Plenary Session 3

Sari Graben’s teaching and research focuses on Indigenous peoples, with a special focus on regulatory institutions, emergent property systems, and risk. She is the co-editor (with Angela Cameron and Val Napoleon) of the upcoming book, Creating Indigenous Property: Power, Rights, and Relationships (2020), and is published in such journals as the University of Toronto Law Journal, the University of British Columbia Law Review, the Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, the Leiden Journal of International Law, and the Osgoode Hall Law Journal. 

Graben currently holds multiple research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for projects pertaining to Indigenous peoples and development. She has received the President’s Blue and Gold Award for Staff Excellence (2020) for her work as part of the Faculty of Law Start-up Team, as well as the Dean’s Scholarly Research and Creativity Award (2015), and the Best Paper Award from the Canadian Academy of Legal Studies in Business (2018) for her work on Aboriginal Title. Graben has served as an Executive Member of the Aboriginal Law Section of the Ontario Bar Association as well as a Member of the Board of Directors of Interval House (Kingston). She is regularly invited to present to government boards and ministries on risk, regulation, and rights.

Prior to joining the Faculty of Law, Graben was counsel at McMillan LLP, adjunct faculty at Queen’s University Faculty of Law, and associate professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management (TRSM). She has been a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) postdoctoral fellow at the Faculty of Law, UC (Berkeley), a Canada-U.S. Fulbright Visiting Research Chair at the University of Washington (Seattle), visiting professor at the Buchmann Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University, and visiting professor at the Faculty of Law, Hebrew University.

Hersh Perlis is the co-founder and Director of the Legal Innovation Zone (LIZ) at Ryerson University. Hersh briefly left the LIZ to become Chief of Staff of Deloitte’s Artificial Intelligence practice – Omnia. Prior to coming to Ryerson he spent almost 5 years at Queens Park as a Senior Advisor to several ministers.

Hersh oversaw a number of initiatives while at Deloitte including the integration of the firms’ AI practice in Chile and with the development and execution of strategic programs to help continue the rapid growth of Deloitte’s AI practice. While at Queens Park he created, expanded and oversaw a number of key initiatives on behalf of the government. These included the 2015 Pan and Parapan American Games as well as other initiatives such as the Industrial Electricity Incentive Program and the Right to Play program for rural and remote First Nation communities. Prior to his time in government he was Director of Development for a national not-for-profit organization. Sports, politics and the lake are his passion and he enjoys them with his wife and two sons.

Tara E. Frater is the Principal and Founder of FT Legal. Her practice areas include: Corporate and Commercial, Finance, FinTech, Securities Regulation, Trust & Estate Planning, Immigration and Real Estate.

Tara was a UWI Open Scholar and obtained her Bachelor of Laws Degree with Upper Second Class Honours from the University of the West Indies in 2001 and her Legal Education Certificate from the Norman Manley Law School in 2003.

She is an experienced attorney-at-law with over 15 years of experience working at leading firms in international financial services centres in the Caribbean, such as Walkers and Harney Westwood &Riegels in the British Virgin Islands. She moved on from Lex Caribbean, a firm based in Barbados, as a Partner in 2019 to found FT Legal. She has lectured in various fora on legal issues and her speaking engagements include various Caribbean and Latin American conferences hosted by the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and other organisations.

Tara actively engages on issues affecting the international financial services sector in the Caribbean and formerly served as the Chairperson of the STEP Barbados Branch (external link) , as well as participates in various working groups focused on legislative reform. She is a former Director of the Barbados International Business Association and made the Citywealth IFC Power Women Top 200 List in 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014, which recognises women of influence in government, private wealth, private client advisory and philanthropy across international financial centres. She has keen interest in cryptocurrencies and the transformative potential of blockchain technology.

Tara is a passionate believer in the power of entrepreneurship and technology as a catalyst for the development of the Caribbean and advocates for youth empowerment in this context.