Freya Kristjanson practices administrative law, pension and benefits and civil litigation. Freya is recognized in The Best Lawyers in Canada 2010 in the fields of Administrative and Public Law and Class Actions.  She is recognized in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory in the field of Litigation – Public Law.  Freya has argued leading cases before the Supreme Court of Canada, the Federal Courts, all levels of court in Ontario and a wide variety of administrative tribunals.  Freya teaches Administrative Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto.

In the area of administrative law, Freya provides advice and representation to public sector and private sector clients on a range of issues including statutory interpretation, the conduct of investigations, accountability and oversight, discipline, freedom of information, governance, and the development of rules, policies and guidelines.  She has significant experience in appeals and judicial reviews, and extensive public inquiry experience.  She acted as Lead Counsel for the Military Police Complaints Commission in the Afghanistan Public Interest Hearings from 2007-2009; Legal Counsel to the Arar Inquiry, Policy Review, dealing with oversight of the RCMP’s national security activities; and Commission Counsel to the Walkerton Inquiry, which examined contamination of the municipal drinking water supply in Walkerton.  She acted for the Rt. Hon. A. Kim Campbell and her staff at the Somalia Inquiry, and for the Government of Ontario in the Patti Starr Inquiry. Freya is a past Chair of the Constitutional and Civil Liberties Section of the Canadian Bar Association, Ontario.

In the area of pension & benefits, Freya has experience providing advice, opinions and representation on a range of pension issues including plan governance, duties of trustees, administrators and sponsors, plan design and funding, liability, plan wind-ups and partial wind-ups, member claims and class actions.  In 2008, she was re-appointed by the  Financial Service Tribunal to serve as a member of the Legal Advisory Committee to the Tribunal, which hears regulatory decisions involving pension plans in Ontario.  Freya is a former Member of the Executive of the Pension & Benefits Section, Ontario Bar Association.

Freya has extensive civil litigation experience in a wide variety of commercial litigation and class actions matters.  Freya has taught trial advocacy both at the University of Toronto and for the Advocates’ Society.

Freya is a member of the Advocates’ Society and the Ontario Bar Association.  She has a B.A. (Hons.) Queens (1983) and an L.L.B. (Victoria) (1987).  She clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada for Mr. Justice W.R. McIntyre (1987-88), and was called to the bar of Ontario in 1989.  She was a partner in a national law firm before joining the partnership at Cavalluzzo in 2009.