Chelsea Erin Smith

“Through my work at the UN in Geneva and in class actions at McKenzie Lake, I have learned the importance of strength in numbers.”

Chelsea Smith is a bilingual associate on McKenzie Lake’s highly experienced class actions team. Her practice focuses on representing plaintiffs in class action, mass tort, and complex multi-party litigation.

Prior to her call to the Ontario Bar in 2017, Chelsea worked at McKenzie Lake as a summer student and articling student. During this time, she assisted with several class actions and developed a keen interest in achieving justice through class action litigation. As part of the class actions team, Chelsea works and has worked on many high-profile cases, including the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre class action, the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal class action, the 2011 Manitoba flood class action, and some of the largest pharmaceutical and consumer class actions in Canada.

Through strength in numbers, class actions provide access to justice for those who might otherwise be unable to pursue their claims. Chelsea is committed to providing access to justice in both official languages. Although London is her hometown, she has also lived in Quebec (Trois-Pistoles, Alma, and Quebec City) and in France (Ornex). Living in Quebec and France allowed Chelsea to transform her passion for the French language into fluency. During law school, Chelsea’s passion for the French language continued and led her to pursue a Diplôme de français juridique and an LL.B. in Quebec civil law in addition to her Juris Doctor degree.

Committed to enhancing the bilingual capacity of Ontario’s future and current legal professionals as an essential step in improving access to justice in French, Chelsea has worked as an adjunct professor at Western Law, where she taught two upper-year Juris Doctor courses and one LL.M. course in French. Before joining McKenzie Lake, Chelsea worked at the United Nations (UN) in Geneva, briefing the Canadian Ambassador and First Secretary, Legal Affairs on a variety of public international law issues.