Legal & Industry

Dasha is a partner at Aird & Berlis LLP in Toronto and is part of the firm's labour & employment, litigation and sports groups with a varied practice, which includes supporting a broad range of clients and industries. 

She is a former Canadian national team athlete and two-time Pan American Champion in the sport of taekwondo. She has held various positions in sport, including as the President of AthletesCAN, a member of the Pan Am Sports Legal Commission, and as a board member of the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada. She was the Ombudsperson for Team Canada at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. She advocated zealously for the creation of an independent, safe sports mechanism in Canada to address maltreatment in sports, which was launched in 2022 at the direction of the Minister of Sport. 

She now serves as Abuse-Free Sport's first Director of Sanctions and Outcomes, broadly responsible for determining violations of the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport, imposing appropriate sanctions, and approving mediated outcomes. 

She is an adjunct professor of Sports Law at Western Law and has recently been appointed as the Special Projects Officer of the North American Forum of the International Bar Association. 

In 2023, Dasha was named one of six precedent-setters by Precedent magazine for legal excellence and community work.

Shereen represents and advises a variety of clients in complex commercial, construction, and restructuring and insolvency disputes. She also acts in matters involving the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards in Canada. In her commercial practice, Shereen handles breach of contract claims, shareholder and fiduciary disputes, fraud and defamation matters. 

She has experience in both litigation and arbitration proceedings, and her litigation practice has taken her to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, all levels of court in Ontario and Alberta, the Federal Court, and the Supreme Court of Canada.

Stephanie Curcio is an IP attorney and patent-tech entrepreneur. She serves as CEO & Co-Founder of NLPatent, an industry-leading AI-based patent research platform used by top law firms, corporations, and research universities around the world. Her work at the intersection between AI and patent law has made her an expert on matters regarding AI/IP, including advising national patent offices on AI policy. Stephanie is a leader in the IP community; she's Chair of the American Intellectual Property Law Association's Emerging Technologies Committee and represents Canada on the Board of the Global IP Alliance. She is consistently recognized as a global leader in IP strategy (IAM Strategy 300) and a "Powerful Woman in IP" (WIPF).

Imran Kamal is Crown Counsel for the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General, specializing in Indigenous legal issues. Imran was legal counsel at the Catholic Children's Aid Society of Hamilton (CCAS) from 2014 to 2021. Imran is an LSO Certified Specialist in Indigenous Legal Issues and the only child protection lawyer in Ontario with this designation. Imran was called to the Bar in Ontario in 2013. Prior to joining the Catholic Children's Aid Society of Hamilton, Imran practiced domestic family law in the Halton region, where his main area of practice was custody and access issues. In 2021, Imran was named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada by Canadian Lawyer Magazine

Imran is also a Lecturer for “Children and the Law” at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law.

Imran’s passion is to work front-line and grassroots. In 2017, Imran established Hamilton Lawyers Feed the Hungry, which gathers volunteers from the legal community to financially support and prepare and serve meals for 80-100 children and youth in the Hamilton community bi-weekly. Since 2016, Imran has also been a weekly volunteer at a Men’s Live-in Addiction Treatment Centre, providing support and resources for men overcoming alcohol and drug addiction. Additionally, Imran is also a Board Member of Mission Services of Hamilton.

Imran is particularly passionate about Indigenous child welfare. Imran spent a significant amount of time in law school conducting research on Indigenous law issues. Since 2016, Imran has been involved in forming the Indigenous Resource Group at the CCAS and was the chairperson of the Indigenous Resource Group for five years. In addition, Imran has been working in the community to enhance the service delivery to Indigenous families involved in the child welfare system. Imran is the founding Co-Chairperson of the Indigenous Child Welfare Collaborative, which brings together seven (7) Indigenous community organizations and the two child welfare agencies in Hamilton to systemically and holistically address child welfare issues in the Indigenous community. Furthermore, Imran was also asked to be a part of the Collaboratory for the Boldness Project to address Indigenous issues in the justice system and has been appointed a Steward to move forward with the Hamilton Boldness Project. Most recently, Imran was honoured to be asked by the Indigenous Community and the Superior Court of Justice Ontario (“SCJ”) to facilitate the creation of the first Indigenous Child Welfare “Court” of the SCJ and then appointed as the Chairperson of this working group by the Indigenous community.

Spencer Burger is an associate practicing in the Corporate Group at Stikeman Elliott LLP. His practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, securities, corporate finance and capital markets, and corporate governance. 

Spencer has acted for public and private companies, REITs, financial institutions, and boards of directors in a broad range of public and private M&A and corporate finance transactions, including initial public offerings, reverse take-overs and SPAC transactions. He regularly represents issuers and underwriters in public debt and equity offerings while also representing private issuers, including start-up ventures, in purchase and sale transactions. 

Spencer previously worked for the Canadian government as a policy advisor to a senior Cabinet Minister and is currently a director on the board of Albion Neighborhood Services, a non-profit providing support and youth programs to the Jamestown and Rexdale communities.