She/Her
(778) 329-9035
mvipond@glgzlaw.com
Melanie Vipond is a partner at Gall Legge Grant Zwack LLP where she advises employers in all areas of labour and employment law, including human rights and occupational health and safety law in the workplace. She provides strategic advice regarding the management of workplace legal issues to both private and public sector employees on issues relating to unionization, collective agreements, human rights accommodations, discipline and termination of employees, harassment and bullying, and serious workplace incidents and fatalities. She regularly represents her clients at mediations and hearings before arbitration boards, human rights tribunals, labour relations boards, employment standards branch and tribunals, and the B.C. workers compensation appeal tribunal. Ms. Vipond has also appeared before all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada. She has been recognized as a leading Canadian lawyer in Labour and Employment as well as Occupational Health & Safety in the latest editions of The Best Lawyers in Canada and Doyle’s Guide.
Ms. Vipond frequently conducts investigations, on behalf of clients and as an independent investigator, of workplace complaints relating to misconduct, harassment & bullying, violence, assault, misuse of supervisory authority, theft, and breaches of company’s standards of conduct. In January 2021, she was named on the Government of Canada’s national roster of workplace harassment and violence prevention investigators published on the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety’s website. She also has extensive experience in writing investigation reports. She has completed the certificate program “Employee Relations and Investigations” through Cornell University.
Ms. Vipond is a frequent trainer and writer on a variety of labour and employment law topics, particularly in the areas of human rights, prima facie discrimination/duty to accommodate and employee medical information. Her most recent article entitled “Family Status Discrimination: Caregiving and the Prima Facie Case” was published by the Osgoode Hall Law Journal in 2020 (Osgoode Hall Law Journal 56.3 (2019): 564-605). Her thesis that she wrote while completing her Masters in the Science of Law at Stanford University related to mediation and arbitration and was published in the Fall 2011 edition of the America Labor Law Journal.
Ms. Vipond was an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of British Columbia (UBC) for 10 years, teaching Law and the Modern Workplace. She has also lectured as a guest speaker in those areas at Stanford Law School and is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars and is involved in lobbying and advocacy related to labour and employment policy and legislation.
