July 26-27, 1999
Montreal, Canada

Speaker Biography

Philippa Lawson

Counsel
Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC)

Philippa Lawson has been practising administrative law and consumer advocacy with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) in Ottawa since her call to the Ontario Bar in 1991. She has a Master's degree from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (1986) and a Law degree from Queen's University (1989).

Pippa has led consumer interventions in all major telecommunications proceedings before the Canadian regulator since 1990, and has actively participated in industry working groups to design rules and procedures for the implementation of local competition in Canada. Pippa has also acted for consumer groups in regulatory matters before the Ontario Energy Board, and has represented various public interest parties before the Federal and Supreme Courts of Canada on matters ranging from the abandonment of railway lines to voting rights. She is a member of the Canadian Standards Association Technical Committee on Privacy, which developed CAN/CSA-Q830-96, The Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information, and was recently appointed to the Standards Council of Canada's Consumer and Public Interest Committee, as well as its Advisory Committee on Standards. She was a member of the Canadian delegation to the 1998 OECD Ministerial on Electronic Commerce, and is actively involved in various public and private initiatives to improve consumer privacy and consumer protection in the evolving marketplace.