Practical employment law solutions for Employers and Employees.
Mediation, workplace investigations, workplace restoration, and legal advocacy. Grounded in 20 years of practice on both sides of the table.
Common sense. Common law. Uncommon results.
I’m an employer
Whether you need a fair, defensible workplace investigation, help rebuilding a team after conflict, sound policies and contracts, or advice on managing a difficult departure properly, we help you act early, act fairly, and reduce risk.
I’m an employee
If you've been terminated, offered a severance package, harassed or discriminated against at work, or denied disability benefits, we help you understand your rights and entitlements, and craft solutions that work in the real world.
I’m looking for a mediator
Assembling a shortlist? Ella Forbes-Chilibeck is a Qualified Mediator (ADR Institute of Canada), Harvard-trained, with 20 years acting for both employers and employees. A neutral who can give each room a credible, realistic assessment.
Resolving workplace conflict.
A neutral where you want one. An advocate when you need one.
Mediation
Common Ground.
Twenty years acting for both employers and employees is the neutrality credential that matters: Ella knows how each side thinks, and both rooms know it.
A Qualified Mediator (ADR Institute of Canada) trained in intensive mediation at Harvard Law School, she mediates employment, labour, and human rights disputes in efficient half-day and full-day sessions, virtually anywhere in Canada, or in person. Published rates, live availability calendar.
Workplace Investigations
What Happened?
Because Ella acts for both employers and employees in her broader practice, her impartiality is structural, not aspirational.
Certified by the Canadian Association of Workplace Investigators since 2016, she conducts procedurally fair, trauma-informed investigations into harassment, discrimination, violence, and misconduct for unionized and non-unionized workplaces across Canada, provincially and federally regulated, delivered promptly, documented thoroughly, and built to withstand scrutiny.
Workplace Restoration
What Now?
An investigation answers what happened. Workplace restoration helps teams rebuild trust, strengthen relationships, and move forward after conflict.
As a certified Workplace Fairness Analyst and certified organizational coach, Ella helps teams rebuild trust and working relationships after conflict, including one-on-one coaching for the leaders who must carry the workplace forward.
Employment Law & Litigation
Taking Sides.
For 20 years, Ella has advised and represented employers and employees across Ontario and in federally regulated workplaces on complex employment and workplace matters.
The practice includes terminations and severance, employment contracts, workplace policies, human rights and discrimination complaints, disability benefits and accommodation, and representation before the courts and federal and provincial boards and tribunals.
20 years of employment & labour law practice • CAWI-certified Workplace Investigator since 2016 • Qualified Mediator (ADR Institute of Canada) • Harvard Law School mediation training
Forbes Chilibeck Workplace Law | Investigations | Mediation practises exactly what its name says. Exclusively employment and workplace law, providing advice and representation to employers and employees in Ontario and in federally regulated workplaces, and workplace investigation, mediation, and restoration services across Canada. Founded in 2016 and based in Ottawa, the firm works in person and virtually, wherever the file is.
Ella has appeared before the courts and federal and provincial boards and tribunals, including the Ontario Superior Court, the Federal Court, the Canada Industrial Relations Board, the Ontario Labour Relations Board, and the Canadian, Ontario and Nunavut Human Rights Tribunals. We are committed to improving the lives of others through charitable work, professional education, and writing on workplace issues.
The conditions in which a person works are highly significant in shaping the whole compendium of psychological, emotional and physical elements of a person's dignity and self-respect.
- Wallace v. United Grain Growers Ltd., [1997] 3 S.C.R.
Not sure where your situation fits?
Contact us for a consultation and we'll help you find the right path forward.