FALL 2022 POST PLENARY REPORT

Jacqueline Horvat was elected as Treasurer by the Law Society’s governing body (Convocation) on June 15, 2022 and she took office on June 28, 2022. The Treasurer is the top-elected official of the Law Society, which regulates Ontario’s lawyers and paralegals in the public interest. She is the sixth woman Treasurer in the 225-year history of the Law Society.

Treasurer Horvat was first elected a Bencher in 2011 and was serving her third term when she was elected. She was called to the Ontario bar in 2002.

She is a litigation lawyer and a founding partner of Spark Law, a seven-lawyer full-service firm, which provides her with a close-up view of the issues and daily worries faced by sole and small practice lawyers across the Province.

Treasurer Horvat has a broad and varied corporate/commercial litigation practice representing both plaintiffs and defendants in complex commercial disputes, class action litigation and appeals. She has appeared at all levels of court in Ontario, the Federal Court Trial Division and the Federal Court of Appeal.

Her external appointments include:

• Second Vice-President and Ontario representative on the Council of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada:
  • Chair of the National Requirement Review
  • Member of the National Committee on Accreditation and the Public Affairs and Government Relations Committee
  • Past Member of the Standing Committee on the Model Code of Professional Conduct
• Past Director of Library Co. Inc.
• Past Director of the Ontario Judicial Education Network
• Member of the Independent Advisory Board for Supreme Court of Canada Judicial Appointments

Splitting her time between Windsor and Toronto, Jacqueline is also an occasional instructor and frequent guest lecturer at University of Windsor’s Faculty of Law. She is also involved in collaborative projects with the University of Windsor, including the Reclaim Pro Bono Project which provides free legal advice and representation to clients who have suffered technology facilitated violence, including the non-consensual distribution of intimate images, online harassment, sextortion, public disclosure of private facts, voyeurism, and impersonation.

Contact the Treasurer at treasurer@lso.ca.

Diana Miles, BA, LLB, CDir., joined the Law Society of Ontario in 2001 as the Executive Director of Professional Development and Competence. She has since held numerous positions in the organization in addition to the competence portfolio, including Executive Director of Organizational Strategy, of Communications and of Professional Regulation. Diana was appointed Acting CEO in September 2017 and CEO in March 2018. 

Throughout her career at the Law Society, Diana has provided proactive and effective policy-oriented leadership to the Board while overseeing significant operational portfolios. Her responsibilities have included strategic and operational planning, financial management, governance assessment, board education, creation of defensible and valid licensure systems, provision of resources and supports for legal practitioners, and the development of progressive regulation, risk management and quality assurance for lawyer and paralegal licensees and their legal practices.

Prior to joining the Law Society, Diana was the Chief Operating Officer of a large Toronto law firm and in that capacity supported business development, client services, firm administration, strategic planning and financial accountability. 

Diana has been a business executive for over 25 years, and has certifications from Rotman, Ivey, Smith and Harvard Schools of Business on a range of strategy, financial, leadership and management topics. She has extensive governance and board experience, is a Chartered Director (CDir), and has worked with private and not-for-profit boards as a board member and governance facilitator in the education, energy, health care, insurance and professional services sectors. 

Daniel E. Pinnington was appointed President & Chief Executive Officer of LAWPRO in 2018. From 2012 to 2018, he served as Vice-President, Claims Prevention and Stakeholder Relations, overseeing LAWPRO's claims prevention and outreach initiatives.

Dan joined LAWPRO in 2001 as Director, practicePRO and was the driving force behind the practicePRO program - LAWPRO’s innovative and internationally recognized claims prevention initiative. He used his unique combination of practice experience and technology expertise to provide lawyers with tools and resources to assist them in avoiding malpractice claims and succeeding in the practice of law.

Before joining LAWPRO, Dan practised for eight years in the Litigation Department of a Niagara-area law firm. Dan was called to the bar in 1993, having graduated with a combined LL.B./J.D. from the University of Windsor and Detroit Mercy College of Law.

Read Dan's full bio here.

Tracy has been the Executive Director of Hotel Dieu Shaver Foundation since November 2019.

She started her career at United Way and before HDSF; she was the Director of Development at Brock University for over 10 years.

Tracy is currently a volunteer Director for Niagara Sexual Assault Centre and the President-Elect & Co-Chair of Education for AFP (Association of Fundraising Professionals) Golden Horseshoe.

Tracy graduated from Brock University and holds a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) designation with over 20 years of experience in the fundraising sector.

Tracy lives in St. Catharines with her husband and three adult children.

Marc Clare, Executive Director, Halton Catholic Children’s Foundation, President AFP Golden Horseshoe.

Marc grew up in Burlington and is a husband, father, brother, son, dog owner, volunteer, soccer player & cyclist.

Marc was fortunate to be the first staff hired with the Halton Catholic Children’s Foundation in September 2014. Prior to that, he spent 22 years with the YMCA of Hamilton/Burlington/Brantford in a variety of operational, management and fundraising roles.

Marc has volunteered on the Board of Directors of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Golden Horseshoe Chapter for the past 7 years, and is currently in the President role. AFP Golden Horseshoe has approximately 200 members and is part of AFP Global (over 27,000 members worldwide).

In his role as Executive Director (HCCF), he has been truly humbled and honoured to serve members of our Halton Catholic community. Poverty remains a powerful factor in whether a student succeeds in school, so helping them to overcome financial barriers to education has been so gratifying.

Benjamin Miller (he/him) is a staff lawyer on the Nonprofit Law Ontario project of Community Legal Education Ontario (CLEO) where he focuses on the legal needs of nonprofits and charities. Over the past 5 years at CLEO, Benjamin has answered hundreds of nonprofit law questions and developed an online interactive bylaw builder for the ONCA. Benjamin also works at the Ontario Nonprofit Network and has worked at the Canada Revenue Agency in the past. Benjamin holds a JD and MPP from the University of Toronto and an MA in political theory from the University of Ottawa.

Based in the GTA, Nicole Sproule is an Affinity Partnerships Manager at Clio. She works with Law Societies, Bar Associations, and other Organizations to provide value to their members. 

Prior to that, working in Toronto on Clio’s Sales team for 4 years gave her a close understanding on what challenges legal professionals are looking to solve when it comes to efficiency. She finds joy in simplifying technology and enabling people to use it as a tool to free up more time in their days. 

Speaking of free time—she spends hers exploring new hiking trails and patios all around Ontario.

Vicki Whitmell began her law library career in the 1980s at the University of Toronto Bora Laskin Library shelving the hundreds of print volumes of the Canadian Abridgement, legal treatises, case law reports and government documents used every weekend by the law students. It was an early lesson in the sheer volume of information needed and used by lawyers.

Her career took her to the law firms of Blake’s and Osler’s, and later the Manitoba Law Society and courthouse libraries. She was also Executive Director of the Canadian Library Association and Chief Librarian at the U of T Roman School of Management. 

For the last 20 years she has been Legislative Librarian for the Province of Ontario, responsible for the Legislative Assembly’s library, research, information management and information technology branches. At the same time she was an instructor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Information iSchool, helping the masters library students to prepare for their careers through practicum work.

She recently retired from the Legislative Assembly and has returned to her hometown of Sundridge Ontario, the base for her next career of volunteering, not-for-profit board work, consulting, mentoring and coaching. She is also shelving books at her local public library!