Firm Legal Foundation for Geopolitical Risk Management

The CBA is a professional organization that provides educational and networking opportunities for lawyers. Representing more than 36,000 lawyers, judges, notaries, law teachers, and law students from across Canada, the CBA is committed to enhancing the professional and commercial interests of a diverse membership and to protecting the independence of the judiciary and the Bar.

John W. Boscariol is head of the firm’s International Trade and Investment Law Group and a partner in the firm’s Litigation Group. He helps clients understand how international trade agreements and foreign investment laws affect their business. John assists clients through the tangle of regulatory impediments faced by Canadian companies seeking to expand their business globally, and international businesses entering the Canadian market. Marshalling his considerable experience and wealth of knowledge about the trade laws in Canada, the US, and the EU, John advises both private and public sector clients on the application of laws governing foreign investment and the cross-border trade in goods, services, and technology across myriad industries, including financial services, natural resources, consumer goods, defence, and infrastructure.

Erin Brown is a litigation and regulatory lawyer based in Ottawa with a focus on international trade, public procurement, and competition. Erin regularly advises clients on complex international trade issues, including economic sanctions, export controls, and customs issues, and frequently represents clients before the Canada Border Services Agency, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT), and the Federal Court of Canada on issues relating to anti-dumping, customs classifications, duty relief, and the import/export of goods. She also advises both public and private sector organizations on a range of public procurement mandates, including the applicability of trade agreement procurement provisions, and represents government contractors in bid challenge disputes before the CITT. Erin has in-depth knowledge of competition issues. She regularly assists clients across a range of industries in obtaining Competition Bureau merger clearance, including the completion of supplementary information requests. She also advises and represents clients on issues relating to deceptive marketing, bid rigging, and competitor collaborations, and was featured as a guest on NRFC's Disputed podcast for an episode on influencers, advertising, and social media. Erin is also the co-chair of a local ski-themed charity event that raises money for the Ronald McDonald House of Ottawa and will be co-host of the Disputed podcast for the upcoming fourth season.

Alison FitzGerald's practice focuses on international arbitration and international trade and investment. She takes a practical approach to advising clients, seeking to understand their business needs as well as their legal needs, their risk appetite, and their strategic goals. She is a passionate advocate for her clients and their interests. Alison’s arbitration practice includes experience as senior counsel in complex international commercial and investor-state arbitrations. She has also served as tribunal secretary in precedent-setting arbitrations, and brings unique insight to her counsel practice through years of experience working with some of the world’s pre-eminent arbitrators. In the course of her arbitration work, Alison has gained knowledge and depth of experience in a number of industry sectors, including upstream oil and gas, construction, infrastructure, mining, natural resources, aerospace/defence procurement, software licensing, railways, and chemicals. Alison’s international trade and investment practice includes experience advising clients on treaty interpretation, navigating trade rules and enforcing trade rules through trade remedy actions. She also regularly advises clients and advocates on their behalf in complex matters relating to economic sanctions, export controls, modern slavery, and business ethics/anti-corruption. She has leveraged her background in public international law and constitutional law to advise and represent clients in complex cases involving potential human rights abuses under international law in connection with foreign operations, and both prosecuting and defending claims under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Alison has appeared before the Federal Courts of Canada, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Ontario Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court of Canada in domestic litigation proceedings. She has also appeared before the Canada Border Services Agency and Canadian International Trade Tribunal in trade remedy proceedings. More recently, she has guided clients through the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise’s human rights complaint process.

Danielle is an associate in Osler’s Competition/Antitrust Law, Foreign Investment, and International Trade Groups. Danielle has broad experience in all aspects of competition law, foreign investment review, and international trade, across a broad range of industry sectors including energy, mining, agriculture, telecommunications, financial services, real estate, transportation, and media. Danielle has been a term lecturer at the University of Alberta for Competition and Antitrust Law and currently serves as a member of 4H-Canada’s Board of Directors. Danielle has previously served as a Committee Chair of the Osler Women Lawyers’ Network and is a past Chair of Osler Toronto’s Associates Representative Committee. Danielle was previously based in Calgary with Osler’s Regulatory, Environmental, Indigenous and Land Litigation Specialty Group. Danielle advised broadly on regulatory, environmental, and Indigenous law issues for natural resource developers, including for large-scale industrial projects such as oil sands facilities, coal mines, pipelines, and renewable energy projects. Danielle completed her LL.M. at the London School of Economics in 2017, and her J.D. at the University of Alberta in 2016. Her LL.M. focused on International Dispute Resolution and Competition/Antitrust Law. During her legal education, Danielle was captain of the LSE Vis International Arbitration Moot Competition Team, which was the winning team at the London Court of International Arbitration pre-moot, and won Honourable Mentions for both Appellant and Respondent Factums at the international competition rounds in Vienna. Danielle was also a two-time member of the University of Alberta Jessup International Law Moot Competition Team, researched with the Environmental Law Centre of Alberta, interned at the United Nations Headquarters in New York with the Administrative Law Section, and participated in an exchange program to Lille, France. Prior to this, Danielle completed her Honours Bachelor of Science in Physics and Philosophy, with a minor in Mathematics, at the University of Toronto. A passionate athlete and avid mountain trekker, she was a member of the University of Toronto Varsity Women’s Lacrosse Team and has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, and Mt. Everest Base Camp, Nepal.