal law, product liability, maritime law, personal injury, and general insurance defence litigation. He has acted on behalf of foreign and domestic shipowners, charterers and underwriters in relation to matters concerning yacht claims, marine related personal injury claims, collisions, marine insurance, and maritime lien claims and enforcement.
Expect Vernon to discuss not only his law career but his time as both a football star and professional sailor.
While Sue Paish, KC is currently the CEO at Digital Technology Supercluster, she began her career in law, establishing herself as one of Canada's foremost employment and labour lawyers.
Sue was the first and youngest female managing partner of a major BC law firm (Fasken), leading it through one of the most significant law firm mergers in the country and growing the firm to nine offices across three continents.
Join this episode of Beyond the Bar and learn all about her seamless transition to corporate executive leadership, which has also seen Sue serve as the CEO for Pharmasave and LifeLabs Diagnostic Laboratories.
Wendy King is currently the Senior Vice President, Risk, ESG, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Capstone Copper Corp. in Vancouver. Wendy is responsible for leading the legal function, ESG strategy and initiatives, corporate governance, the global insurance program, and enterprise risk management at Capstone Mining Corp.
She has been practicing law for more than 25 years as in-house counsel, and in private practice as an international-tax specialist. She is a certified director with the Institute of Corporate Directors and served on the Board of Via Rail Canada for five years. She holds a Masters in International Tax Law and a Masters of Business Administration, and most recently completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University. Wendy joined Capstone following her role as Senior Vice President Government Relations, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer and Corporate Secretary at Central 1 Credit Union. Prior to this role, she served as Senior Legal Counsel with Weyerhaeuser Company Limited for 11 years.
Wendy volunteers for many community associations and was an Adjunct Professor at the Peter Allard School of Law UBC where she taught Law 465: Introduction to Corporate Finance and Financial Accounting.
Shelina Neallani is a mediator, lawyer, and consultant.
She graduated from UBC with degrees in Social Work and Law and has been called to the Bars of Ontario and BC. With over 27 years of combined training and professional experience, Shelina brings a wide and varied expertise to her work.
She started mediating in 2002 and is a member of Mediate BC's Civil, Family and Child Protections Rosters, an accredited Family Law Mediator and Arbitrator with the Law Society of BC, and a registered Social Worker with the BC College of Social Workers.
In addition to her private mediation practice, which includes conflict coaching, training and facilitation in the workplace, Shelina has consulted for clients such as Legal Services Society, Mediate BC and the Province of BC, specializing in projects related to dispute resolution. Shelina is on the Board of Directors for the North Shore Multicultural Society. Ms. Neallani recently joined the Lawyers Assistance Program of BC as a Lawyer Counsellor where she shares her unique blend of skills, knowledge, and experience in communication and conflict management coaching.
Shelina has two grown daughters, has a wide range of interests, loves to laugh, and spend time with friends and family.
Sharon Sutherland of True North Dispute Management, Delta, is a mediator and lawyer with expertise in conflict resolution training and program design. She is Director of Strategic Innovation for Mediate BC.
Sharon received her Master in Laws in ADR from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1997 before taking on the role of co-Program Manager for the BC Court Mediation Program (1998-2003). From 2000-14, Sharon was a full-time faculty member at UBC Faculty of Law where, in addition to a range of substantive legal courses, she taught an intensive clinical mediation program and supervised the Faculty's Judicial Externship program. From 2006-10, Sharon worked with Mediate BC to develop a province-wide Child Protection Mediation Practicum aimed at increasing the number of child protection mediators in under-serviced parts of BC. From 2014-16, she worked as a Knowledge Engineer in the development of the Civil Resolution Tribunal's Solution Explorer (Strata and Small Claims).
Sharon is Vice President of CoRe Conflict Resolution Society, President of the Vancouver Fringe Festival Society, and a member of Pig'n'Potato Games (a collaborative game design group).
In 2011, Sharon was honoured with the Susanna Jani Prize for Excellence in Mediation.