The Lady Barrister Podcast

Topic: Life After Law Guest: Valentine Thomas (https://www.instagram.com/valentinethomas/?hl=en)was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec and is best known as an Instagram Star with over 223K followers. Her underwater photography is incredible as she documents her career as a spearfisher woman, a professional traveller, TEDx presenter, accomplished chef and advocate of sustainable eating.

Topic: Mindfulness and Law Guest: Nicolle Kopping-Pavars (https://www.transformationallaw.com/) is a certified Meditation and Mindfulness teacher as well as a lawyer focusing her practice on Collaborative Family Law, Family Mediation and Fertility Law (Surrogacy, Egg Donation; Embryo Donation and Sperm Donation). She conducts workshops and retreats on Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence both in North America and Southern Africa and continues hosts meditation clinics for colleagues within Toronto.

Topic: Landlord and Tenant Law & Cannabis Law Guest: Caryma Sa'd (https://www.sadvocacy.com/what-we-do) is known best for her advocacy on issues such as affordable housing and drug reform policy.

Topic: Family Law Guests: This is my first interview with two guests: Tami Moscoe and Andrea Himel. It was a little tricky for three lawyers to share two microphones but we did it and covered a lot of ground on the topic of Family Law. Tami is counsel with the Office of the Chief Justice of the Superior Court Of Justice at the Ministry of the Attorney General here in Ontario. She has been a part of the team at the forefront of many innovative Family Law projects including the Family Law Limited Scope Services Project and many more which we will talk about in this podcast. Andrea is a child-focused family mediator, lawyer and consultant. She has been a member of the Child & Family Services Review Board for the past 10 years and served on many many boards such as the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts.

Topic: Criminal Law Guest: Sean Robichaud (https://robichaudlaw.ca/about-us/sean-robichaud/) is a Certified Specialist in Criminal Law by the Law Society of Ontario. He is also host of the popular podcast "Of Counsel" (https://robichaudlaw.ca/series/of-counsel-podcast/) where he interviews lawyers on topics such as advocacy, trial strategy, practice insights and points of interest in contemporary legal issues. In this episode, Sean and I talk about Criminal law particularly how the #MeToo movement has changed the landscape in the area of sexual assaults. We also talk about the justice system and what all the stakeholders could be doing better to improve it. I hope you enjoy this episode!

Topic: Family Court, Justice System Guest: The Honourable Mr. Justice Mazza retired from the Superior Court of Justice, Family Court in Hamilton, Ontario in 2018. We discuss his path to becoming a judge, stories from the Bench, tips for lawyers appearing before the Court and technology. His Honour is now a mediator with the George Street Law Group (https://georgestreetlawgroup.com/)

Topic: LGBTQ2+ and the law Guest: Chris Farias describes himself best on his website (https://chrisfarias.com/) when he states that he "founded a badass branding agency and dressed as a curly-haired drag queen to read to children. He and his husband created a community fund to benefit LGBTQ+ youth. He's built an online community for people whose hearts are covered in feathers and taught others how to do the same for their audiences." He is also responsible for ordering the now famous "Gayest Cake Ever". Learn more about it here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/gayest-cake-turns-celebrations-into-statement-inclusivity-1.4457872

Topic: Northern and Rural Practice Guest: Douglas W. Judson (https://www.douglasjudson.ca/) is a lawyer who maintains a law and consultancy practice in Fort Frances, in the Northwestern region of Ontario, Canada. He also currently serves on the municipal council of the Town of Fort Frances and has previously served as an aide to two former MPs in the House of Commons. He is highly involved in many volunteer activities in his community including but not limited to sitting on the boards of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and the Northwest Community Legal Clinic. He is an active member of the legal community as the President of the Rainy River District Law Association, and as Co-Chair of the Borderland Pride festival (https://www.borderlandpride.org/)

Topic: Parenting, Family Law Guest: Michelle McVittie, a.k.a. Mom the Manager (https://momthemanager.ca) is a family and corporate consultant, child life specialist, speaker, author of the book “I Quit! Oh Wait, I’m the Mom” (https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/i-quit-oh-wait-im/9781525527043-item.html)and the host of television program "Life with Children" on Cable 14 (https://www.cable14.com/people/michelle-mcvittie) in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.