Heather Hettiarachchi

Heather Hettiarachchi General Information

Biography

Ms. Heather Hettiarachchi served as a Past Chairman at Clark Wilson. Her practice focuses on all aspects of employment and labour law, human resource management issues and mediation services. Heather's background differs from that of many other labour and employment lawyers as she has a unique combination of legal expertise and extensive, hands-on human resources management and labour relations experience. Before being called to the British Columbia Bar, she was a Human Resources Manager at a large Canadian University and Labour Relations Advisor to Vancouver's oldest community college. Before immigrating to Canada, Heather managed the human resources of a large private insurance company. Heather articled with a leading labour and employment boutique firm in Vancouver and was an associate in the labour and employment group of an eminent national firm prior to joining Clark Wilson. In addition to a LL.B. (Honours) degree, Heather also has a M.Sc. in Training & Human Resources Management from the University of Leicester, UK. Heather has experience in a wide range of labour & employment matters, including drafting employment contracts, structuring severance packages, restrictive covenants, workplace restructuring, advising on employment issues in the context of buying and selling a business, discipline and termination, occupational health and safety and workers compensation, disability, accommodation and human rights, privacy, the interpretation and application of collective agreements, collective bargaining, and successorship and common employer issues. Heather regularly represents clients with regard to human rights proceedings, arbitrations, labour board proceedings and workers compensation, privacy and employment standards matters. Heather is on the executive committee of the Canadian Bar Association's National Labour & Employment Section and was recently selected by Quickscribe to be an expert annotator in the area of employment law. She is a member of the Canadian Bar Association, the Vancouver Board of Trade, the British Columbia Human Resources Management Association (HRMA) and the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia. Heather is actively involved in mentoring through HRMA, the Women Lawyers Forum and the CBA/UBC Mentorship Program. She is also involved in Access Pro Bono, which provides free legal advice to members of the public who would otherwise not be able to access legal services due to financial constraints.