Karine Bédard, Associate

Karine is a Senior Associate at Sotos and a bilingual class actions and complex litigation lawyer. They represent plaintiffs in matters involving institutional abuse, Charter and constitutional claims, Crown liability, privacy, product liability, fiduciary duties and other forms of systemic wrongdoing.

Karine acts in proposed and certified class actions, multi-plaintiff proceedings and other complex litigation on behalf of individuals seeking accountability from governments, corporations and institutions. They have appeared before all levels of court in Ontario, the Superior Court of Québec and the Supreme Court of Canada.

Before joining Sotos, Karine practised at leading plaintiff-side class action firms in Toronto. They also served as the bilingual judicial law clerk at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, where they worked on civil, criminal, commercial list and class proceedings matters. Their experience from both the Court and counsel perspectives informs their approach to complex litigation.

Karine has acted as counsel to interveners before the Supreme Court of Canada in cases involving equality rights under section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and important issues affecting Canadian class actions law.

Beyond their litigation practice, Karine is actively involved in the development of class actions law in Canada. They serve on the executives of the Ontario Bar Association’s Class Actions, Constitutional, Civil Liberties and Human Rights Sections, and regularly contribute to continuing legal education programs on class actions, constitutional litigation, privacy law and access to justice. Their writing has been published by the Ontario Bar Association Class Action Law Section Newsletter, Law360 and Mondaq.

Karine also volunteers with Pro Bono Ontario’s Supreme Court of Canada Leave to Appeal Assistance Project, providing legal opinions to self-represented litigants considering applications for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Karine earned both common law and civil law degrees from McGill University, where they received the Justice Harry Batshaw Prize for achieving the highest standing in the Foundations of Canadian Law course. During law school, they served as Executive English Editor of the McGill Law Journal, completed a student clerkship at the Superior Court in Montréal and participated extensively in advocacy, legal research and access-to-justice initiatives.

Karine provides legal services in both English and French.