Olympic Gold Medalist Jennifer Jones, awards, outstanding workshops and plenaries highlight 2015 CCCA National Conference

  • March 30, 2015

Toronto – Olympic gold medalist and in-house counsel Jennifer Jones will headline the Canadian Bar Association’s (CBA) Canadian Corporate Counsel Association (CCCA) 2015 National Conference.

Jones’ talk is titled Gold Medal Performance. A leader whose innovative strategies have changed the face of women’s curling, she will draw on her unprecedented experience to share her approach to leadership, team dynamics and maintaining life balance.

The conference, The Business of Law: Black Letter and Beyond, takes place April 19-21 in Toronto at the Hilton Toronto.  “The conference theme is a reflection of the in-house profession today – a profession with a unique vantage point of both the legal and business worlds,” says CCCA Chair Heather Innes of Toronto.

Also addressing the conference are William Pentney, Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney General of Canada, sharing his thoughts on the Canadian legal department of the future. Yves Desjardins-Siciliano, President and Chief Executive Officer of VIA Rail Canada, will describe a holistic perspective to building trust with stakeholders.

On the agenda are 16 professional development workshops taking place on April 20 and 21. These programs, targeted to in-house counsel’s unique needs, include the following:

  • Who Says Lawyers Can't Think Out of the Box? A Look at Innovation in the Legal Industry
  • Effectively Manage Social Media Risks in the Workplace
  • Running the Legal Department Like a Business
  • Big Data, Big Risk? Data Management and Privacy
  • The Art of Negotiation
  • On the Fringe of Corruption: What Recent Cases Reveal About Foreign Anticorruption Enforcement

Conference Co-Chairs, Dorothy Quinn, Vice-President and General Counsel, Xerox Canada, and Major-General Blaise Cathcart, Judge Advocate General of the Canadian Armed Forces, note that in-house counsel’s participation in the conference ensures better connections to peers and potential mentors from across Canada and the skills to deal with a variety of future challenges.

The 2015 CCCA award winners will be honoured at a gala dinner on April 19. Among the awards being presented are the Robert V.A. Jones Award, recognizing excellence in corporate counsel service, and the new Innovation Award, recognizing an individual or group who is doing new things or doing things differently to create value on behalf of or for the benefit of a law department or organization.

Full details about the 2015 CCCA National Conference are available online. Most sessions are open to accredited media. Accreditation may be obtained by contacting Hannah Bernstein at hannahb@cba.org

An integral group within the 36,000-member CBA, the CCCA is dedicated to supporting and enhancing the interests of Canadian corporate counsel. It provides uniquely Canadian perspectives, resources, tools, professional development, conferences, and peer-to-peer networking opportunities. The CCCA has some 4,500 in-house counsel members.