Team

Christine O’Doherty has been CIAJ’s Executive Director since 2017. A bilingual lawyer experienced in professional, labour and commercial law, she has contributed to developing and implementing effective government relations and public affairs strategies for a number of major organizations. Ms. O’Doherty has taught at the Faculté de pharmacie de l’Université de Montréal for 14 years, where she was responsible for the implementation of the soft skills curriculum for graduate and undergraduate students. In her spare time she writes fiction.

Nathan is a recent graduate of McGill’s BCL/LLB program and is CIAJ’s first articling student. He has clerked at the Montreal Municipal Court, as well as involved himself in Montreal-based access to justice organizations such as The Mile End Legal Clinic, the Centre for Research-Action and Race Relations and the Concordia Student Union Legal Information Clinic. At CIAJ Nathan conducts legal research on our Nation Discussions, pens reports and helps develop CIAJ’s student initiatives.

Maria happily joined CIAJ after working as a lawyer in private practice with Gowling WLG, and originally, with an intellectual property boutique in Montreal. A proud Newfoundlander, Maria completed her B.Sc. and B.A. at Memorial University. While pursuing her J.D. at Dalhousie University, Maria was awarded the James A. MacDonald Award and the Eunice Beeson Memorial Prize for her academic success and scholarly involvement. For her articles, Maria worked as a Law Clerk at the Tax Court of Canada. Maria obtained her Civil Law degree at the University of Ottawa in 2012 and loves living in Montreal.

Vicki is a project manager of all the judicial programs at CIAJ since 2014. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Concordia University, an Event Planning Certificate from LaSalle College and as of May 2017, she became a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP). When Vicki isn’t planning CIAJ events throughout Canada, she likes to cook and spend time in the great outdoors biking around Montreal. 

Isabelle enjoys developing creative communication strategies and building bridges between people. Her work at CIAJ includes writing and translating various texts, creating brochures and designing visuals, and managing all web content. Isabelle graduated from the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal. A language lover, she also holds a certificate in translation from McGill University, where she pursues graduate studies in legal translation. 

Mary is the coordinator for non-judicial programs, making sure that everything runs smoothly, and everyone is well taken care of.  She holds a Bachelors in Sociology and a Bachelors in Child Studies from Concordia University.  She enjoys solving puzzles, getting caught up on reading her pile of books. One of the things on her to do list is travel to Australia and New Zealand.

Lynne is a project coordinator of the judicial programs. In her last role as sales coordinator, she worked as a liaison between the sales team, channel partners, project designers and customer service staff to ensure a smooth execution of projects in Canada and the US. Lynne’s career background also includes several years experience in software training, customer service and accounting. Having spent most of her life in New Brunswick, Ontario and travelling all over the world, she now has planted her roots in Montreal.

Ms. Martine Valois, Ad.E. is an Associate Professor at the Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Law. She is a graduate of this faculty (LL.B. and LL.D.) and Harvard University (LL.M.). Ms. Valois was Principal Drafting Advisor to the Commission of Inquiry on the nomination process of judges in Quebec (Bastarache Commission). Professor Valois is a researcher at the Centre de droit des affaires et du commerce international [Centre for Business and International Trade Law]. In 2018, she was a visiting researcher at the Max-Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Saale, Germany. Her areas of research include judicial independence, legal theory and administrative justice. She is the author of several books related to these topics.