Brian
P.
Smeenk
Partner
Brian Smeenk is a Toronto partner in the Firm's Labour, Employment & Human Rights Group. Since 1981, Brian's practice has focused on management-side labour and employment law.
Brian represents both private sector and public sector employers in all aspects of labour relations and employment law. He appears regularly before tribunals such as arbitration boards, labour relations boards, employment standards adjudicators and human rights boards of inquiry. Brian also acts as counsel in employment-related civil actions, judicial reviews and appeals at all levels.
He has extensive experience in labour negotiations for a wide variety of employers in the private and public sectors. In 1995, he was named to national mediation-arbitration panels chaired by Mr. Justice George Adams to resolve national railroad strikes involving CP Rail and five of its unions.
Brian is the editor-in-chief of Fasken's new weekly bulletin, HR Space, as well as Northern Exposure – Employment Law for US Companies with Operations in Canada, a blog published by HR Hero.com. He was also the editor of Canadian Employment Law For U.S. Companies, published in the US by M. Lee Smith Publishers (1993 to 2001). He has been granted the designation of Certified Human Resources Professional (C.H.R.P.) by the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario (HRPAO). He is a past director of HRPAO and past-president of both the Toronto Human Resource Professionals Association and the Toronto Area Industrial Relations Association. He is also a National Board Member for Breakfast for Learning. He also is the firm's primary representative on the North America-wide Employers' Counsel Network (see www.employerscounsel.net).
Brian appears in the 2009 edition of Chambers Global: The Worlds Leading Lawyers, as a leading lawyer in the area of labour and pensions employment. He also appears in the 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 edition of Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, a guide to the leading law firms and practitioners in Canada, as a leading lawyer in the area of labour relations, and in the 2010 and 2011 edition of Best Lawyers in Canada. Brian is also recognised as one of the leading Labour lawyers in Canada in the 10th anniversary edition of Practical Law Company's Labour and Employee Benefits multi-jurisdictional guide.
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