; Davis LLP has added two part-
ners to its roster. Laura Safran
has joined Davis LLP’s Calgary
office as partner. Previously, Safran
was with Fraser Milner Casgrain
LLP. Safran specializes in aviation,
corporate/commercial, intellectual
property and technology law.
Catherine Pawluch, formerly of
Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP,
has joined Davis’s Toronto office as
partner. Pawluch has joined the
firm’s transportation law, competi-
tion and antitrust, international law
and trade and China and South-
east Asia practice groups. Also,
Max Weder, formerly of Borden
Ladner Gervais LLP, joined Davis’s
Vancouver office specializing in
taxation law.
; David McIntyre joins Gowling
Lafleur Henderson LLP’s Toronto
office as a partner. He was previ-
ously vice-president of marketing
at nickel producer Vale Inco Ltd.
He specializes in mining, corporate
finance and securities, and public
mergers and acquisitions.
MICHAEL BENEDICT
APPOINTMENTS
It took just three years from
the time Vanessa Grant saw her
first opera to her stage debut.
Grant was eight when she
attended a puppet version of
The Magic Flute in Tours,
France, where her mother was
studying on sabbatical from her
teaching job. Back home at 11,
Grant performed on stage in a
Canadian Opera Company production of La Bohème as a member of the Canadian Children’s
Opera Chorus.
“I always knew I could sing,”
says Grant, 47, a corporate
finance partner at McCarthy
Tétrault LLP in Toronto who still
finds time to rehearse and per-
form. “It’s like breathing. I didn’t
think it was anything special.”
Born and raised in Oakville,
Ont., except for two years in
France with her mother, Grant
sang in school productions from
an early age. “I can still do a Swiss
solo I learned in Grade 4,” she
says laughingly. In high school, at
University of Toronto Schools
(UTS), she sang the lead in Anne
of Green Gables. But when it
came time for university, she
opted for more academic pur-
suits, taking international rela-
tions at University of Toronto.
She kept at singing, however,
winning a scholarship at the
Royal Conservatory of Music
(RCM) that provided her with
free lessons while pursuing her
undergraduate degree. She also
worked part time in banks to
put herself through school and
parlayed that experience, along
with her six languages, into a
job as an assistant bank branch
manager in Washington, D.C.
While there, she continued her
vocal training at the Peabody
Conservatory.
After 18 months, she returned
to Toronto and joined a church
choir as a soloist, also worked at
the RCM music store and won
entry into the world-renowned
vocal performance program at
the University of Toronto’s Fac-
LAWYER OF THE WEEK
Name:
Vanessa Grant
Law school:
Queen’s University
Called to the Bar:
1997
Career highlights:
1974 Performs with the
Canadian Opera Company as a
member of the children’s chorus
1997 Associate with Torys LLP
2004 Joins McCarthy
Tétrault LLP as a partner
; Former Assistant Privacy Commissioner of Canada Elizabeth
Denham has been appointed the
new Information and Privacy Commissioner for B.C. after a unanimous vote in the legislature.
Denham replaces David Loukidelis, who is now B.C.’s deputy
attorney general.
Vanessa Grant
AWARDS
; Co-founder and partner of
Auger Hollingsworth Brenda
Hollingsworth has won the
Women’s Business Network of
Ottawa’s 2009 Businesswoman
of the Year Award in the professional category. The awards recognize the accomplishments of
women who live, work and play
an active role in a business in the
Ottawa region. Recipients were
honoured for their proven business acumen, outstanding
leadership skills, exemplary community involvement and demonstration of a balanced lifestyle.
ulty of Music. Among her classmates were baritones Russell
Braun and Brett Polegato, both
of whom have carved out successful international careers.
Realizing that she
lacked that “ineffable
fairy dust” required
to take her singing
quickly to the next
level, she turned
instead to the law
after obtaining her
B.Mus. “I always
wanted to be a law-
yer,” she says. “I had a strong sense
of justice. As a kid, when my older
brother treated me unfairly, I
threatened to sue him!”
At Queen’s University’s law
school, she realized she had
found her professional niche.
“Vanessa Grant, you should be
doing this,” she told herself.
While she sang at some fund-
raising concerts
with classmates,
Grant effectively
took a break from
singing while work-
ing toward becom-
ing a lawyer. She
clerked with the
Federal Court of
Canada, Trial Div-
ision, was admitted to the bar in
1997 and then joined Torys LLP
as an associate.
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Tétrault — and returned to
more active singing. “Working
as a lawyer, you have some flex-
ibility with your hours,” she
says. “I could rehearse and per-
form at night, if I was prepared
to go back to the office and
work until 1 a.m. or 2 a.m.,
which I did, gladly.”
For a while. After performing
in six operas one year with semi-
professional and amateur com-
panies, Grant decided to scale
back. Now, she sings mostly at
fundraising concerts such as one
in Toronto for the Child
Development Institute (CDI) on
Mother’s Day.
A mother, herself, of a four-
year-old-boy, Grant is married
to a successful cartoonist and
animator. A CDI board mem-
ber, she traces her support for
the organization from her vol-
unteer work at the Kingston
Penitentiary while at law school.
“Most of the criminals had
experienced emotional, sexual
or physical abuse,” she says.
“The CDI has a successful anger
management program that
helps children deal with such
issues. Once they are adults, it’s
very difficult.”
While Grant gets paid for her
singing, she does not do it for
the money. “Not at all,” Grant
says. “I do it because I…can’t…
not… sing.” ;
® THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
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