Canada – Loss to Bar, Gain to Bench - Madam Justice Jasmin Ahmad, Q.C.

by Daniel Urbas
September 2020

“A big change in B.C. arbitration/litigation with yesterday’s nomination of Madam Justice Jasmin Ahmad to the Supreme Court of British Columbia. Despite the loss to the arbitration/litigation bar, her nomination is a great gain to the bench. Congratulations Madam Justice Ahmad!

Koffman Kalef website “Jasmin represents and advises clients as a member of the Litigation / Arbitration / Dispute Resolution Team. She recognizes that her clients want practical, cost-effective advice and solutions tailored to their unique needs, and she is committed to finding creative and appropriate solutions to resolve legal disputes.

Jasmin has successfully assisted clients in achieving resolution through negotiation, and other formal and informal methods of dispute resolution, including mediation. She has also appeared as counsel before both the British Columbia Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, and has represented clients as counsel in arbitration proceedings.

Jasmin has obtained Fellowship status with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and has been appointed by the British Columbia International Commercial Arbitration Centre (BCICAC) as an arbitrator on its Domestic and International Arbitration Panels. She is also available for appointment as arbitrator for ad hoc domestic and international arbitrations.”

Department of Justice News Release “Justice Jasmin Ahmad, Q.C., was born in Winnipeg and raised in Flin Flon, a small mining town in northern Manitoba. She earned a B.Comm from McGill University in 1991 and her LL.B from the University of Victoria in 1994. Following articles with Webster, Hudson & Akerly in Vancouver, she was called to the Bar of British Columbia in 1995.

“Madam Justice Ahmad joined Koffman Kalef LLP in 1997 where she practised as litigation counsel in a wide variety of commercial disputes. In 2011, she was appointed to the Law Society of British Columbia’s hearing panel and adjudicated lawyers’ discipline and credentials matters from 2011 to 2017. She achieved Fellowship status with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in 2019 and was appointed to the arbitration panel of the British Columbia International Commercial Arbitration Centre.

Justice Ahmad was elected as a Bencher of the Law Society in 2016 and served as Chair of the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Committee from 2018 through 2019 and Chair of the Discipline Committee in 2020. She is a regular presenter on professionalism and ethics in the profession. Justice Ahmad is involved with the CBABC’s Women’s Law Forum Mentoring program as an organizer and mentor and is an active member of the summary advice program with Access Pro Bono. She was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2019.

Justice Ahmad enjoys spending as much time as possible on beautiful Gambier Island with her husband, Joe McArthur and their two daughters, Kate and Grace, who are her greatest pride and joy.””

Biography

Daniel Urbas is an experienced litigator, arbitrator and mediator with over 25 years of dispute resolution experience. He has earned a variety of repeat, annual peer recognitions including “Leading Lawyer” in “Commercial Arbitration” in the 2019 edition of the Lexpert ® / American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada, “Most Frequently Recommended” in the 2019 edition of The Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory for Commercial Arbitration, “Thought Leader” in 2019 edition of Who’s Who Legal – Litigation and AV® Preeminent™ by Martindale-Hubbell®.

Daniel focuses exclusively on serving as an arbitrator and mediator. As arbitrator, Daniel serves as a sole arbitrator, as chair or as party-nominated member of three (3) member arbitration tribunals. His appointments have been made by individual parties, by the parties jointly on consent, by court orders and by various administering institutions including ICC, CCAC and IATA.

A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (“CIArb”) based in London, UK, as well as a founding Director of the CIArb’s Canada Branch, Daniel is listed on various rosters including general commercial rosters organized by the ICDR, CIETAC and BCICAC and on more specialized, industry/activity specific rosters such as the Canada Transport Agency’s roster.

Daniel’s dispute resolution experience spans a variety of commercial and civil matters, intellectual property (including anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting litigation) and information technologies, energy (wind, bio), natural resources (mining, forestry, fishing), shareholder disputes, real estate and lease disputes, product liability, construction, distribution and franchise, Aboriginal law matters including treaty and land claims litigation and dispute resolution of agreements relating to governance and natural resource development on native peoples’ territories.

He handled trial and appellate advocacy, as well as urgent and extraordinary applications. He has appeared before the provincial and federal courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as before arbitration tribunals and various administrative tribunals. Fluently bilingual in both English and French with degrees in both Common Law and Civil Law, Daniel is an active member of the Barreau du Québec, the Law Society of Ontario and the Law Society of British Columbia. At his former national law firm, up until June 2017, Daniel served as Regional Leader of the International Trade Litigation and Arbitration group and Regional Leader of the Intellectual Property Litigation group. Formerly, Daniel was also Regional Leader of the Commercial Litigation group and National Leader of the Intellectual Property Litigation group.

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