My background
I’m a Toronto-based mediator with 24 years of experience practising law in the areas of civil litigation, employment law and human rights law. After graduating from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law in 1997, I trained as a mediator with the Harvard Law School’s Program of Instruction for Lawyers. As legal counsel, I’ve appeared before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Divisional Court and the Ontario Court of Appeal, as well as before numerous administrative tribunals. I continue to practise law through Karimjee Law
How I got into this
I was first drawn to mediation as a mediator with a community-based conflict resolution service. Watching mediation at work in complex, highly charged, and seemingly intractable disputes gave me the desire to find ways within my own professional practice to intervene at earlier stages of conflict. I became a court-approved mediator through the Ontario Mandatory Mediation Program (2004 to 2009) and am now an off-roster mediator, mediating a broad range of civil and organizational disputes. I am called upon regularly to mediate disputes within businesses, unions, non-profits and community groups well before they get to court.
I’ve also served as a Vice-Chair at the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal, adjudicating disputes about workers’ compensation. I’m a longstanding volunteer mediator at St. Stephen’s Community House, and I’m currently president of the Co-operative Housing Federation of Toronto Charitable Fund.
I have experienced disputes from many vantage points – as a mediator, adjudicator, legal counsel and even as a witness in legal proceedings. I love working with parties to better understand the legal and emotional dimensions of a conflict and to find the best way forward. That’s why I always welcome the challenge of intervening to make things better.
