Forbes Chilibeck
Workplace Law | Investigations | Mediation

Ella Forbes-Chilibeck came to law late and somewhat sideways. She was a therapist for twenty years first, working predominantly with learning-disabled individuals and young offenders: teaching coping skills, managing conflict, and helping families get through some of the hardest times of their lives. It's not a conventional path to a law practice, but it turned out to be useful preparation for one.

Called to the Ontario bar in 2006, she has spent the twenty years since practising employment and labour law for both employers and employees, with one standard on both sides of the table. For employees, that means standing up for fair treatment where it hasn't been offered. For employers, it means getting it right: lawful decision making, fair process, creating workplaces that don't generate the next complaint. She helps employers do the right thing. That consistency is why both sides value her advice. It is what she brings with her before the courts, labour boards, and human rights tribunals in federal and provincial jurisdictions, into her years as a senior faculty-relations executive for Canadian universities, and through a decade of coaching dispute resolution at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law and, more recently, with the ADR Institute of Canada.

That breadth anchors her work as a mediator, certified workplace investigator, and workplace restoration practitioner alongside her legal practice. The credentials live on the services pages. What they add up to is someone who understands every side of a workplace dispute, and who learned to sit with people in conflict long before law school.

Away from the files, Ella has volunteered for over a decade helping cancer survivors navigate the return to work, seven years on the Board of the Canadian Dermatology Society, six years on the Board of the Ottawa Chamber Music Society and was honoured by Ottawa's HR community with its award for outstanding volunteer service. She writes and speaks nationally and internationally. The full history is on the Speaking & Publications page.