Abby is a lawyer at St. Lawrence Barristers PC. Abby maintains a broad civil litigation practice and has particular expertise in professional regulatory matters, public and constitutional law, media and defamation, privacy and online harassment, and systemic legal challenges involving policing, prisons and the criminal legal system. She also regularly provides strategic legal advice and support to not-for-profit organizations regarding corporate governance, policy and by-law compliance, and fiduciary duties. 

Abby has been involved in litigation at all levels of court, including before the Supreme Court of Canada, the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, and the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. She also has significant advocacy expertise outside of the courtroom and has appeared before legislative committees, spoken frequently to the media, and spearheaded numerous coalitions and successful advocacy campaigns pursuing systemic legal reform.

Prior to joining St. Lawrence Barristers Abby was the Criminal Justice Program Director for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (“CCLA”), overseeing the organization’s litigation and systemic advocacy in relation to policing, the criminal legal system, prisons and community supervision. She also spent several years as CCLA’s Fundamental Freedoms Program Director, overseeing the organization’s work in relation to freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and freedom of peaceful assembly. In 2017 Abby was a Corrections Advisor to the Independent Review of Ontario Corrections, investigating and writing reports into solitary confinement and the operation of the provincial correctional system. She went on to serve as a Senior Policy Advisor for the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services from 2017-2018.

Abby is passionate about working with others to achieve systemic change and sharing her knowledge of advocacy and constitutional rights. She has been a sessional lecturer at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies and currently teaches in the University’s Ethics, Society and Law program. She has frequently been invited to speak on panels and at conferences about constitutional rights, and over the course of her career she has facilitated hundreds of classes with community groups and high school classes designed to stimulate critical thinking around fundamental rights and freedoms.

Prior to graduating from law school she worked and volunteered for numerous international and local human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, and local non-governmental organizations in Bangladesh, Peru and Nicaragua.

Abby sits on the executive board of the Canadian Prison Law Association and is a member of the Advocates’ Society and the Ontario Bar Association.

She is a dedicated biker, and loves to explore new foods, new park trails, and take her two young children along for all adventures big and small.