Moot Committee

Marc McAree is a Partner at Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP and certified as a Specialist in Environmental Law by the Law Society of Ontario. He practices environmental, land use planning and municipal law, and civil litigation. Marc is also a trained mediator. He holds a Masters in Environmental Studies degree.  Marc is named annually in the Lexpert’s Leading 500 Cross-Border Lawyers: A Guide to Doing Business in Canada.  He is peer selected annually for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in Canada^© for environmental law.  Marc is also ranked “Most Frequently Recommended” by The Canadian Legal Lexpert directory and ranked “AV® Preeminent™” by peers in Martindale-Hubbell.  He is also named annually in Lexology as a "Global Elite Thought Leader" for Environment and Climate Change. Marc is recognized in "Band 2" in Chambers & Partners Canada Guide 2025 for Environment.

A civil litigator, Marc has appeared at all levels of Ontario Courts including the Ontario Court of Appeal, and before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on actions, applications, judicial reviews and appeals.  Marc also regularly challenges Ministry of the Environment decisions before Ontario’s Environmental Review Tribunal, and appears on environmental related matters before other Tribunals.

Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP is named "Law Firm of the Year" for environmental law in the 2021 and 2024 editions.

Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP is named in the Globe and Mail's list of Best Law Firms in Canada for 2025.

Check out Marc McAree Mediation today! - www.mmmediation.ca.

Stepan Wood is a Professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Law, Society and Sustainability, directs the Centre for Law and the Environment and coordinates the Specialization in Environmental and Natural Resource Law.  From 1997 to 2017 he was a member of the full time faculty of Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, where he held various positions including Director of Moot Court Programs, faculty coach of numerous competitive moot court teams, founding co-director of the Osgoode Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic, York Research Chair in Environmental Law and Justice, Editor in Chief of the Osgoode Hall Law Journal, coordinator of the JD/Master in Environmental Studies joint degree program, and Acting Director of the York Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability.  He teaches and conducts research on environmental law, climate change, sustainability, corporate social responsibility, voluntary environmental standards and property law.  He graduated from Osgoode as Gold Medalist and clerked for the late Justice John Sopinka of the Supreme Court of Canada, before practising commercial litigation and international arbitration with White & Case in New York City.  He is vice-chair of Canada’s national committee on environmental management system standards and a lead Canadian negotiator of the ISO 14001 standard.  He co-created the Willms & Shier Environmental Law Moot with his Osgoode classmate Marc McAree and his other friends at Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers, Canada’s foremost environmental law firm. 

Joanna Vince is a Partner at Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP and certified as a Specialist in Environmental Law by the Law Society of Ontario. Joanna helps clients navigate the environmental regulatory process. Joanna regularly engages with environmental regulators on behalf of clients where there are concerns about spills, contaminant migration, and environmental non-compliances. Joanna defends clients from environmental prosecutions under provincial and federal laws. She has appeared before environmental tribunals and boards on behalf of clients to obtain, confirm or dispute environmental orders, and environmental permits and approvals. Joanna regularly advises clients about their potential environmental liabilities, both civil and regulatory, and prepares strategies for managing those liabilities. Joanna is called to the Bars of Ontario, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and the Yukon.

Stuart prioritizes communication, preparation, and professionalism. He makes every effort to ensure his clients’ interests are protected by providing responsive and result-oriented representation.

Stuart’s practice focuses on administrative law, particularly environmental and regulatory law, and health law. He has substantial knowledge in the environmental field and previously chaired the Canadian Bar Association’s National Environmental, Energy and Resources Law Section. Stuart is particularly known for his environmental prosecution defence work. His broad experience includes advising clients in relation to reporting obligations, responding to provincial and federal investigations and prosecutions, and advising clients in relation to internal and regulatory
 
investigations. Stuart also appears before, and advises, regulatory tribunals in the environmental and health fields, and is experienced with health issues including health information, policy, and contractual issues.

Additionally, Stuart has a broad background in commercial litigation, including a particular focus on class action defence. He has acted in class actions in Alberta and in British Columbia, with experience as both defendant and plaintiff counsel. Significant class action matters in which Stuart has participated include acting as counsel to an agricultural producer sued in relation to a product safety recall, acting as a key member of the defence counsel team in a class action suit against a major Canadian payday loan provider, and playing a primary role on the defence counsel team responding to an $11 million dollar class action lawsuit filed in relation to a missing laptop containing the personal and health information of approximately 620,000 Albertans.

