922 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 79 PART 6 NOVEMBER 2021
(Canada) LLP). She was called to the bar of British Columbia in 1996. After
her call to the bar, she practised as a litigator. She worked on estate litigation,
professional malpractice, commercial disputes and family cases. Her
daughter Emily was born in June 1998, followed by Michaela in November
1999 and her son Josh in January 2002. Busy times. In 1999, she moved inhouse
with CIBC Trust until the bank decided in 2000 to get out of the trust
administration business, at which point she went to work for the Planned
Lifetime Advocacy Council, now known as PLAN (Planned Lifetime Advocacy
Network), a non-profit organization that helps families secure the
future for loved ones with disabilities. She was lured back to Davis & Co. in
2002 to work with Peter Bogardus and Mary Hamilton in estate planning.
In 2004, she was struck by a life-threatening disease: necrotizing fasciitis.
After several days on life support in the ICU at St. Paul’s Hospital, she recovered.
The emergency surgery that saved her life left her with excruciating
pain in her shoulder, however, and she was unable to practise law because
of the powerful painkillers she had to take. Despite less than encouraging
advice from several doctors, she persevered in her search for a solution. She
had a spinal cord stimulator implanted at St. Paul’s Hospital, but that did not
work. She ultimately consulted with a local surgeon, who carried out shoulder
decompression surgery in late 2010 that, along with experimental drug
therapy, removed the source of the pain.
This episode lasted almost seven years. She then advised the Law Society
that she was ready to return to the practice of law, just in time to avoid having
to article all over again. Back to Davis she went, although not to resume
her estate planning practice. She went back to litigation. She had been out
of the litigation game for at least ten years, and there were some skeptics—
could she pick up where she left off? Litigators at Davis were understandably
nervous about this. As was she. They need not have been. You would
have never known she had missed any time. The tenacity and determination
she displayed during her recovery from necrotizing fasciitis continued
into her practice. Anyone who thought she might be easy to push around
was going to be disappointed. Anyone hoping she might not be paying
attention was in for a shock.
Her return was a complete triumph and, typical of litigators, many in the
department claimed credit for her successful return to the firm. She
resumed her previous practice: estate and trust litigation, professional malpractice,
family law and commercial disputes. She quickly became an important
mentor for her colleagues, always available to provide the benefit of her
experience and her wisdom. In 2017, she moved to Legacy Tax + Trust
Lawyers, where she practised until her appointment on April 27, 2021.