Smart & Biggar welcomes 10 articling students across Canada as they begin their careers in IP law

Smart & Biggar is pleased to welcome ten articling students across Canada. Each student joins the firm with strong academic standing, a drive for success and a passion for intellectual property law.

Over the course of the next year, our group of students will work alongside Smart & Biggar partners and associates on Canada’s most complex and important IP matters. They will have the opportunity to work in a team-based environment to solve and address clients' most pressing IP issues and benefit from coaching and guidance from Canada’s leading IP lawyers.

Students will also participate in our comprehensive Law Student Training Program which is designed to encompasses all areas and aspects of IP law and practice. Each student will gain well-rounded experience in patents, trademarks, copyright and related litigation, and discover what it means to be at their best among the most elite practitioners in intellectual property law.

We welcome our articling students and wish them an exciting year ahead!

Montreal

Camille Desmarais, University of Montreal, LL.B. 2019

Camille returns to Smart & Biggar after a term as a summer student in 2019. At the University of Montreal Law Faculty, Camille held executive leadership positions at the Amnesty International Committee and the Art Committee of the Law Faculty from 2017 to 2019. While in law school she worked as a research assistant for professor Ysolde Gendreau, conducting intellectual property research. Currently, Camille is a volunteer for the Montreal Artists Legal Clinic.

Ottawa

Nicole Boyle, University of Ottawa, J.D., 2020

Nicole returns to Smart & Biggar after completing a term as a summer student in 2019. During her legal studies at the University of Ottawa, Nicole earned a prestigious Technology Law Award and an entrance scholarship awarded to a first-year student with a science or engineering degree. She completed the Law and Technology Option and graduated cum laude. Before attending law school, Nicole obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biopharmaceutical Science and specialized in Genomics.

Christina Pan, University of Ottawa, J.D., 2020

Christina returns to Smart & Biggar after her time as a summer student in 2019. Prior to law school, Christina obtained a master’s degree in pharmacology. Her thesis project focused on the acute and residual effects of cannabis on driving performance in young drivers. The study was the largest clinical trial, and the first of its kind in Canada, conducted on cannabis and driving. During her undergraduate studies in the Pharmacology Specialist program, Christina worked as a clinical research intern at Sanofi Inc. and assisted with the monitoring of clinical trial activities in various hospitals and clinics across Eastern Canada.

Stephanie Williams, University of Ottawa, J.D. 2020

For most of her legal studies, Stephanie worked with the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic at the University of Ottawa, taking part in an intervention at the Federal Court of Appeal and various technology- and privacy-law related projects. Stephanie also completed research assistantships, investigating issues surrounding Crown copyright in Canada and the application of intellectual property rights to Indigenous traditional knowledge in Canada. Before entering law school, Stephanie worked for several years in the software industry, focused on copyright in source code and monitoring compliance with open source and proprietary licensing.

Sidney Zarabi, University of Windsor, J.D. 2020

During his legal studies, Sidney actively volunteered within the legal community as a senior case worker at the Community Legal Aid, a business associate with the Windsor Review of Legal and Social Issues (WRLSI), as co-chair at the Windsor Law Mental Health and Wellness Initiative, and as a project facilitator with Pro Bono Students Canada and Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF). He completed his M.A.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo where he was recognized for his academic achievement with the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS), University of Waterloo’s President's Graduate Scholarship, and the respected Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) Fellowship.

Toronto

Robert Baker, University of Toronto, J.D., 2020

Robert is a returning student to Smart & Biggar, after completing a Summer student term in 2019. Robert completed his M.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Toronto, where he designed and characterized high-speed chips for fiber optics and wrote his thesis entitled, “Large Swing Optical Modulator Drivers for 100+ GBaud Applications.” Prior to his legal studies, he interned as a hardware engineer at NVIDIA Corporation in Santa Clara, California, and Apple Inc. in Cupertino, California.

Reagan Seidler, Dalhousie University, J.D., 2020

Reagan comes to Smart & Biggar as a former director in the civil service and recipient of the Premier’s Award for Excellence in Public Service.  He is the former editor-in-chief of the Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies, the author of numerous published works and the recipient of more than a dozen awards, including in intellectual property and administrative law. During his final term of law school, Reagan clerked at the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax.

Skylar (Hansol) Yoo, Western University, J.D., 2020

Skylar returns to Smart & Biggar after a term as a summer student in 2019. During law school, Skylar worked as a caseworker for the university’s community legal aid clinic, was president of the Christian Legal Fellowship, and an executive member of the Western Intellectual Property Organization. Prior to beginning her legal studies, she graduated from the University of Waterloo with a B.Sc. in Nanotechnology Engineering.

Calgary

Amber Blair, University of Calgary, J.D., 2020

Amber returns to Smart & Biggar after completing a summer student term in the firm’s Ottawa office in 2019. Throughout law school Amber volunteered with a number of organizations and clubs including Pro Bono Students Canada (QB Amicus Project), Student Legal Assistance, the Environmental Law Society (President), the Moot Times: The University of Calgary Faculty of Law Newspaper (Executive), and the Student Ambassador Program. Prior to starting her legal career, Amber obtained her M.Sc. in inorganic chemistry from the University of British Columbia and her B.Sc. in chemistry from Saint Mary’s University.

Vancouver

Daniel Tomcej, University of Manitoba, J.D. 2020

Daniel entered a career in law after working in the IT and cloud computing sector for over a decade. With an interest in telecommunication networking and technical knowledge in cloud computing hyperscale technologies such as Kubernetes and Service Meshes, he was able to work with domestic and international fortune 500 companies to improve their cloud computing technologies. During law school, Daniel competed in the Harold G. Fox Moot for Canadian intellectual property. His interest in IP law stems from a desire to protect and promote software and technology innovation.