Called to Bar: 1992
Christa is a problem solver and has extensive experience as a strategic advisor and advocate. Her 20-plus year long legal practice focuses on helping corporations and individuals effectively and efficiently manage and resolve insolvency situations and other disputes through litigation in court as well as through alternative dispute resolution, including negotiation and mediation & arbitration (“ADR”).
Christa’s significant experience in advising and advocating in the insolvency and restructuring area includes work on bankruptcies, including Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act proposals, Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (“CCAA”) restructurings, receiverships, loan recoveries, security enforcement, as well as in commercial mortgage foreclosures. She has acted on many noteworthy insolvency matters representing debtors, secured and unsecured creditors from various industries (including energy and energy services, manufacturing, recreation, transportation, lending, and agriculture), buyers, and provincial energy regulators and related entities; and acts for officers of the court, including CCAA monitors, court-appointed receivers, and trustees. She frequently provides strategic and transactional insolvency-related advice to energy corporations, suppliers, buyers, secured creditors, and energy regulators.
Christa is counsel on complex commercial, energy, product liability, estates, and creditors’ rights disputes. She has worked on joint venture and operatorship disputes and various breach of contract and tortious disputes relating to oil & gas operations and transactions, including in the renewable energy and derivative fields, and on international and domestic arbitrations involving energy and other companies. She has extensive experience with judicial and private mediations. She is a mediator on the roster of the Alberta Provincial Court and has appeared before all levels of the Alberta Courts.
Christa writes and/or presents frequently in the fields of insolvency and restructuring law as well as advocacy and ADR, including international and domestic arbitration, mediation and managing legal costs through the systematic use of ADR in the design and use of dispute management systems.
Christa obtained her B.A. with distinction from the University of Calgary and, in 1991, her J.D. from King’s University in Kingston, Ontario. She articled and then became an associate and partner at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP where she worked for over 17 years. Thereafter, she was a partner at Osler, Hoskins & Harcourt LLP for three years. She joined the JSS Barristers partnership on October 1, 2013. She is in the process of completing her LL.M. in dispute resolution at Pepperdine University, California.
Updated March 2023
