Georgina L. Carson, Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP
Ms. Carson is a partner at Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP. Her practice focuses on family law. She appears before all levels of court in Ontario. Ms. Carson is a Dispute Resolution Officer of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. She is an instructor in the family law section of the Bar Admission Course and the Superior Court Family Information Sessions. She is an Executive member of the Family Law Section of the Ontario Bar Association. She is executive editor of the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Separation Agreement Annotated. Ms. Carson obtained her Honours degree in English literature from Queen’s University and her law degree from the University of Toronto. She was called to the Ontario Bar in 1991.
Thomas G. Bastedo, Q.C., Bastedo Stewart Smith
Mr. Bastedo is certified by the LSUC as a Specialist in Family Law. He is an elected Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He has extensive counsel experience in trial and appellate advocacy with a special interest in matters relating to family law’s inter-relationship with partnership law, business corporations and commercial issues. He regularly sits as an arbitrator and mediator. He is a former elected Bencher of the LSUC and a former founding Director of the Ontario Association for Family Mediation. He was elected a Fellow, and member of Executive Committee, International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. He has contributed to numerous seminars, lectures, and written many articles in field of Family Law. Mr. Bastedo is a former Chair of the Family Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association; a former Chair of the Family Law Specialty Certification Committee for the Province of Ontario; Chair of the Osgoode Hall Law School Alumni Association; a former lecturer at University of Toronto, Atkinson College of York University and Osgoode Hall Law School. He was admitted to the Ontario Bar in 1971 and appointed Q.C. in 1982.
The Honourable Madam Justice Mary Lou Benotto, Superior Court of Justice Ontario
Madam Justice Benotto was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1978. She practised civil litigation with an emphasis on family law with the Toronto firm of Chappell, Bushell, Stewart. She remained a partner in that firm until her appointment to the Ontario Superior Court in May 1996. She presided in Toronto until January 2001 when she was appointed Senior Justice of the Family Court for Ontario. Madam Justice Benotto is the author of several texts on family law and numerous articles and publications. She is past president of the Medico-Legal Society of Toronto, the Ontario Expropriation Association, and has sat on numerous other committees. She was co-chair of the Joint Committee on Court Reform and very active with the case management initiatives in both civil and family law.
Philip M. Epstein, Q.C., LSM, Epstein, Cole LLP
Mr. Epstein is a former Head of Family Law Section, Bar Admission Course, 1983-1995; Lecturer, Family Law at the University of Toronto; Past Chair of the Family Law Section of the Ontario Bar Association; Fellow of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers; a Dispute Resolution Officer of the Superior Court of Ontario; Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers; Editor-in-Chief of “Separation Agreement Annotated”. Mr. Epstein is the recipient of the 1998 Award of Excellence in Family Law from the Ontario Bar Association and the Law Society of Upper Canada Medal in 1999.
Cheryl A. Goldhart, Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP
Ms. Goldhart practices exclusively in the area of family law. She specializes in negotiating complex agreements in all areas of family law. She litigates in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Ontario Court of Justice, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Family Court) and the Court of Appeal. She is a Past Chair of the Ontario Bar Association, Family Law Section Executive. She is a past member of the Canadian Bar Association (Federal), Family Law Executive. She was appointed Dispute Resolution Officer at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. She is in her third term as an appointed Member of the Panel of the Children’s Lawyer of Ontario, representing children in custody, access and child protection cases. She is a member of the Bench and Bar Committee of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Toronto). She is a member of the Family Law Committee (Toronto). Ms. Goldhart is a family law instructor for the Bar Admission Course of the Law Society of Upper Canada. She is a frequent lecturer on various topics in family law. She has written numerous articles for the Bar Admission Course, professional journals, periodicals and magazines. Ms. Goldhart has extensive ADR training and experience. She was called to the Ontario Bar in 1987.
Terry Hainsworth, Harrison Pensa LLP
Mr. Hainsworth practices law with the firm of Harrison Pensa LLP in London, Ontario. He was called to the Bar in 1971 and he was the recipient of the Law Society First Prize. He is certified as a specialist in Family Law and is also a member of the Law Society’s Family Law Specialty Committee. Mr. Hainsworth has authorized a number of books on family law, including the Divorce Act Manual, the Ontario Family Law Act Manual, and the Child Support Guideline Service, which are available in both print and digital form. He is a frequent speaker at Continuing Education programs.
Martha A. McCarthy, Epstein Cole LLP
Ms. McCarthy is a partner with Epstein Cole LLP. She was called to the Bar in Ontario in 1991, winning the Silver Medal and the Family Law and Advocacy Prizes. She has practised family law since her call. In 1997, she published Family Law for Every Canadian, a mass-market book about separation, divorce and other personal legal matters. She was counsel to M. in M. v. H., the applicant couples in the Halpern freedom to marry case, and Hendricks and LeBoeuf, the couple in the Quebec gay marriage case. She is a frequent advocate, author and commentator on issues of gay and lesbian equality and our evolving concept of family. Apart from same-sex equality and separation issues, her areas of specialty include the interaction of family issues with business organization and valuation, shareholders remedies, marriage contracts, child representation and the effect of divorce on children. In 1999, Ms. McCarthy received the Canadian Bar Association Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Conference AAlly Award. In 2002, she became a Fellow of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.
