Unbundling of Legal Services; Family Lawyer Negligence Issues; Best Practices: Don’t Get Sued!; Upcoming Changes to the Family Law Rules

Janet Minor was elected to lead The Law Society of Upper Canada as its 65th Treasurer by its governing body in June 2014. The Treasurer is the highest elected official of the Law Society, which regulates Ontario’s lawyers and paralegals in the public interest. Treasurer Minor has worked in public law since 1977. Up until her election she was general counsel in the Constitutional Law Branch of Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General. A highly respected advocate, she has appeared before all levels of Court and has argued many significant cases on behalf of the Ontario government. She was first elected as a bencher of the Law Society in 2001 and was re-elected in 2006 and 2011. She has served on a number of committees including chair of the Professional Development and Competence Committee and the Equity and Aboriginal Issues Committee, as well as a member of the Access to Justice Committee and the Retention of Women and Challenges Faced by Racialized Licensees working groups. Treasurer Minor played an integral role in the introduction of Pathways, an innovative pilot project designed to address the shortage of articling placements in Ontario. Pathways introduces significant changes to the experimental training component of the Lawyer Licensing Process. A founding director of the Association of Law Officers of the Crown (ALOC) and past director of The Advocates’ Society, Treasurer Minor has also served on the boards of The Law Foundation of Ontario and the Ontario Justice Education Network. She received the Women’s Law Association President’s Award (2003), the Ontario Bar Associations’ Tom Marshall Award (2010), the ALOC’s Carol Creighton Award for Contribution to Public Law (2013) and a Zenith Award celebrating leading women lawyers from Lexpert (2013). Treasurer Minor has an LLB from the University of Toronto and an LLM from Osgoode Hall Law School. She was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1975.

Kerri Ross graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Science degree in 2000 and received her law degree in 2004, both from the University of Ottawa. She was called to the Bar in 2005. Kerri is a sole practitioner currently practicing in an association as Sinclair Ross Family Law. Kerri is very involved in the Collaborative Practice Ottawa (CPO) group. She serves as both a board member as well as a member of a number of CPO committees. Kerri has served on the board of directors of both the North Bay and Ottawa Humane Societies and has acted as past president of the North Bay and District Humane Society. Kerri has previously presented at the Annual Institute of Family Law, however, this is her first year serving on the Planning Committee of the Annual Institute. Kerri is married and has four little boys who keep her very busy when she is not practicing law.