Clients in the Northwest Territories can also benefit from Stuart’s extensive legal knowledge. He regularly advises clients in the north on organizational matters such as bylaws.

Stuart enjoys practicing in areas that are on the cutting edge and mirror what is going on in society. He appreciates being at the forefront of development and because the laws are frequently evolving in his areas of practice, he keeps abreast of changes in the law and maintains the requisite knowledge and skills to effectively represent his clients.

Stuart remains engaged in both professional associations and the community. He was formerly the Chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s National Environmental, Energy and Resources Law Section, and a former Director of the Environmental Services Association of Alberta, with whom he still works and presents. He volunteers on the Governance Committee of the Alberta Emerald Foundation, on the Alberta Chamber of Resources event planning committee and was formerly a Director of the Edmonton Humane Society.

Dr. Heather McLeod-Kilmurray is a Full Professor and former Co-Director of the Centre for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability (CELGS) at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa. Her research deals with food law, toxic torts, environmental justice, and climate change. She is co-author of The Canadian Law of Toxic Torts with Prof. Lynda Collins, and co-editor of Canadian Food Law and Policy with Profs. Nathalie Chalifour and Angela Lee. She teaches Food Law, Torts, and Climate Change and Legal Change. She is a part-time member of the Environmental Protection Tribunal of Canada, a former part-time member of the Ontario Environmental Review Tribunal, a Board member of the Canadian Association of Food Law and Policy, and a member of the Ottawa Food Policy Council. 

Ramani Nadarajah is counsel with the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA).  She holds an LL.B. (1987) and an LL.M. (2007) from Osgoode Hall Law School and is certified by the Law Society of Ontario as a Specialist in Environmental Law. 

From 2022 to 2023, Ramani was on secondment as Policy Counsel with the Law Commission of Ontario, where she led the Environmental Accountability: Rights, Responsibilities and Access to Justice project. Prior to joining CELA in 1994, Ramani was Crown Counsel with the Ontario Ministry of Environment. Ramani has appeared before the courts and administrative tribunals on cases involving contaminated sites, waste, air pollution, pesticides, water-takings and environmental land-use planning.  She was co-counsel for over five hundred residents at both phases of the Walkerton Inquiry.

Ramani has served on federal and provincial government advisory bodies on a range of issues including environmental penalties, brownfields and modernizing environmental approvals.  Ramani is a co-editor of Carswell’s Canadian Environmental Law Reports and has published articles in Canadian and international law journals on environmental law and policy issues, with a focus on regulatory compliance and enforcement.

Chris combines research, teaching and law reform with a busy law practice that focusses environmental, climate and resource governance issues for a broad range of clients including Indigenous governments and businesses, community and conservation organizations, and public interest advocates. 

He is a Professor of Law at University of Victoria Faculty of Law, and Principal of Tollefson Law.  

Chris co-authors (with his late friend and colleague Dr. Meinhard Doelle) Canada’s leading environmental law textbook now in its 4^th edition.  His scholarship and law reform work is wide-ranging and regularly cited by courts and tribunals.   He is a pioneer of public interest environmental clinical education and experiential learning.  He was founding executive director of the UVic Environmental Law Centre, and co-founded and serves as executive director of Canada’s newest public interest environmental law non-profit, the Pacific Centre for Environmental Law and Litigation (“CELL”).  

Throughout his career, Prof Tollefson has been closely involved in innovative and cutting-edge environmental litigation. Early in his career, he served on the board of Ecojustice Canada, including terms as its national Chair and President.  He has appeared before all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada, and various regulatory boards and tribunals. Recent cases include La Rose v. Canada, 2020 FC 1008 and 2023 FCA 241 (youth-led climate case); Teal Cedar Products Ltd. v British Columbia, 2025 BCSC 595 (defence of constructive expropriation claim); McDonald v. Comox (Town), 2023 BCSC 18 and 2024 BCCA 180 (common law riparian rights); and Todsen v. Morse, 2022 BCSC 1341 (SLAPP dismissal motion).  Chris was counsel to BC Nature and Nature Canada during the Enbridge Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline hearing processes and on judicial review. In 2014 he was the recipient of Nature Canada’s Conservation Partner Award for his work leading their pro bono legal team during the Northern Gateway hearings.