Empowering Public Sector Lawyers: Understanding Climate Change Litigation
March 26, 2024 | 12.30 PM to 1:30 PM Eastern
Zoom Meeting
In an era defined by unprecedented environmental challenges, public sector lawyers play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our communities and Charter jurisprudence. Now, more than ever, understanding climate change litigation is not just a choice, but an imperative for those dedicated to public service.
This session will focus on both the global and national trends of climate change litigation, with a special emphasis on the landmark Canadian cases that examine the intersection of climate change and Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Climate change Charter litigation is a rapidly evolving area of the law which has the potential to upend the jurisprudential trajectory of Section 7 of the Charter.
Distinguished thought leaders in the field, practitioners, as well as academic commentators will provide a well balanced and nuanced look at some of the most pressing issues at stake as this litigation makes its way through the courts. This session will be of interest to anyone who works for the public service, in either a litigation or advisory capacity.
Moderator
Rose Campbell (Senior Lawyer, New Brunswick Office of the Attorney General)
Rose Campbell practices constitutional law with the New Brunswick Office of the Attorney General, and is also studying for her masters in constitutional at the Osgoode Hall Law School.
Speakers
Camille Cameron KC (Professor of Law, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University)
Professor Cameron began her career in private practice in a commercial law firm in Halifax, Nova Scotia where she specialized in litigation. While in practice she was a frequent presenter at continuing legal education seminars and bar admissions courses and taught Civil Trial Practice as a sessional lecturer. After ten years of law practice, she obtained an LLM degree at the University of Cambridge and then embarked on an academic appointment in Hong Kong. Prior to joining the Schulich School of Law, she held academic posts as the Dean of Windsor Law at the University of Windsor, and as a Professor at the University of Melbourne, Australia where she served terms as Associate Dean and as Director of the Civil Justice Research Group.
Her interests in comparative law and legal institutions in post-conflict societies led her to Cambodia in 1996 where she worked with a human rights group training lay criminal defenders and judges. She has worked as a consultant on similar international development projects in various countries, including Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Mongolia, China, Thailand, and Indonesia. Her current research focuses on class actions, climate change litigation and litigation funding.
Professor Cameron has served on numerous committees dealing with academic and senior administrative appointments and promotion, reviews of academic departments and faculties, teaching quality, and university governance. She has been the Chair and a member of the Board of Governors of Legal Aid Windsor, Chair of the Advisory Board of Community Legal Aid Windsor, a member of the Board of Directors of Hiatus House, and a member of the Independent Advisory Board on Supreme Court of Canada Judicial Appointments. She has been a Visiting Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Peoples’ University (Beijing) and the University of Oxford.
Courses Professor Cameron has taught include Class Actions, Civil Procedure, International Dispute Settlement, Legal Ethics, Comparative Civil Justice Reform, and Alternative Dispute Resolution. She has supervised JD and graduate students in various subject areas, including civil justice reform, class actions, dispute resolution, evidence, juries, litigation funding, and regulatory theory.
Lisa DeMarco (Senior Partner & CEO, Resilient LLP)
Lisa DeMarco is a Senior Partner and the CEO at Resilient LLP. She is called to the bar in Canada and England and is recognized as a global expert in climate and energy law. Lisa has nearly three decades of experience in all aspects of climate change and clean energy law. She assists financial institutions, energy
companies, innovators, governments, non-governmental organizations, and Indigenous business organizations on domestic and overseas renewable power and energy transition projects, sustainable and climate finance transactions, carbon dioxide removals, carbon capture use and storage, climate related financial disclosure, corporate climate strategy, environmental and social governance (ESG), green bonds, net-zero target setting and pathways, the Paris Agreement, carbon trading (domestic, international, voluntary, and compliance), climate-related compliance and litigation, and sustainable business strategy. She also represents several governments and leading energy companies in a widevariety of international dispute resolution proceedings, and natural gas, power, pipeline and energy storage matters before the Ontario Energy Board and the Canadian Energy Regulator.
Lisa is the current Chair of the International Emissions Trading Association, a director of the boards of the MaRS Discovery District, and Planetary Technologies. She is a member of the Climate Economy Strategic Council and of the Expert Advisory Group of Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity initiative
(VCMI). Lisa is ranked by Chambers Global as one of the world’s leading climate change lawyers and regularly attends on the United Nations climate negotiations.
Lisa has a Bachelor of Science (Hon.) in Human and Environmental Biology (Western University), a Master of Science in Environmental Toxicology (University of Toronto), a Bachelor of Laws (Osgoode Hall), and a Master of Studies in International Environmental Law, summa cum laude (Vermont Law School).
