Simon Chester A partner at Heenan Blaikie since 2004, Simon Chester is a member of our Toronto Litigation and Business Law groups. His practice focuses on knowledge management, research and legal opinions specifically. He has been a pioneer over the past 25 five years in the application of technology to the practice of law.
Simon studied Jurisprudence at University College, Oxford, and on winning the Canadian Rhodes Trust Scholarship did post-graduate work at Osgoode Hall Law School. After a decade in the Ontario government, he joined another major Toronto law firm as research partner. His earlier career included work as a faculty member at Osgoode Hall, on the research staff of the Ontario Law Reform Commission, and as Executive Counsel to the Attorney General of Ontario.
He has extensive experience in privacy and e-commerce.
Simon has held leadership positions in professional organizations and was the first non-American to chair the American Bar Association’s Tech Show. He chairs the ABA Law Practice Management Section’s Editorial Advisory Board. He served as President of the College of Law Practice Management and as President of the Oxford University Society in Toronto; he is a director of the Canadian Rhodes Scholars' Foundation.
Simon has often testified before House of Commons and Senate Committees and is a frequent speaker at American, Canadian, Asian and European conferences on technology, international law and law practice management issues. He has contributed articles to the American Lawyer, International Business Lawyer, International Financial Law Review, Law Practice Management, CAMagazine, CBA National, Business Law International and the ABA Journal. He has written chapters for Winning with Technology, The Quality Pursuit, Environmental Rights in Canada and Canadian Legal Practice.
Simon has been awarded Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating (“AV”) for his skills and sense of ethics. Education
LL.M., York University (Osgoode Hall Law School), 2003 M.A., University of Oxford, 1979 B.A., University of Oxford, 1971 Professional Affiliations
American Bar Association Canadian Bar Association Law Society of England and Wales
Publications and Conferences Conflicts of Interest, Briefly Speaking, Ontario Bar Association, December 2008 Technology and the Hourly Billing Challenge, practicePro, summer 2008 edition Do Privacy Risks Doom Outsourcing?, Excerpt from Counsel to Counsel, Horizon Issues - Information Technology, September 2004 PIPEDA Reference Raises Vital Constitutional Questions From Canadian Privacy Law Review - Vol.1, No.5, Special Issue - The Quebec Constitutional Challenge to PIPEDA, March 2004 Zapping the Paparazzi: Is the Tort of Privacy Alive and Well?, The Advocates' Quarterly (Vol.27, Number 4), December 2003 Privacy in the 21st Century: Priority for Pharmaceutical Companies, Corporate Counsel Magazine, November 2002 Privacy set to become constitutional battleground, The Lawyers Weekly, June 2002
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