Photo: Yasmin Shaker
Former Invest Ontario general counsel Yasmin Shaker has been announced as a new partner in McMillan LLP’s international trade team.
She is an expert in global trade and cross-border regulatory issues who in a legal career spanning more than two decades has worked in government, public institutions, and private practice. In a LinkedIn post, McMillan international trade partner William Pellerin described Shaker as “a rare person who has government experience, big firm experience and GC experience.”
Shaker was once a counsel at Dentons, concentrating on international trade, investment, financing, regulatory, corporate/commercial, anti-corruption, sanctions, forced labour, procurement, and ESG. She was also regulatory head and associate general counsel (North America) at Clever Leaves, where she oversaw North America-related legal concerns like corporate/commercial, data privacy (including GDPR), compliance, risk analysis, international trade, investment, regulatory, consumer products (including labeling), and intellectual property.
She supervised and coordinated with outside counsel and internal clients to help the company expand in the US and Canada, according to her LinkedIn profile. She also spearheaded engagements with government regulatory bodies, officials, and national industry associations; moreover, she led Clever Leaves’ international ESG initiative.
Shaker was deputy director and senior counsel (trade law bureau) at Global Affairs Canada, where she spent over 12 years. She was the lead counsel on several NAFTA renegotiation (commercial trade agreement) chapters and acted for Canada in international commercial litigation before the WTO.
Shaker led the team counseling the federal government on matters involving regulatory, administrative, food safety, labeling, goods, procurement, IP, data protection, Indigenous, development, environment, sustainability, labour and gender legal issues, and FIPPA. She served as senior counsel on the new FIPA model and spearheaded a progressive and inclusive trade agenda. Moreover, she once co-chaired the NAFTA Article 2022: Advisory Committee on Private Commercial Disputes.
She has tackled free trade agreement obligations, sanctions and export controls, procurement, forced labour and supply chain compliance, ESG risk, regulatory constraints on cross-border investment, and large-scale financing and incentive arrangements involving public and private capital,
Shaker was a special advisor to the Office of the Minister of International Trade while on secondment. She was a counsel with the Ministry of the Attorney General.
Her commencement with McMillan LLP marks her return to private practice after she shifted to government roles in 2005. She will work from the firm’s Toronto office.