Mary Kathleen Kinch

She is a graduate of McMaster University’s Arts & Science programme and UBC Faculty of Law. While attending UBC, she was named one of Maclean’s magazine’s “Best and Brightest” university scholars, and received the Raymond G. Herbert award for best all-round graduating student in her law school class. She then spent a year as a judicial law clerk at the British Columbia Supreme Court, the trial-level court in that province. She practised at a large litigation firm in downtown Vancouver from 2006 until 2014, representing professionals in civil litigation and regulatory matters, and acting for individuals in family law disputes. She also served as co-counsel in the first modern prosecution of polygamy in Canada, and as a deputy independent supervising solicitor in a court-ordered investigation. She was on the litigation team in DESWUAV v. Canada (the leading Supreme Court of Canada decision on public interest standing in Canada) and in DESWUAV’s successful intervention in Canada v. Bedford.

In 2014, Ms. Kinch returned to her hometown of Warkworth, Ontario and established a litigation practice based in Campbellford, where she attended high school. While at Campbellford District High School, she was awarded the Pinkerton scholarship and the 1997 Governor General’s Academic Bronze Medal for the top student in the graduating high school class. Ms. Kinch is pleased to serve the legal needs of the community that provided her first jobs and early education.

In Ontario, Ms. Kinch represents clients in the Superior Court of Justice and before many administrative bodies. Ms. Kinch particularly enjoys files that require inquiry and investigation into the history or future of a piece of land, a group of people or a long-standing local business or farm, all common themes in her work in estates cases, employment law, zoning matters, and administrative decisions with high stakes outcomes for the people involved.