About Our Speakers
Click on the button below each image to read more about each of our Annual Meeting speakers. Presented in alphabetical order.
Journalist
Author of Escape from Kabul -The Afghan Women Judges Who Fled the Taliban and Those They Left Behind
Samuel E. Gates Award Recipient
Associate Professor, Don Wright Faculty of Music and Associate Member, Western Centre for Brain and Mind
Vascular Surgeon-Scientist, University Health Network, Peter Munk Cardiac Centre
Beverley McLachlin Access to Justice Award Recipient
Author of Turf Wars and former executive director of the National Football League Players Association.
Canadian Art Historian and former director of the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Panel Presentation: How a Law Firm Trio Secured the Largest Wrongful Conviction Verdict in U.S. History
Panelists Include the three lawyers who banded together - including one pro bono - to represent wrongfully convicted Darryl Boyd, who spent 27 years in prison, ultimately securing the largest wrongful conviction jury verdict awarded to a single person in U.S. history for him and his family.
- Ross E. Firsenbaum | WilmerHale (New York, NY)
- Spencer Durland | Hoover & Durland LLP(Buffalo, NY)
- Joel B. Rudin | Law Offices of Joel B. Rudin, P.C.(New York, NY)
Panel Presentation: Escape from Kabul - How Women Judges Across the World Banded Together to Rescue Women Judges from Afghanistan
Moderated by:
- Karen Bartlett, UK journalist and author of “The Escape from Kabul”. Waterstones has included Escape from Kabul in its list of The Non-Fiction You Need to Read in 2025
Panelists Include:
- Judge Vanessa Ruiz, District Columbia Court of Appeals, a US member of the International Associated of Women Judges, who was involved in the escape and resettlement
- Justice Mona Lynch, Supreme Court of Nova Scotia; Canadian member of the International Associated of Women Judges who was involved in the escape and resettlement
- Tayeba Parsa, formerly a Judge in the Commercial Court in Afghanistan.
