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History of Our Firm

Our firm traces its roots back to the first union-side labour specialty firms in Ontario. Through dedication to our clients and to the interests of working people and social justice, we have grown from a small firm with a handful of lawyers to a 45-member team. We are proud to have created a culture focused on belonging, excellence and a passion for workers’ rights.
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  • 1960

  • Founding partner Aubrey Golden began one of the first union-side labour law practices in Toronto. He was joined by many others over the decades fighting for worker’s rights and progressive causes, and our firm traces its roots through various iterations: Golden, Green and Starkman; Golden, Green; Golden, Green and Chercover; and Green and Chercover. With the retirement of Barrie Chercover and Maurice Green in 2012, we became Ursel Phillips Fellows Hopkinson LLP.
^

  • 1982

  • Mandatory Retirement – Aubrey Golden represented the Canadian Air Pilots Association in a landmark decision challenging mandatory retirement.‎
^

  • 1992

  • Artists’ Rights – Joshua Phillips represented the Writers Guild of Canada, one of the first groups of artists to be certified and to bargain under the artists’ collective bargaining legislation known as the Status of the Artist Act.
^

  • 1995

  • Hamilton Gay Pride Parade – Susan Ursel represented Joe Oliver in a successful human rights complaint against Hamilton mayor Bob Morrow for his refusal to proclaim Gay Pride Week in 1991, obtaining damages for the client and an order requiring the proclamation in future should it be requested.‎
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^

  • 2000

  • Walkerton Inquiry – Gary Hopkinson represented the Professional Engineers Government of Ontario (PEGO) at the Inquiry set up to examine the contamination of the water supply in Walkerton, Ontario, the worst public health disaster involving municipal water in Canadian history. Gary and PEGO focused on cutbacks to the Ministry of the Environment, which formed an entire chapter of the Commission’s report and which the Inquiry concluded contributed both directly and indirectly to the tragedy in Walkerton.‎
^

  • 2004

  • Pension Rights – Susan Ursel represented Air Canada’s unionised retirees in the company’s insolvency proceedings, successfully working to preserve those retirees’ pensions and entitlements.
^

  • 2004

  • Harassment Law — Ian Fellows won a precedent-setting labour arbitration decision on behalf of a transit worker who was the victim of harassment by his foreperson. This case established a major precedent for protections against harassment, which were held to be implicit in the collective agreement.
^

  • 2011

  • Occupy Toronto – Susan Ursel, Katie Rowen, and Karen Ensslen  represented Occupy Toronto protesters in winning a temporary injunction against eviction under the Trespass to Property Act, although the court ultimately directed that the protesters could not permanently occupy the park.‎
^

  • 2012

  • UPFH – the firm became Ursel Phillips Fellows Hopkinson LLP, with the retirement of Maurice Green and Barrie Chercover from the partnership. At the time, there were 20 lawyers on the UPFH team.
^

  • 2012

  • Trans Rights – Susan Ursel represented a trans client in the precedent-setting case before the HRTO establishing the right to a change of the sex designation on birth certificates.
^

  • 2013

  • Random Drug and Alcohol Testing – Joshua Phillips and Karen Ensslen intervened for the Canadian Civil Liberties’ Association in this precedent-setting case at the Supreme Court of Canada upholding workers’ rights to privacy and restricting employers’ ability to engage in random drug and alcohol testing.‎
^

  • 2014

  • UPFH moved to its present office at 555 Richmond Street West to accommodate our rapidly growing firm, at this time 25+ lawyers.
^

  • 2016

  • Bill 115 and Collective Bargaining Rights – Susan Ursel and Karen Ensslen, representing the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, and Katie Rowen and Kristen Allen representing Unifor, succeeded in obtaining a court order declaring wage-restraint legislation unconstitutional and of no force and effect, and proving that the government’s conduct prior to the passage of the law breached workers’ Charter rights.‎
^

  • 2016

  • Protection from Online Abuse – Ian Fellows and Kassia Bonisteel obtained a declaration that an employer’s social media sites are part of the workplace and that the information being posted on the employer’s Twitter account constituted harassment prohibited by the Human Rights Code. In this case, the Arbitrator found that Employer had failed to take all reasonable measures to protect workers under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.‎
^

