Called to Bar: 1991
Carsten is a founding member and senior partner of JSS Barristers, the largest civil litigation boutique law firm in Western Canada. His practice emphasizes corporate & commercial litigation, class actions, energy litigation, shareholder disputes and professional negligence.
Carsten has represented governments, airlines, firms, and individuals, and he acts for the Alberta Lawyers Indemnity Association in defence of professional negligence claims.
Carsten has extensive trial and appellate experience and is frequently retained by other law firms in conflict matters.
Carsten has significant arbitration and hearing panel experience, both as counsel and as a neutral. For example, in 2012 Carsten served as lead counsel in a complex arbitration proceeding dealing with a price adjustment for environmental costs on the sale of a package of oil & gas assets in western Canada, with an asserted claim value in excess of $800 million. Carsten is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb) and serves as a member of its Professional Conduct Committee.
During a leave of absence from JSS Barristers from 1998 to 2000, Carsten served as Senior Legal Officer at the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva, Switzerland, dealing with claims from the first Persian Gulf war, including Kuwait’s oil loss claim arising from well fires started by departing Iraqi forces.
Carsten was lead counsel on the largest securities class action in Canada which settled in 2009 and is presently lead counsel in several other class actions including data breach and privacy cases.
Carsten is a past bencher of the Law Society of Alberta, also serving a one-year term as President of the Law Society starting in February 2013. Carsten previously served two terms as Chair of the Law Society’s Conduct Committee, and he served as Chair of Credentials and Education and Chair of Finance. Carsten is currently Alberta’s representative to the Federation of Law Societies of Canada.
Carsten is a past member of the board of ALIEX, the insurance reciprocal which provided professional liability insurance to Alberta lawyers. Carsten was formerly Vice-President of the Alberta Civil Trial Lawyers Association, and he was appointed King’s Counsel in 2006.
Updated March 2023
