In this edition of the OBA Health Law’s Section Insider, we spoke with the 2024 recipient of the Susan Davidson Memorial Award for Excellence in Health Law, Justice Ira Parghi. Here’s what she had to say.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself: where did you grow-up, what law school did you go to, and how
long have you been practicing?
I grew up in Kamloops, BC and went to the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. I was called to the bar in 2001 and articled at Torys, worked as a junior lawyer at what is now Lax O’Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb, and moved to the health law group at Borden Ladner Gervais in my third year. I kind of stumbled into it: I did not know a lot about health law as an area of practice, but was intrigued by the opportunity to have a high volume litigation practice, run my own files, and really get my hands dirty as a litigator.
I was at BLG for many years, before moving to the US in 2011. In the US, I first worked as a Corporate Privacy Officer at a large health system in New York. That was an in-house role, and a compliance role, so it was in some ways different from what I had done before. But it really gave me a chance to get to know the business environment. It also enabled me to really help the client operationalize the advice we gave – something you don’t always get to be involved in as outside counsel. After that, I practiced in the health care and data privacy groups in the San Francisco office of Ropes & Gray, a global US firm. And then I came back to Canada in 2018. It has been quite a whirlwind.
I was recently appointed to be a judge on the Superior Court of Justice in Toronto. It’s a huge honour. At the time I received my appointment, I was practicing on my own – I had just hung up my own shingle in January of this year.
Please log in to read the full article.