  • 2017

  • Truth and Reconciliation Commission – Joanna Birenbaum represented the University of Manitoba, National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in preserving claims records under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA).
^

  • 2017

  • Sears Canada Employees – Susan Ursel and Karen Ensslen represented the interests of 15,000 employees of Sears Canada in the company’s insolvency and liquidation, negotiating a hardship fund for terminated employees, maximizing their severance and termination pay, and engaging with the federal Wage Earner Protection Program to provide timely access to benefits. Our work for Sears Canada employees propelled law reform to improve benefits under the Wage Earner Protection Program.
^

  • 2018

  • Algoma Steel Pensions – Susan Ursel and Karen Ensslen representing 6,000 retired steelworkers, concluded negotiations related to the restructuring of Algoma Steel, which was one of L’expert’s Top 10 Deals of the Year. We effectively protected the pension and health benefits of all Algoma’s retirees through an agreement that gave funding relief to the new company allowing it to emerge from CCAA protection.‎
^

  • 2018

  • Sexual Assault and Harassment by a Supervisor – Ian Fellows and Kassia Bonisteel obtained reinstatement for an employee  who had been sexually harassed and assaulted by her supervisor. The decision reiterated the crucial need for an assessment of the power imbalance in the workplace between a supervisor and a subordinate employee, and reiterated that employers must take care to not stereotype survivor’s reactions to sexual assault and harassment, especially where power imbalance is present.‎
^

  • 2018/2019

  • UPFH added a new wing to our offices to accommodate growth. UPFH has grown to a 30+ lawyer firm.
^

  • 2019

  • Trans Rights – Susan Ursel, Kristen Allen and Emily Elder successfully challenged the Government of Manitoba’s requirement that birth certificates contain a sex designation of either “M” or “F”. The Board of Adjudication found that the Government’s practice was discriminatory and awarded the complainant $50,000 in damages, one of the highest damage awards ever ordered by the Board up to that point.
^

  • 2020

  • Saman Wickramasinghe, Emily Lewsen and Parmbir Gill secured the withdrawal of criminal and Railway Safety Act charges against eight protesters accused of blockading a railway track in Toronto in February 2020, as part of a country-wide effort to halt the construction of an oil pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia.‎
^

  • 2020

  • Right to Arbitration – In March 2020, many employers sought to adjourn all upcoming arbitration dates indefinitely because of the pandemic. Ian Fellows, Dean Ardron, Simon Blackstone, Kassia Bonisteel and Lisa Bush won several of the early precedent-setting cases supporting the transition to Zoom hearings. These awards highlighted the importance of timely labour arbitration to the interest of justice and the flexibility of labour arbitration to adopt to new technology like Zoom, ushering in the modern era of electronic or hybrid hearings.‎
^

  • 2021

  • Unions’ Political Action– Susan Ursel and Kristen Allen, representing the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation successfully challenged legislation that imposed severe restrictions on third party election advertising, which provisions were declared unconstitutional and of no force and effect. This decision was followed by an unprecedented use of the notwithstanding clause by the government, following which our client filed a fresh constitutional challenge, which was successful at the Ontario Court of Appeal, and which is currently under reserve at the Supreme Court of Canada.
^

  • 2022

  • Access to Human Rights Tribunal – Katie Rowen, Kristen Allen and Emily Home represented the intervenor, Peel Regional Police Association, successfully arguing that the HRTO can and should still hear claims from unionized workers following a Supreme Court decision which found there was no such jurisdiction in Manitoba.‎
^

  • 2023

  • Right to Strike– Ian Fellows, Kristen Allen, Joanna Birenbaum, Emily Home and Adriana Zichy successfully challenged essential services legislation that took away TTC workers’ right to strike, including members of our client, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local  113.  This victory was then upheld by the Ontario Court of Appeal, which recognized that any law that entirely eliminates employees’ right to strike after the end of a collective agreement will necessarily infringe their freedom of association rights, with the availability of interest arbitration only a potential justification for the breach.
^

  • 2024

  • Bill 124 –Susan Ursel, Karen Ensslen and Emily Home, representing the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, and alongside other unions and colleagues in the bar, succeeded in overturning wage restraint legislation applicable to 780,000 workers across Ontario’s broader public sector.
^