Tami D. Moscoe, Torkin Manes Cohen Arbus LLP
Ms. Moscoe was called to the bar in 1998 and practices family law exclusively (including litigation, negotiation and mediation). She has been a popular instructor of the Bar Admission course since 2000, as well as an executive member of the Family Law Executive of the Ontario Bar Association. She is also a qualified family mediator and a member of the roster of family mediators at 393 University Avenue, Toronto. Ms. Moscoe has lectured at and chaired several programs for the Ontario Bar Association, including a program in the Fall titled “Hide and Seek: Playing the Game to Find, Seek and Enforce your Client’s Equalization Entitlement’, and authored numerous papers on a variety of family law issues. She is also a past editor and current contributor to Money and Family Law, a Carswell publication focusing on the ongoing developments in the financial areas of family law and estate planning.
Professor Carol Rogerson, University of Toronto-Faculty of Law
Professor Rogerson received an LL.B. from the University of Toronto in 1982 and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School in 1983. She is a Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, where she has taught since 1983. She teaches and writes in the areas of family law, constitutional law, and children and the law. She has written several major articles on spousal and child support issues, including: 19 Can. Fam. Law Quarterly 185; “The Child Support Obligation of Step-Parents” (2001), 18 Can. J. of Fam. Law 9; and with Martha Shaffer, “Contracting Spousal Support: Thinking Through Miglin” (2003) 21 Can. F. L. Quarterly 49. For the past three years she has reviewed the Supreme Court of Canada’s family law decisions for the Supreme Court Law Review. Professor Rogerson is also a co-author of a leading casebook on constitutional law, Canadian Constitutional Law, published by Emond Montgomery. Professor Rogerson is a frequent lecturer at continuing legal education programs and the National Family Law Program and has worked with both the federal and provincial governments on issues of family law reform.
D. Smith, MacDonald & Partners LLP
Ms. Smith was called to the bar in 1991. She has been a partner with MacDonald & Partners, LLP since 1998. She is certified as a specialist in family law by the Law Society of Upper Canada. Her practice focuses on appellate advocacy and complex litigation. She previously practiced in London, Ontario. Ms. Smith has instructed in the Bar Admission Course since 1996. She has been an adjunct professor at the University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Law. She is a co-author of Carswell’s Handling a Family Law Matter in Ontario.
Nicole Tellier, Barrister & Solicitor
Ms. Tellier is a sole practitioner in Toronto who was called to the Bar in 1988. For many years she taught Family Law at the Bar Admission Course and sat on the OBA Family Law Executive. She has been actively engaged in law reform by testifying as an expert for the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) before numerous federal and provincial justice committees on criminal, constitutional and family law issues and by acting for LEAF in test case litigation. She contributes widely to CLE programs in Ontario and elsewhere. She has appeared as counsel in the Supreme Court on four cases, including: M(K )v. M(H); Francis v. Baker; Boston; and Miglin.
Rollie Thompson, Dalhousie Law School
Mr. Thompson is a full professor at Dalhousie Law School, where he has taught since 1982. He was admitted to the Nova Scotia Bar in 1980 and has been executive director of Dalhousie Legal Aid Service for two stints, 1982-85 and 1991-94. He now teaches Family Law, Evidence and Civil Procedure, having been awarded the Dalhousie Law Students' Society/Dalhousie Law Alumni Association Award for Excellence in Teaching Law for 2002. Mr. Thompson has published articles on a variety of topics in the Canadian Journal of Family Law, the Canadian Family Law Quarterly, and the Family Court Review. He has presented papers on various subjects for the National Judicial Institute.
Lorne H. Wolfson, Torkin Manes Cohen Arbus LLP
Mr. Wolfson received his LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1974 and his LL.M. from the University of British Columbia in 1976. He was called to the Ontario Bar in 1977. He is senior partner in the Family Law Department in the Toronto law firm of Torkin Manes Cohen Arbus LLP. He has been certified by the Law Society of Upper Canada as a Specialist in Family Law. He was appointed as Dispute Resolution Officer of the Ontario Court (General Division). He is a member of the Arbitration and Mediation Institute of Ontario and the Family Law Specialty Committee of The Law Society of Upper Canada. Mr. Wolfson wrote the Federal Child Support Guidelines Workbook for the Department of Justice Canada (1997). He is an instructor in the Bar Admission Course and a frequent lecturer for the University of Toronto, York University, Law Society of Upper Canada, Canadian Bar Association and Ontario Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. He has been cited in the Canadian Legal Expert Directory 2000 as a consistently recommended leading family law practitioner.