Jennifer Egsgard

Egsgard Mediation

Called to the bar in 2002, Jennifer Egsgard has been mediating contract, commercial, insurance, employment, personal injury, product liability and other disputes since 2018.  Jennifer’s legal career included 6 years practicing commercial litigation in Toronto at Fasken, where she was a Vice-Chair of the ADR Practice Group, and 7 years as a partner with Sills Egsgard LLP. 

Jennifer is a credentialed mediator with international recognition and training. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators, a Canadian mediator on the London, UK-based Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) international mediator panel, and appears on the RefertoHer list. She completed the Mediating Commercial Disputes program at Harvard Law School's executive education program, and the Mediator Skills Training course at CEDR. Her early training involved shadowing leading commercial mediators in Canada, the UK, and the US, and she was quoted in a UK Government press release on their mandatory mediation program. She is a frequent speaker at professional organizations, such as the American Bar, Ontario Bar and Canadian Corporate Counsel Associations, International Academy of Mediators,  UK Judicial Liasion Committee, UK Department of Justice, in-house legal teams of large organizations, Scottish Mediators, Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada and various law schools, often on topics related to mediation and dispute resolution. 

Jennifer uses a variety of mediation techniques to address the issues and dynamics that arise in each unique conflict.  Whether it is helping parties to consider legal and evidentiary strengths and weaknesses, costs and risks of proceeding with litigation, or their underlying interests and solutions that address them, or actively listening to detect hidden issues, Jennifer constantly assesses what is required.  

Jennifer  is currently a Member-at-Large Practice Group Leader for the Advocates’ Society Arbitration & Mediation Advocacy Practice Group.  Through the Ontario Bar Association Jennifer recently chaired and co-chaired two major multi-section initiatives, culminating in the OBA’s submission to the Ontario Government recommending expansion of mandatory mediation, and an OBA report highlighting the lack of racial and gender diversity in mediators and arbitrators hired in Ontario and providing concrete recommendations to address the problem. Jennifer is committed to ongoing mediation skill development and regularly attends mediation conferences in Canada and elsewhere via the International Academy of Mediators, a membership organization of leading commercial mediators with whom she also organizes and attends monthly professional development webinars.