Stephanie Afilalo

Advisory services for a safe and successful workplace

Stephanie Afilalo has substantial experience in various areas of law, most notably labour law, conflict resolution and human resources. As Senior Legal Counsel at a major national cosmetic corporation, Stephanie oversaw legal aspects of labour and employment law and worked together with human resources on major restructuring projects. Stephanie routinely gave corporate-wide trainings on various topics, and she conducted workplace investigations and imposed proper disciplinary measures if required. Stephanie has extensive experience in drafting and revising contracts in various areas of law. Her skills also include:

• Workplace harassment training.
• Development of harassment policies in the workplace.
• Review and development of procedures for dealing with complaints.
• Respectful workplace audits.
• Treatment, investigation, and analysis of harassment complaints in the workplace.
• Implementation of alternative dispute resolution methods such as mediation.

Stephanie worked as in-house counsel, then senior counsel at Avon Canada Inc. for six years. She was recognized by her peers for demonstrating service excellence and for her role in the successful completion of significant projects, including major restructuring undertakings and creating and presenting bilingual educational trainings for employees in the workplace. Stephanie has vast experience in managing workplace investigations, drafting and reviewing numerous contracts and monitoring ongoing programs, policies and operations to ensure legal compliance.

Before the above, Stephanie worked as a lawyer and labour relations manager at the Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital (CIUSSS West-Central). She was the employer representative for all matters pertaining to the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) and their unionized associates. Stephanie managed all harassment and violence complaints between employees, and drafted employment agreements, disciplinary and termination letters, demand letters, proceedings, settlements, release and transactions, and so forth. She also worked with management and staff to resolve pre-litigation disputes.

Stephanie worked at Phillips Friedman Kotler LLP, where she focused primarily on civil law and contracts. Her first experience in private practice was working during the summer and then articling at Heenan Blaikie LLP, before pursuing her Juris Doctor at the University of Montréal.

• Partnered with Human Resources on several restructuring projects.
• Partnered with Human Resources on creating an employee handbook that was inclusive of all company policies and procedures, many of which were newly drafted.
• Oversaw legal aspects on the creation of the company’s online shopping website.
• Created and drafted internal policy on the Canada Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) and trained all associates nationwide in person, by webinar or teleconference.
• Created template contracts for several departments in order to reduce misinterpretation and inefficiency.