  • 1960

  • Founding partner Aubrey Golden began one of the first union-side labour law practices in Toronto. He was joined by many others over the decades fighting for worker’s rights and progressive causes, and our firm traces its roots through various iterations: Golden, Green and Starkman; Golden, Green; Golden, Green and Chercover; and Green and Chercover. With the retirement of Barrie Chercover and Maurice Green in 2012, we became Ursel Phillips Fellows Hopkinson LLP.
^

  • 1982

  • Mandatory Retirement – Aubrey Golden represented the Canadian Air Pilots Association in a landmark decision challenging mandatory retirement.
^

  • 1992

  • Artists’ Rights – Joshua Phillips represented the Writers Guild of Canada, one of the first groups of artists to be certified and to bargain under the artists’ collective bargaining legislation known as the Status of the Artist Act.
^

  • 1995

  • Hamilton Gay Pride Parade – Susan Ursel represented Joe Oliver in a successful human rights complaint against Hamilton mayor Bob Morrow for his refusal to proclaim Gay Pride Week in 1991, obtaining damages for the client and an order requiring the proclamation in future should it be requested.
^
^
^

  • 2000

  • Walkerton Inquiry – Gary Hopkinson represented the Professional Engineers Government of Ontario (PEGO) at the Inquiry set up to examine the contamination of the water supply in Walkerton, Ontario, the worst public health disaster involving municipal water in Canadian history. Gary and PEGO focused on cutbacks to the Ministry of the Environment, which formed an entire chapter of the Commission’s report and which the Inquiry concluded contributed both directly and indirectly to the tragedy in Walkerton.
^

  • 2004

  • Pension Rights – Susan Ursel represented Air Canada’s unionised retirees in the company’s insolvency proceedings, successfully working to preserve those retirees’ pensions and entitlements.
^

  • 2004

  • Harassment Law — Ian Fellows won a precedent-setting labour arbitration decision on behalf of a transit worker who was the victim of harassment by his foreperson. This case established a major precedent for protections against harassment, which were held to be implicit in the collective agreement
^

  • 2011

  • Occupy Toronto – Susan Ursel, Katie Rowen, and Karen Ensslen  represented Occupy Toronto protesters in winning a temporary injunction against eviction under the Trespass to Property Act, although the court ultimately directed that the protesters could not permanently occupy the park.
^

  • 2012

  • UPFH – the firm became Ursel Phillips Fellows Hopkinson LLP, with the retirement of Maurice Green and Barrie Chercover from the partnership.  At the time, there were 20 lawyers on the UPFH team.
^

  • 2012

  • Trans Rights – Susan Ursel represented a trans client in the precedent-setting case before the HRTO establishing the right to a change of the sex designation on birth certificates.
^

  • 2013

  • Random Drug and Alcohol Testing – Joshua Phillips and Karen Ensslen intervened for the Canadian Civil Liberties’ Association in this precedent-setting case at the Supreme Court of Canada upholding workers’ rights to privacy and restricting employers’ ability to engage in random drug and alcohol testing
^

  • 2014

  • UPFH moved to its present office at 555 Richmond Street West to accommodate our rapidly growing firm, at this time 25+ lawyers.
^

  • 2016

  • Bill 115 and Collective Bargaining Rights – Susan Ursel and Karen Ensslen, representing the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, and Katie Rowen and Kristen Allen representing Unifor, succeeded in obtaining a court order declaring wage-restraint legislation unconstitutional and of no force and effect, and proving that the government’s conduct prior to the passage of the law breached workers’ Charter rights.
^

  • 2016

  • Protection from Online Abuse – Ian Fellows and Kassia Bonisteel obtained a declaration that an employer’s social media sites are part of the workplace and that the information being posted on the employer’s Twitter account constituted harassment prohibited by the Human Rights Code.  In this case, the Arbitrator found that Employer had failed to take all reasonable measures to protect workers under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.   
^

  • 2017

  • Truth and Reconciliation Commission – Joanna Birenbaum represented the University of Manitoba, National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in preserving claims records under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA).
^

