People and Families
- Trust & Estate Planning
- Consent, Capacity & Legal Decision Making
- Trust & Estate Administration
- Tax Planning & the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) Eligibility
- RDSP – Registered Disability Savings Plan
- ODSP – Ontario Disability Support Plan
- Microboards™
- Wrongful Dismissal & Civil Litigation
- Estate Litigation
- Human Rights Applications
- Challenging Incapacity & Involuntary Admissions
- Education Law
- Employment Law for Families Engaging Support Workers
- I Decide Law Program
Cheryl Wiles Pooran
Partner
E cwpooran@pooranlaw.com
Biography
Cheryl Wiles Pooran is an experienced human rights, labour and employment lawyer whose practice is dedicated to serving people and social purpose organizations such as charities, not-for-profit organizations and social enterprises across Canada. Cheryl combines her focus and experience in this sector with her Bay Street labour law background to provide innovative, practical and cost-effective legal services to her clients.
As leader of PooranLaw’s labour and employment team , Cheryl provides a broad range of human rights, labour and employment services to clients across the province. These services include acting as “business partner” and providing day to day HR law support to leadership, collective bargaining, grievance mediation and arbitration, representation in hearings and litigation, preparing contracts and policies, and providing hands on training to management. In addition, Cheryl routinely assists clients in navigating sector specific issues such as:
- Strategic restructuring, shared services, amalgamations and mergers to address funding and Ministerial pressures
- Establishment and orchestration of social enterprises and microboards
- Managing support workers in group homes, supported independent living arrangements, and private family homes
- Investigating and addressing allegations of abuse under the Social Inclusion Act and Quality Assurance Measures Regulation
- Accommodation and managing disability, mental illness, workplace stress and burnout
- Pay equity compliance in the context of sector-wide funding shortfalls
- The labour and employment implications of brokering individualized and direct funding and assisting families to engage private support workers
- Assisting organizations to transition and modernize their employment, training and day programs to enhance social inclusion and meaningful community engagement
In addition, Cheryl brings her passion for equality, inclusion and accessibility to the classroom as a Human Rights and Health Law lecturer at York University.
Prior to joining PooranLaw, Cheryl practised labour and employment law with a large international law firm and a boutique labour firm in Toronto. Cheryl was also privileged to serve as a Case Worker with Parkdale Community Legal Services (a legal aid clinic in Toronto), to intern with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Terrorism in Geneva, Switzerland and with the Human Resources Administration of New York, New York.
Community involvement and advocacy work
Cheryl is committed to advocating for human rights throughout Ontario as evidenced by her:
- Dedicating part of her practice to law reform and working with individuals and families on a wide variety of legal matters that enhance community inclusion, accessibility, access to community supports and government benefits, continuity of care, financial security and quality of life for persons with disabilities
- Regularly providing free legal information sessions for not-for-profits and charities
- Speaking at countless community meetings across the province on the challenging legal issues facing people with disabilities and their families