Welcome from the new Chair

  • December 13, 2021

Warren Ragoonanan

I am honoured to Chair the Section in 2021-2022. I am a business lawyer, and a partner at WRD LLP, a corporate firm in Toronto focused on fostering sustainable businesses.

This year, we set three key goals for the Section:

  1. Establish a mission
  2. Improve navigation of CBA processes
  3. Engage membership

We are working on setting up a new Advocacy Committee and we are actively recruiting Section members to join. If you are intrigued, please contact us.

Meet the Officers

Welcome, if you are a new Section member! We would like to introduce our Executive members and provide updates on our goals and new initiatives. We look forward to an engaging year!

Ewa Gosal, Vice-Chair  – My goal is to assist the Chair and Executive to fulfil the mandate and to realize new Section initiatives.

Susana May Yon Lee, Secretary – My goals, along with keeping accurate accounts of the Section’s initiatives during meetings, are to grow our membership and to promote our listservs, LinkedIn page and brown bag events.

Sean Stephenson, Communications Officer – I look forward to supporting the Section’s existing initiatives such as trade clippings, our social media presence and member articles. I also plan to introduce some new initiatives to help Section members to better know each other. We continue to seek members to engage in the Communications Committee. Please get in touch if you are interested.

Tina Parbhakar, Past Chair – I assist and provide support with projects as needed. I will be assisting with setting up meetings with government, liaising with international bar associations and planning a brown bag on Business and Human Rights. Stay tuned!

Advocacy Highlights

CBA Business and Human Rights Guide

Our Section contributed to the CBA’s new Business and Human Rights Guide, an essential tool for Canadian lawyers and businesses, covering various topics related to emerging principles of practice, mitigating business risk and meeting corporate responsibility obligations.

The Guide is designed to help Canadian lawyers incorporate more Business and Human Rights Law into their legal practice. The Guide will also offer guidance to businesses on how to ensure human rights are respected. Check it out! Also refer to our LinkedIn page for updates, including an upcoming brown bag about how the BHR Guide was developed and how to best navigate it.

Meetings with the Government of Canada

More meetings coming soon! The details of each meeting will be announced on our Section listservs and posted to the CBA International Law LinkedIn page once confirmed.

Stay Informed and Get Involved

Check out our past PD events

Law Series webinar: Playing by the Rules? Canada’s Changing Trade Remedies Regime (April 2020 – on-demand recording available)

Brown bags: Doing Business Internationally Series and International Arbitration One-Year Post-COVID (recordings are available upon request)

Thank You,

Warren Ragoonanan
Chair 2021-2022, CBA International Law Section