  • 2017

  • Sears Canada Employees – Susan Ursel and Karen Ensslen represented the interests of 15,000 employees of Sears Canada in the company’s insolvency and liquidation, negotiating a hardship fund for terminated employees, maximizing their severance and termination pay, and engaging with the federal Wage Earner Protection Program to provide timely access to benefits. Our work for Sears Canada employees propelled law reform to improve benefits under the Wage Earner Protection Program.
^

  • 2018

  • Algoma Steel Pensions – Susan Ursel and Karen Ensslen representing 6,000 retired steelworkers, concluded negotiations related to the restructuring of Algoma Steel, which was one of L’expert’s Top 10 Deals of the Year.  We effectively protected the pension and health benefits of all Algoma’s retirees through an agreement that gave funding relief to the new company allowing it to emerge from CCAA protection.
^

  • 2018

  • Sexual Assault and Harassment by a Supervisor – Ian Fellows and Kassia Bonisteel obtained reinstatement for an employee  who had been sexually harassed and assaulted by her supervisor.  The decision reiterated the crucial need for an assessment of the power imbalance in the workplace between a supervisor and a subordinate employee, and reiterated that employers must take care to not stereotype survivor’s reactions to sexual assault and harassment, especially where power imbalance is present.
^

  • 2018/2019

  • UPFH added a new wing to our offices to accommodate growth. UPFH has grown to a 30+ lawyer firm.
^

  • 2019

  • Trans Rights – Susan Ursel, Kristen Allen and Emily Elder successfully challenged the Government of Manitoba’s requirement that birth certificates contain a sex designation of either “M” or “F”. The Board of Adjudication found that the Government’s practice was discriminatory and awarded the complainant $50,000 in damages, one of the highest damage awards ever ordered by the Board up to that point
^

  • 2020

  • Saman Wickramasinghe, Emily Lewsen and Parmbir Gill secured the withdrawal of criminal and Railway Safety Act charges against eight protesters accused of blockading a railway track in Toronto in February 2020, as part of a country-wide effort to halt the construction of an oil pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia.
^

  • 2020

  • Right to Arbitration – In March 2020, many employers sought to adjourn all upcoming arbitration dates indefinitely because of the pandemic. Ian Fellows, Dean Ardron, Simon Blackstone, Kassia Bonisteel and Lisa Bush won several of the early precedent-setting cases supporting the transition to Zoom hearings. These awards highlighted the importance of timely labour arbitration to the interest of justice and the flexibility of labour arbitration to adopt to new technology like Zoom, ushering in the modern era of electronic or hybrid hearings.
^

  • 2021

  • Union’s Political Action– Susan Ursel and Kristen Allen, representing the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation successfully challenged legislation that imposed severe restrictions on third party election advertising, which provisions were declared unconstitutional and of no force and effect. This decision was followed by an unprecedented use of the notwithstanding clause by the government, following which our client filed a fresh constitutional challenge, which is currently on appeal at the Ontario Court of Appeal
^

  • 2022

  • Bill 124 –Susan Ursel, Karen Ensslen and Emily Home, representing the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, and alongside other unions and colleagues in the bar, succeeded in overturning wage restraint legislation applicable to 780,000 workers across Ontario’s broader public sector.
^

  • 2022

  • Access to Human Rights Tribunal – Katie Rowen, Kristen Allen and Emily Home represented the intervenor, Peel Regional Police Association, successfully arguing that the HRTO can and should still hear claims from unionized workers following a Supreme Court decision which found there was no such jurisdiction in Manitoba.
^

  • 2023

  • Right to Strike– Ian Fellows, Kristen Allen, Joanna Birenbaum, Emily Home and Adriana Zichy successfully challenged essential services legislation that took away TTC workers’ right to strike, including members of our client, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local  113.  This victory was then upheld by the Ontario Court of Appeal, which recognized that any law that entirely eliminates employees’ right to strike after the end of a collective agreement will necessarily infringe their freedom of association rights, with the availability of interest arbitration only a potential justification for the breach.
^

  • 2024

  • Bill 124 –Susan Ursel, Karen Ensslen and Emily Home, representing the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, and alongside other unions and colleagues in the bar, succeeded in overturning wage restraint legislation applicable to 780,000 workers across Ontario’s broader public sector.