Shara Roy

The Top 25 Most Influential 2019 winner

Shara Roy

Partner, Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP, Toronto

Shara Roy is a litigator, specializing in commercial disputes, securities, professional liability, restructuring and insolvency and class actions. She is also a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion in the profession. Roy organized the April 2018 panel discussion “Women in Commercial Litigation: Bringing Men into the Conversation” for The Advocates’ Society. She also established (and heads) the diversity and inclusion subcommittee of the Commercial List Users’ Committee to promote inclusion before the court for advocates, judges and court staff. As of press time, the subcommittee was scheduled to release its first report and set of recommendations. Roy is co-leading an initiative to increase referrals to women in private practice, with a curated referral bank that will be available through an organic network of female lawyers and allies. Roy helped launch ReferToHer, a list of experienced female lawyers, which is meant to increase referrals to women in the legal profession.