Our Team

Sarah Graves is a partner in Heenan Blaikie’s Toronto office. Sarah focuses her practice on all aspects of employment law and human rights. Sarah represents private and public employers and academic institutions on matters such as employment standards, employment contracts, wrongful dismissal, workplace investigations, human rights including sexual harassment claims involving allegations of sexual assault, whistleblower claims, accommodation and disability and leave laws. Her cases often include complex privilege and e-discovery issues. Sarah regularly provides strategic and practical advice to employers on a wide range of issues including multi-jurisdiction and international reorganizations. Sarah also represents employers dealing with wage and hour claims including conducting wage and hour audits and advising regarding class action avoidance strategies.

Sarah joined Heenan Blaikie after more than ten years as an employment litigator with a major US law firm in New York and Connecticut litigating cases in state and federal court. This US employment litigation experience enables Sarah to provide trusted advice to US and multinational employers on cross-border issues. She also conducts training programs on Canadian labour and employment law.

Sarah has conducted investigations on varied topics including allegations of discrimination, sexual harassment, employee misconduct including theft and fraud, and whistleblower claims. She has extensive experience advising clients on the conduct of investigations including investigation design, documentation, privilege issues, and report writing. Sarah is a contributing editor of Heenan Blaikie’s Workplace Investigations newsletter. Sarah regularly conducts training programs for executives, managers, human resources professionals and in-house lawyers on a variety of topics including the conduct of effective investigations, human rights and harassment prevention.  

A frequent public speaker, Sarah has spoken on topics such as wage and hour class actions, investigations, complex privilege issues, employment standards and the strategic partnership between legal and human resources.

A graduate of Dalhousie Law School, Sarah obtained an LL.M from New York University School of Law. During her studies at New York University Sarah was awarded the Seymour Goldstein Memorial Prize for academic excellence in labour relations.

Sarah is admitted in the United States District Court District of Connecticut (1996), the Southern District of New York (1996) and the Eastern District of Michigan (2006).