What draws me most to the practice of law is being able to defend my client’s rights and interests with integrity in a structured, well-rounded, and personalized way.
Allison Turner is unique among Quebec bilingual lawyers with a developing practice in Business and Human Rights built on years of complex commercial litigation, insurance, and class action work, and almost a decade as trial, appellate and post-appellate counsel in genocide and other international cases.
She advises on Canada’s new Supply Chains Act (Bill S-211, An Act to enact the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act and to amend the Customs Tariff) and, more broadly, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and related statutory and soft law instruments.
Allison brings to the table the rare perspective of a practitioner with wide-ranging hands-on experience leading investigations involving state entities as well as lay, government and expert witnesses most notably from the African Great Lakes region. She also conducted extensive research into the root causes of atrocity crimes and human rights abuses in this region.
Allison worked as a lawyer-analyst for Axa Boreal Insurance for over two years in the Specialty Lines division where she handled hundreds of E&O, D&O and CGL policies claims files. Her responsibilities included identifying and analyzing coverage issues, establishing reserves, delegating and supervising mandates to law firms and adjusters, and negotiating and resolving a variety of claims files. Allison also served as in-house counsel at the Professional Liability Insurance Fund for the Chambre des notaires du Québec.
Allison began her career at Blakely Gascon and Larose & Associates as a civil and commercial litigator. In 1997, she made the move to insurance law at Robinson Sheppard Shapiro where she managed the broad research and disclosure components of complex cases against insurers (clients) sued in the context of class action lawsuits against the insureds.
After working at the United Nations, Allison returned to private practice at Savonitto & Associates, and then GWBR, practicing civil and commercial litigation and professional liability. She then served a diverse client base in local and international human rights law as a sole practitioner for several years before joining Delegatus.
Allison has a master’s degree in international law, published peer-reviewed articles in international journals and has been invited to present at numerous universities and international law conferences.