Tala practices employer-side labour, employment, occupational health and safety, and human rights law. Tala works together with employers to provide holistic and practical advice.
Tala’s practice includes providing day-to-day advice to both unionized and non-unionized employers on a variety of issues concerning labour, employment human rights, and occupational health and safety law.
Tala has extensive litigation experience representing employers’ interests. Tala has led trials and hearings before the Ontario Small Claims Court, the Ontario Court of Justice, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, and the Workplace Safety Insurance Appeals Tribunal. Tala has also represented the interests of employers before the Ontario Labour Relations Board, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, the Canada Industrial Relations Board, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Ontario Divisional Court, the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Federal Court of Appeal and labour arbitrators.
Tala’s practice also includes conducting workplace investigations on behalf of employers. Tala has conducted both investigations into allegations of violence, harassment, and discrimination as well as investigations following an occupational health and safety incident.
Tala has a growing practice advising clients on issues related to business and human rights and international human rights. Tala was part of the Canadian employer delegation to the International Labour Organization’s annual conference (ILC) in Geneva, Switzerland. At the ILC, Tala represented employer interests on the Committee on the Application of Standards (CAS). The CAS is an essential part of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) supervisory system and provides the opportunity for representatives of governments, employers, and workers to examine how ILO member states uphold the international labour standards that they have ratified.
Tala has considerable experience advising federally-regulated employers, having spent over two years in-house at a large Bank.
In 2014-2015, during her articling year, Tala worked along with senior partners on an eight-month criminal jury trial for charges laid under the Competition Act.
A graduate of the Osgoode Hall Law School, Tala was awarded the York International Mobility Award, the Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP Prize in Business Associations, and the National Association of Japanese Canadians & Roger Sachio Obata C.M. Prize in International Human Rights Law. While at Osgoode, Tala spent a semester working as an employment law caseworker at Parkdale Community Legal Clinic. She was also a Teaching Assistant for Osgoode’s first year criminal law class and a volunteer with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
Tala grew up in Jordan and is fluent in Arabic. She provides support to clients in both English and Arabic.
