Cheryl D’Sa

Cheryl D’Sa, a civil litigator, dispute strategist, and mediator is the managing partner of the firm, an elected bencher of the Law Society of British Columbia, Past President of the Vancouver Bar Association and recipient of Business in Vancouver’s Top 40 under 40 award. In 2021, she was awarded an Excellence Award in the category of Female Trailblazer of the Year by Canadian Lawyer Magazine’s Canadian Law Awards.

Ms. D’Sa brings over thirteen years of experience to the firm in both insurance defense and plaintiff personal injury. Working as an ICBC defence lawyer earlier in her career has given Ms. D’Sa a wealth of knowledge which she now applies to her plaintiff files. She has appeared in all levels of Court in British Columbia. In addition to car accident and sports & recreation cases, Ms. D’Sa has handled personal injury files arising out of occupier’s liability such as slip and falls. Ms. D’Sa has represented clients with chronic pain, soft-tissue injuries, psychological injuries, orthopedic injuries and numerous other injuries.

Ms. D’Sa has been an elected bencher of the Law Society of British Columbia since May 2020. She is currently a member of the Practice Standards Committee, the Rule of Law Committee and the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committee. She has previously served on the Complainants’ Review Committee and Access to Justice Committee.

In November 2016, Ms. D’Sa was elected by her peers to be a Director of the Vancouver Bar Association and was the Chair of the Articling Committee, Childcare Committee and CLE Committee. The Vancouver Bar Association (VBA) is an over 1500 member strong organization serving lawyers and the legal community in the Vancouver area. In November 2018, Ms. D’Sa became the President of the VBA and held that role until November of 2019.
In 2019, Ms. D’Sa was invited to speak as a panelist at The Advocates’ Society’s Women in Litigation Symposium. In 2020 Ms. D’Sa was one of three panelists for the Allard Law Mawhinney Lecture in Professional Ethics.
Ms. D’Sa has also taken on leadership roles for the Canadian Bar Association, BC Branch. In August 2013, she was appointed to the CBABC Scholarship Task Force, whose mandate is to review entrance scholarship commitments at three of British Columbia’s law Schools – the University of Victoria, the University of British Columbia, and Thompson Rivers University – and explore options for generating funds to meet existing and future commitments. In January 2014, Ms. D’Sa was appointed to the CBABC Annual Conference Committee on which she served for multiple years. Effective August 2014, Ms. D’Sa became the Chair of the CBABC General Practice, Solo & Small Firm – Lower Mainland Section, and held that position for multiple years. She has also been appointed to the Automobile Insurance Committee of the Canadian Bar Association BC Branch three times. The Committee considers issues related to auto insurance, the practice of personal injury law and insurance. Its mandate is to identify issues of concern to the Bar in its relationship with ICBC and to liaise with ICBC and other concerned agencies. In August 2016, Ms. D’Sa was also appointed to the CBABC Business of Law Committee. As a member of the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia, Ms. D’Sa has created and presented training programs to answer questions and provide practical advice on issues faced in the practice of law, and as part of the “Trial By Fire” series. In 2017 she was a Panelist for the Municipal Insurance Association Risk Management Conference discussing motor vehicle accident claims from the claimant’s perspective.

Ms. D’Sa is active in providing continuing education programs in the legal and medical professions. She created and taught a three-part series of lectures at the UBC Medical School on Personal Injury Law with lectures held at the Vancouver General Hospital Diamond Health Care Centre and broadcasted live to the UBC Medical School campuses. Ms. D’Sa was honoured to be the only plaintiff personal injury lawyer invited to present at the CIRA Medical Seminar “Chronic Pain: A Multidisciplinary Approach” in 2014 where she discussed recent BC Supreme Court cases involving psychological aspects of chronic pain.

Mentorship is important to Ms. D’Sa who received both her B.A. and LL.B from the University of British Columbia and continued to serve the University as a mentor to law students through the CBABC/UBC Faculty of Law Mentorship Program for five years. She has also been a mentor with the CBABC Women Lawyers Forum for two years and a mentor for the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers Ladies Social. Ms. D’Sa has also been a guest speaker at Allard Law where she was asked to discuss her plaintiff personal injury practice and the many benefits of practicing in a boutique firm. She has twice been a Guest Judge for the Civil Chambers Advocacy Exercise as part of the Professional Legal Training Course and has also been a Moot Court Judge at Allard Law.