Jill brings a blend of strategic thinking, practical problem-solving and procedural experience to resolve complex class action, product liability, financial services and commercial litigation files for clients.

An experienced commercial litigator, Jill is the Chair of our National Class Actions Group and Practice Lead of our Vancouver Litigation group. She is also a member of our firm’s Financial Services Litigation group and Consumer and Retail group.

Clients appreciate Jill’s ability to simplify complicated legal problems, identify priorities, develop a strategy to navigate through the labyrinth of complexities, and arrive at a winning resolution. A seasoned trial lawyer, Jill assists clients with large, complex legal disputes. Jill works with major international and Canadian companies operating in diverse industries, including financial services, retail and consumer markets, technology, pharmaceuticals, forestry, and manufacturing. She has handled or is handling significant litigation mandates for, among many others, The Toronto-Dominion Bank, CIBC, Navistar, Zoom, Cargill, CN, Compass, LG, and Endo Pharmaceuticals.

Jill is recognized by all major legal rankings bodies in Canada, including as Leading Lawyer in multiple areas by Chambers, The Legal 500, Lexpert, Who’s Who Legal, and Best Lawyers, and by Benchmark as a Litigation Star and one of the Top 100 Women in Litigation. Clients give Jill superb reviews.

Jill’s representative experience includes:

CLASS ACTIONS

• defending the asset management arm of a financial institution through a nine-week common issues trial in response to allegations of closet indexing. Jill’s client was successful on all issues.
• defending various large financial institutions against class actions regarding various different fees and fee structures, including credit card fees paid by merchants, balance protection insurance, mortgage pre-payment fees, and others.
• defending clients in a variety of industries against product liability class actions.
• defending clients in a variety of industries against consumer protection claims.
• defending various global producers of food and technological products against price-fixing class actions.
• defending large multi-national technology companies against privacy class actions.

COMMERCIAL LITIGATION

• representing employers on complex employment litigation, including to obtain injunction orders and other urgent relief.
• representing a large landowner and resource extraction company in a significant dispute regarding conspiracy and fraud through a nine-week trial. Jill’s clients were successful on all issues, which result was confirmed on appeal. Jill obtained a very significant costs award against the opposing parties.
• representing a major developer in a complex arbitral dispute regarding a sale of land and development conditions. 
• representing a major developer in a complex dispute over closing terms through trial and appeal. Jill’s client was successful on all issues at both levels of court.
• representing both vendors and purchasers in a variety of contractual disputes including through trial.
• representing clients in a variety of industries on complex commercial disputes.

FINANCIAL SERVICES LITIGATION

• defending senior bank personnel at a public inquiry.
• defending a financial institution and its board members in relation to allegations of conspiracy and fraud through arbitration.
• defending a financial institution in relation to an alleged Ponzi scheme.
• defending a financial institution in relation to allegations of defamation.
• defending financial institutions in relation to de-marketing clients.
• defending financial institutions on a variety of matters posing significant reputational risk.

Jill is the editor of the fifth edition of Defending Class Actions in Canada, published by LexisNexis, and was an editor and contributing author to the previous editions. She is also a frequent presenter on class actions and other litigation topics at Canadian Bar Association events and other conferences. These are important commitments to Jill as they represent opportunities to provide the marketplace with a broader context of the class action and litigation landscape. By being made aware of the latest trends, how the law is evolving and how cases are being resolved in different industries, Jill believes the marketplace will have a richer perspective from which to view their own legal challenges.

Jill won the Gold Medal and Governor General’s Medal in 1998 in relation to her BSc (Biological Sciences). Jill received her LLB from the University of British Columbia in 2001, including winning various scholarships and awards. After law school, Jill clerked for the Chief Justice of the British Columbia Court of Appeal. She was called to the bar of British Columbia in 2002 and is a member of the Canadian Bar Association and the Vancouver Bar Association. She is the past chair of the Consumer Litigation Committee of the International Bar Association and of the Class Actions Section of the Canadian Bar Association, British Columbia.

Jill strongly believes in the importance of contributing to the larger community. She is the current Chair of BGC (formerly known as the Boys and Girls Club) of South Coast B.C. and is the co-chair of McCarthy Tétrault’s Vancouver United Way Committee.