Chilwin Cheng and Janessa Mason, along with Jeremy Gellis of Cozen O’Connor, co-chair the first-ever conference about white-collar crime and regulatory enforcement hosted by the Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia.

This conference brings together leaders in the industry, including Trevor Shaw, the Director of the Province of B.C.'s Criminal Appeals and Special Prosecutions branch and David Avren, Vice President, Legal for the new B.C. Financial Services Authority. Leading practitioners such as Andrew Nathanson, K.C. (in the environmental crimes panel) and Greg Del Biggio, K.C. (in the tax evasion panel) will speak about their areas.

Regulatory offences, an area of focus for Ascendion Law, is a complex area of law involving the government. Offences are prosecuted by the state as if they were criminal offences. Persons accused of regulatory offences can be jailed, ordered to pay fines, or ordered to serve a term of probation. However, the courts have treated these types of offences, such as securities fraud, environmental dumping, and unsafe workplaces, differently than classic criminal offences. Defending people in these proceedings also requires advanced strategic insight. Often, one is not only facing quasi-criminal prosecution, but counsel must also consider parallel administrative proceedings and civil claims. Clients benefit when they retain counsel with sophisticated and in-depth experience in the criminal, administrative, and civil litigation fields who understand how each area of exposure is unique and how they overlap.

CLEBC is hosting this conference virtually on Monday, 14 November 2022. You can find out more by visiting Regulatory Proceedings and Criminal Offences 2022 | CLE BC Online Store.

We look forward to seeing you at the conference.