Colleen Bauman

A strong defender of the view that a messy desk is a sign of creative genius, Colleen Bauman enjoys grappling with legal questions that don’t have an easy answer. Clients and colleagues look to Colleen when facing complex or novel constitutional, labour, or human rights issues. In her down to earth style, Colleen guides them with thoughtful advice that is both practical and tactical.

Colleen’s clients include unions, professional associations, employees, other lawyers and even judges. She is a persuasive advocate, appearing in Ontario and Federal courts on appeals and applications for judicial review, where she takes complicated legal principles and simplifies them into an eloquent argument about why her client’s rights should prevail.

No stranger to labour arbitration, Colleen enjoys working with unions, grievors and individual clients to build a case or resolve conflicts through negotiated settlements. When not litigating, she represents clients in collective bargaining or interest arbitration, working to improve salaries, benefits, pensions and key protections in the workplace.

Colleen knows the Supreme Court of Canada better than most. She started her law career as a clerk to Justice Rosalie Abella, and has returned many times since. Along with her own appellate work, she leads the firm’s Supreme Court agency practice, advising lawyers on all aspects and stages of an appeal. She is the Ottawa Regional Coordinator for the Supreme Court Advocacy Institute, which provides advocacy advice to lawyers appearing before the Supreme Court. She is also a member-at-large of the Canadian Bar Association’s Labour and Employment Law section executive.