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KATIE BLACK

FOUNDER

CIVIL LITIGATION LAWYER | katie@black-law.ca

Katie Black has a results-oriented practice with a primary emphasis on commercial litigation and arbitration.  She has developed an impeccable litigation track record, representing clients before commercial arbitrators, Ontario’s Superior Court, Divisional Court and Court Appeal, and various tribunals in the areas of contract and shareholder disputes, and employment, professional negligence, defamation, and public law.  

  
Her practical approach to law was informed by the unparalleled legal training she later received from the Right Honourable Beverly McLachlin.  During her clerkship for the Chief Justice of Canada, Katie learned that the “legal solution” may not always be the practical solution. Litigation is but one tool available to assist clients in achieving their objectives. Katie’s strategic focus therefore enables her clients to (1) avoid litigation if possible, and (2) effectively advocate their position once triggered.

Clients also benefit from Katie's public policy and public relations experience.  From September 2016 to February 2018, Katie served as the Judicial Affairs Advisor to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.  In this role, Katie assisted in (1) reforming Canada’s judicial appointment process, and (2) the appointment of over 130 judicial appointments, including three Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada.  It was an honour to serve Canada's judiciary. 

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In recognition of her professional excellence and commitment to her community, Katie was awarded the Gordon F. Henderson Award in 2016 by the County of Carleton Law Association. In 2017, she received the Ontario Bar Association’s David Scott, Q.C. Award for Pro Bono Law.  In 2018, Katie was inducted into the Common Law Honours Society of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Common Law for her leadership, excellence and community work in law.  In 2019, Katie was awarded the Top Forty Under 40 award by the Ottawa Business Journal and the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce.

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Katie received her law degree, graduating magna cum laude, from the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law.  In addition to her passion for advocacy, Katie has a deep love of the law and teaching.  As a Sessional Professor at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Common Law, Katie draws inspiration from her first-year contract law students.  Every year, Katie is amazed by their talent.  


Katie strives daily to do good by her clients, colleagues, family and community. Excellence is an iterative process and a team effort.

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EDUCATION

  • Call to the Bar, Ontario (2010)

  • LL.B. (Magna Cum Laude), University of Ottawa, 2009

  • B.Sc. Honours (with Distinction), University of Toronto, 2004

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RECOGNITION

  • 2019 - Top Forty Under 40 award by the Ottawa Business Journal and the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce

  • 2018 - University of Ottawa's Common Law Honour Society

  • Awarded for achieving great success in law

  • 2017 – Ontario Bar Association David Scott, Q.C. Award for Pro Bono Law

  • 2016 - County of Carleton Law Association, The Gordon F. Henderson Award recognizing a significant contribution to the welfare of the community

 

PUBLICATIONS

  • 2009 - “Canadian Perspective on Anonymity and the Law” in ed., Ian Kerr, Valerie Steeves & Carole Lucock, On the Identity Trail: Anonymity, Privacy and Identity in a Networked Society (peer reviewed) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009) (co-authored with Carole Lucock).

  • 2009 - “Soft Surveillance, Hard Consent: The Law and Psychology of Engineering Consent” in On the Identity Trail: Anonymity, Privacy and Identity in a Networked Society, ibid (peer reviewed) (co-authored with Ian Kerr, Jennifer Barrigar and Jacquelyn Burkell).

  • 2008 -“Containing the GMO Genie: Cattle Trespass and the Rights and Responsibilities of Biotechnology Owners” (2008) 46 Osgoode Hall L.J. 2 Environmental Law Special Issue (peer reviewed) (awarded Torys LLP Writing Prize) (co-authored with James Wishart).

  • 2007 -“Excuse Me, Are You a Threat to Aviation Security? Canada's No Fly List” (2007) 8 Ontario Bar Association Privacy Law Review 1.

  • 2006 -“Soft Surveillance, Hard Consent” (2006) 6 Personally Yours 1-14 (peer reviewed) (co-authored with Ian Kerr, Jennifer Barrigar and Jacquelyn Burkell).

  • 2004 -“The Geometric Module in the Rat: Independence of Shape and Feature Learning in a Food Finding Task” (2004) 32 Learning and Behavior 3, 289-98 (peer reviewed) (co-authored with Patricia Wall, Laura Botly and Sarah Shettleworth).

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PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

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