Volunteer Committees
National Events Committee
The BFLN Events Committee is responsible for planning and organizing events at the national level. The Committee organizes networking and professional development events, namely panel discussions on topics touching female and female identifying legal professionals, chapter dinners, lunches, Happy Hours and mentorship events with students and junior members of the Bar.
Committee Chair: Kadiata Kane
Title: Bilingual Associate Lawyer (EN/FR) – Corporate/Commercial Law
Employer: Momentum Business Law Professional Corporation
Committee member: Nicole Treksler
Title: Bilingual Adjudicator (EN/FR)
Employer: Immigration Refugee Board
Committee member: Patience Kalu Omokhodion
Title: Bilingual Partner (EN/SP) – Financial Services
Employer: Cassels Brock and Blackwell LLP
Committee member: Méliane Etien-Usher
Title: Bilingual Associate Lawyer (EN/FR) – Litigation, Corporate Law & Wills
Employer: Langevin Morris Smith LLP Lawyers
Committee member: Zainab Adewusi
Title: Legal Assistant and Student-at-law
Employer: McCarthy Tetreault LLP
Communications Committee
The BFLN Communications Committee is responsible for the publication of BFLN’s monthly newsletters. The newsletters aim to create awareness about networking events, skill development sessions, happy hours and all other events which promote the professional development and welfare of black female lawyers.
The Communications team also utilizes all social media platforms, promote such events, and engages with the public on matters related to our black female lawyers and generally, the legal profession. Finally, the team is responsible for BFLN’s official email and communicating with members of the general public as required.
Committee Chair: Rebecca Scantlebury
Title: Principal Lawyer at Scantlebury Law
Employer: Scantlebury Law
Committee member: Bolaji Olarinde
Title: Patent Administrator
Employer: Brion Raffoul LLP
Committee member: Fayola Benjamin
Title: Associate Lawyer
Employer: Benjamin Law
Ottawa Chapter Committee
The Ottawa Chapter was launched in October 2019 to provide local networking opportunities to BFLN members. This chapter is a link to the national BFLN organization that provides those in Ottawa with activities and support from an Ottawa perspective.
This new chapter seeks to attract members, develop relationships with Black law students (ie. BLSA – University of Ottawa chapter), leverage existing partnerships (ie. with the CABL Ottawa chapter) and recruit volunteers to help organize events. While not fully bilingual yet, the chapter encourages the use of both English and French.
Although the chapter started just before the pandemic, we were able to pivot to hosting virtual events to support our members. We look forward to building on a strong start.
Ottawa Chapter Chair: Nefeterri (Nefe) Carnadin
Title: Legal Counsel
Employer: Department of Justice Canada in Ottawa
Committee Member: Lois Boateng
Title: Legal Counsel
Employer: Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa
Committee Member: Feyisayo (Fey) Oni
Title: Legal Counsel
Employer: Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Legal Sector in Ottawa
Committee Member: Lanise Hayes
Title: Partner
Employer: Nelligan Law
Fundraising Committee
Fundraising Committee Chair: Nicole Singh
Title: Partner
Employer: Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
Committee Member: Jessica Hardy-Henry
Title: Associate, Office of the General Counsel
Employer: Dentons Canada LLP
Committee Member: Camille Walker
Title: Legal Counsel
Employer: Telus
Membership Committee
The BFLN Membership Committee is responsible for collating and keeping up to date the registry of all members, creating awareness to encourage expanded membership, caters to Membership subscriptions, works with other committees in initiatives for mentoring of junior legal professionals/law students and organizes the Annual General Meeting.
Committee Member: Chinelo Meg Egbononu
Title: Senior Legal Counsel
Employer: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
Committee Member: Yetunde Amodu
Title: Immigration Case Manager
Employer: Farell LLP (a law firm affiliated with Deloitte)
Retreat Committee
The BFLN’s Retreat Committee is responsible for working with the Board to plan and implement the annual Sistahs in Law Conference in November of each year. This committee meets year-round with the lion’s share occurring in the Summer and Fall. Our challenge is to organize a meaningful conference – a perfect balance of retreat and CPD, that will be engaging and accessible to all of our Sistahs in law. We are interested in welcoming new, creative members in the first quarter of each year, although we may be able to accommodate new committee members year-round.
Committee Member: Mara Clarke
Title: Family Lawyer
Employer: The Law Office of Mara Clarke
Committee Member: Charlena T. Claxton, B.A., LL.B., LL.M
Title: Lawyer
Employer: Claxton Law
Committee Member: Lungile “Lulu” Tinarwo
Title: Principal Lawyer
Employer: Astute Law Chambers (Edmonton, Alberta)
Fundraising Committee Chair: Ellaree Metz
Employer: Government of Canada
Committee Member: Alejandra Hessen
Title: Fourth-Year Student
School: University of Toronto
Committee Member: Charlene Engmann
Title: Departmental Litigation Oversight Reviewer
Employer: Government of Canada – National Defence
Committee Member: Feyisayo (Fey) Oni
Title: Legal Counsel
Employer: Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Legal Sector in Ottawa