Blakes Women Awarded 2021 Lexpert Rising Stars

Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP (Blakes) is pleased to announce that Partners Melanie Baird, Iris Fischer, and Alexandra Luchenko have been honoured as winners of the 2021 Lexpert Rising Stars: Leading Lawyers Under 40. 
 
“Melanie, Iris and Alexandra are outstanding lawyers who have played leading roles in many complex and consequential disputes and investigations,” said Firm Managing Partner Bryson Stokes. “We are delighted to see their accomplishments recognized, and we congratulate them on these well-deserved awards.”
 
Melanie Baird is the go-to Canadian litigation advisor for a wide array of world-leading clients, having represented them successfully through many precedent-setting trials, applications and appeals. Her diverse litigation practice encompasses intellectual property, complex commercial, class actions, product liability, cannabis and technology disputes. Melanie has extensive experience in life sciences litigation, as well as in the software, tech and social media spaces, dealing with commercial, patent, trademark, copyright and licensing disputes.
 
Iris Fischer is co-leader of the Blakes Litigation & Dispute Resolution group in Toronto and leader of the Firm’s Media & Defamation practice. Her experience ranges from complex commercial disputes to white-collar crime, constitutional, competition, freedom of information/privacy and class action matters. Iris helps lead the Firm’s recently launched Public Sector Crisis & Compliance group, which helps clients navigate high-stakes legal issues and situations that arise where business meets government.
 
Alexandra Luchenko develops business-focused, outcome-driven legal solutions for clients involved in complex commercial disputes, transactional litigation, shareholder activism, regulatory investigations and crisis management situations arising from cybersecurity breaches, alleged violations of anti-corruption legislation, fraud, accounting irregularities and whistleblower claims. She has appeared at all levels of court in Canada and is a certified fraud examiner, conducting internal investigations for companies with operations around the world. Alexandra oversees the Firm’s cybersecurity initiative in Vancouver. 
 
The annual Rising Stars Awards are presented to lawyers from law firms and in-house counsel, aged 40 or under, who are up-and-coming in the Canadian legal community. Lexpert selects the finalists based on a number of criteria. An advisory board votes on the winning candidates.