Background

Following my call to the Ontario bar in 1994, I began my career on Bay Street at a large national firm where I practiced civil litigation and class actions for several years. Embracing my parents’ entrepreneurial spirit, I later founded two leading litigation boutiques, the most recent being Podrebarac Barristers Professional Corporation, which has been consistently recognized by LEXPERT as “repeatedly recommended” for corporate commercial litigation in Toronto. My passion for resolving disputes led me to pursue extensive mediator training with top mediators and, eventually, a career as a mediator.   In April 2017, I established Podrebarac Mediation.* I was inducted into the Canadian Academy of Distinguished Neutrals in 2022. I devote my practice to acting as a mediator and completing my work on two class actions.

Experience and Expertise

In over 30 years of practice, I have always acted for both plaintiffs and defendants, even in class actions. I have been privileged to act for some of Canada’s largest public companies in litigation involving billions of dollars, small family-run businesses in bet-the-company litigation, as well as a wide array of individuals, from top corporate directors to sick people on social assistance. While the types of cases and clients have been quite diverse, common to each was the need to build trust, rapport and connection. I use this essential skill as a mediator.

I have expertise in several areas of the law. Complex commercial cases and class actions have been the cornerstones of my practice, but over the years I developed expertise in many other areas which you can read about in the Expertise section of this website.

I also know “the system”.   In addition to litigating before every level of the courts in Ontario and the federal courts, I have appeared before the superior courts of every province in Canada west of Nova Scotia and several courts of appeal. In 2016, four of my cases were resolved in my clients’ favour at the Supreme Court of Canada. But, for every case that I have litigated or arbitrated, I have successfully resolved dozens more.

A Skilled Mediator Trained By The Best

Settling complex disputes through well-honed negotiation skills for more than three decades has given me tremendous insight into how to facilitate the parties’ negotiation in a mediation. I have also devoted myself to learning the craft of great mediators by undertaking extensive training with leading mediators at Harvard Law School and the top-ranked Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law in California. In addition, I have learned and practised the latest techniques for breaking deadlocks in negotiations, dealing with difficult people, and facilitating multi-party negotiations at specialized courses I have taken through the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. I have also completed Advanced Commercial Mediation Training.

Professional Involvement

I have served as a director of The Advocates’ Society and on the executive of the Civil Litigation and the Class Actions Sections of the Ontario Bar Association. I was a founding director of the Canadian Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, an international centre for excellence for alternative dispute resolution based in London, England.

For many years I have chaired conferences and spoken extensively at continuing legal education programs for The Advocatesʼ Society, the Ontario Bar Association, Osgoode Professional Development and others. The Law Society of Upper Canada has invited me to speak on legal ethics and professionalism issues at several of its programs. A list of my more than 70 speaking, teaching and mentoring engagements can be found  here.