Faculty

Heather Zordel is a Partner at Gardiner Roberts in Toronto. Heather specializes in corporate finance and securities regulatory compliance. For a full bio click here.

Josée Turcotte, LL.L, J.D, LL.M, ICD.D. Of the Quebec and Ontario bars

Josée Turcotte is the Secretary to the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). She has an extensive background and expertise in regulation, including competition law and securities law, public law, corporate governance and administrative justice issues. Of note, she served as Deputy Secretary and as Independent Adjudicative Counsel to the OSC, as Senior Legal Counsel to the federal Competition Tribunal, and as Competition Law Officer in the Mergers Branch at the Competition Bureau. She started her legal career in private practice at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP.

Ms. Turcotte holds a Master of Laws degree (LL.M.) in business law from Osgoode Hall Law School, a Civil Law degree with honours (LL.L.), and a Juris Doctor degree with honours (J.D.) from the University of Ottawa. She is a member in good standing of both the Ontario and Quebec bars. She also graduated from the Queen’s Executive Program, and the Directors Education Program by the Rotman School of Business and the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) and holds an ICD.D designation.

She is an active member of various professional associations. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Society of Ontario Adjudicators and Regulators (SOAR), the Board of Directors of the Council of Canadian Administrative Tribunals (CCAT), the Executive Committee of the Public Sector Lawyers Section of the Ontario Bar Association (2009-present) where she has been elected the Chair of the Section. She previously served on the Executive Committee of the Administrative Law Section of the Ontario Bar Association (2009-2012), as a Trustee of the Toronto Lawyers Association (2008-2012), on the Organizing Committee of the SOAR’s annual Conference (2006-2011), on the Conference Organizing Committee of CCAT (2011-2013) and as Co-Chair of the CCAT’s 6th International Conference and 29th Annual Conference (2013).

Ms. Turcotte served as a Part-time Law Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa (the Evidence course) and as a Program Faculty Member at Osgoode Hall Law School, (Securities Litigation and Enforcement Course; and Foundations of Securities Regulation: Theories and Concepts), and is a frequent guest lecturer in academic settings and speaker on topics such as securities litigation, corporate governance, public law and administrative justice issues. In addition to her work at the OSC, Ms. Turcotte previously served on, and continues to serve on not-for-profit Boards of Directors and Board Committees. She is currently the Chair of the Board of Directors of The Canadian MedicAlert Foundation and serves on its Board Committees.

KAREN MANARIN is the Special Advisor on Financial Crime and the Acting Officer in Charge of the Toronto Integrated Market Enforcement Team (IMET) at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Reporting to the Criminal Operations Officer, Karen oversees three teams of RCMP members, civilians and public service employees in the investigation of capital market related criminal activity. Previously, Karen was the Executive Director of Professional Regulation at the Law Society of Ontario. Reporting to the CEO of the Law Society, Karen oversaw and managed a division of 170. From 2009 to 2016, Karen was Deputy Director in the Enforcement Branch of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) where she led 70 staff in multi-disciplinary teams. From 2006 to 2009, Karen was seconded to the RCMP Toronto IMET where she led an investigation team. From 1998 to 2006, Karen was a Senior Litigation Counsel in the Enforcement Branch at the OSC and the Acting Assistant Manager of Litigation for one year. Prior to joining the OSC, she was Counsel at Crown Law Office-Criminal at the Ministry of the Attorney General where she argued criminal appeals in the Ontario Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Canada and prosecuted complex frauds. She was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1991. Karen is the Chair of the Board of the Columbus Centre, an affiliate of Villa Charities Inc. She has been a board member since 1991. Karen is a frequent lecturer at law schools and various continuing legal education seminars and conferences in Canada and the United States.

Michael Brown is a Senior Investigation Counsel with the Case Assessment Team in the Enforcement Branch of the Ontario Securities Commission.

Prior to re-joining the OSC, Michael was Senior Vice President, Compliance Officer & Regulatory Counsel at DBRS Limited, a designated rating organization, where Michael was primarily responsible for monitoring and assessing compliance with Canadian and US securities legislation, and providing legal advice regarding Canadian regulatory obligations and expectations for credit rating agencies.

Michael was previously a regulatory practice lawyer at Cassels, Brock & Blackwell LLP, and also served as an Assistant Manager of the Corporate Finance Branch of the OSC. During his ten years at the Commission, Michael was heavily involved in a number of policy initiatives, including the development of regulation for credit rating agencies, audit committee and corporate governance.

Michael obtained his LL.B. from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario in 1997 and was called to the Ontario Bar in 1999. Michael also has Master of Arts degree in history from St. Patrick’s College, National University of Ireland.

William Braithwaite is Chair of the Firm and a member of the Partnership Board and Executive Committee. He is a senior partner in the Toronto office, and former head of its Corporate Group. Mr. Braithwaite practises primarily in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and corporate finance. In addition to acting on some of the most significant cross border merger transactions, he has acted as counsel to major Canadian corporations, boards of directors, and institutional shareholders, as well as various governments and regulatory authorities.