Meet Our Students!

Our 2025-2026 Articling Students have arrived!

Zubeir Ahmed – Toronto

Zubeir Ahmed recently graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School and holds a B.Sc. from the University of Toronto. Through Osgoode’s Poverty Law Intensive, he worked at Parkdale Community Legal Services as a caseworker in the Workers’ Rights Division, assisting clients with employment and human rights matters and preparing materials for proceedings before the Ministry of Labour, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, and the Ontario Labour Relations Board. He also volunteered with the Workers’ Action Centre. These experiences strengthened his commitment to advocating for, preserving, and advancing workers’ rights.

Beyond his coursework, Zubeir volunteered with the National Council of Canadian Muslims’ Law Student Volunteer Program and with Law in Action Within Schools.

Before joining the firm, Zubeir gained experience in both in-house legal departments and private practice. Outside the law, he loves all things sports—despite being routinely disappointed by his favourite teams, the Toronto Raptors and Arsenal FC.

Tory Dockree – Toronto

Tory Dockree (she/her) completed her JD at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. Prior to going to law school, she obtained an Honours Bachelor of Arts & Science from McMaster University. Tory also holds a Master of Public Policy from the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. During her time at the Munk School, Tory participated on the National Case Competition Team and was a researcher at a public policy think tank.

During law school, Tory was a caseworker at Advocates for Injured Workers. In this role, she spent a year representing injured and migrant farmworkers in their claims against the WSIB.

Outside of labour, Tory is very passionate about housing. While in law school, she volunteered at Don Valley Community Legal Services, where she performed research to support their advocacy against renovictions. Tory is also an active tenant organizer and is constantly working to bring together the residents of St. James Town.

In her spare time, Tory enjoys baking, walking her dog, and hanging out with her neighbours.

Saarah Furmli – Toronto

Saarah Furmli is an Afghan-Canadian graduate from Osgoode Hall Law School. She is passionate about migrant labour rights and has previously worked at Parkdale Community Legal Services in the Worker’s Rights Department.

Prior to law school, Saarah completed her undergraduate degree in Social Work at TMU (Toronto Metropolitan University) and worked as a settlement worker with Afghan refugees. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, crocheting, and watching Kdramas.

Keddie Hughes – Toronto

Keddie Hughes is a 2025 graduate of the University of Victoria’s Joint Degree Program in Canadian Common Law and Indigenous Legal Orders (JD/JID). Prior to law school, Keddie obtained an Honours Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Development, and Gender and Women’s Studies from Dalhousie University.

During law school, Keddie had the privilege of attending two community-led Indigenous law field schools, with Pehdzeh Ki First Nation, and Rama First Nation. These field schools included time spent in-community, collaboration with traditional knowledge keepers, legal counsel, and community members in the application of Dene and Anishinaabe law to land governance issues. In addition, Keddie participated in an exchange semester at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand where she studied Māori law and land tenure systems. Keddie is dedicated to community-led revitalization of Indigenous legal orders, and their application to the complex legal issues facing First Nations, in the interest of self-determination.

Keddie also brings a background and passion for sexual and gender-based violence advocacy and trauma-informed lawyering to her work.

As a new Torontonian, Keddie is enjoying exploring cute cafés in her area, taking in the local drag scene, and learning to love the Great Lakes (a noble challenge for lifelong West Coaster).

Sania Malik – Toronto

Sania Malik is an articling student from the Lincoln Alexander School of Law with a strong interest in labour and human rights law. Growing up in Montreal in a working-class family, she saw firsthand the impact that workplace protections can have — watching one parent benefit from a unionized job while the other faced the challenges of precarious work. These experiences shaped her passion for advocacy and drive to use the law as a tool to tell people’s stories and support workers navigating unfair or stressful situations.

During law school, Sania gained hands-on experience engaging with complex legal issues and supporting access to justice. She served as an IPC Student at the Office of the Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Justice, where she conducted legal research and supported judicial projects. As a Debwewin Summer Student with the Ministry of the Attorney General, she contributed to work supporting truth and reconciliation and advancing Indigenous justice.

Outside of law, Sania enjoys exploring new recipes, traveling, and trying her hand at writing short stories.

Madeline Schneider – Toronto

Maddy Schneider is an articling student supporting lawyers in trade union, human rights and civil litigation matters.

Prior to her articles, Maddy received her JD from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. While there, she represented injured workers in WSIB claims and WSIAT appeals through her work for the Advocates for Injured Workers clinic. She also served two years as Co-President of the Disabled Law Students’ Association, where she led the group’s formal advocacy and collaborative work with the Faculty of Law. She also served as Chair of the Accessibility Services Student Advisory Committee. For this work, she was awarded the 2025 University of Toronto Student Leadership Award.

Prior to law school, she graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa with an Honours Bachelor of Humanities with High Distinction.

Outside of the office, you can find her rolling twenty-sided dice with friends at D&D night or hunting for heirloom vegetables at the farmers’ market.

Johan Strombergsson-DeNora

Prior to law school, Johan Strombergsson-DeNora spent his days auditioning for film and TV gigs, and his evenings bartending at busy comedy venues. This dual-life exposed him to the benefits of collective representation through his acting union, and the inherent precarity of service and gig work.

As the Covid-19 pandemic exposed longstanding inequities in Toronto, Johan became involved in several community initiatives. During lockdown, Johan volunteered for a distress line, supporting vulnerable people in crisis. He also worked with community groups helping the unhoused and advocating for divestment from policing. At Osgoode Hall Law School, Johan volunteered at Fair Change Community Services, a student-run legal clinic devoted to supporting unhoused and street-involved Torontonians dealing with legal challenges related to street involvement. Johan conducted research, worked with witnesses, and drafted submissions in Fair Change’s successful Charter challenge of anti-panhandling legislation in Ontario. As Johan enters the legal profession, he hopes to continue advocating for workers’ rights, and supporting community organizers in the courtroom.

In his free time, Johan loves cooking good food, watching bad movies, and playing deeply geeky board games.

Brette Thomson – Ottawa

Brette Thomson completed a summer term at the Ottawa office and is thrilled to be returning as an articling student with Goldblatt Partners. Originally from Saskatchewan, Brette moved to Ottawa to complete her undergrad degree at Carleton University in Global and International Studies, where she focused on international human rights. She completed the bilingual dual J.D./B.C.L. program at McGill University earlier this year and was lucky to spend a few months travelling Oceania before settling back into the legal world. As the daughter of teachers, Brette grew up in a union household and was exposed to the importance of collective action from a young age. She sees the law as an important tool to advance social justice and push back against systemic inequality.

Prior to law school, Brette worked as a public servant for a federal labour tribunal which sparked her interest in labour relations. She deepened this interest by leading McGill’s labour and employment law club and mobilizing student support for the Association of McGill Professors of Law during their collective bargaining process and eventual strike action during her legal studies. Brette also worked with the Legal Information Clinic at McGill’s student advocacy branch where she served as a representative for students filing grievances and facing disciplinary investigations. Most meaningfully, Brette volunteered for ChezStella, a sex-worker led organization in Montreal involved in the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform, a cause she cares deeply about.

Brette is constantly trying to be the coolest dressed person at the Ottawa office, a standard that is measured in compliments from Karin Galldin. She has more vintage dresses than any one person needs, and spends her free time being a fibre artist extraordinaire, hiking the Gatineau hills, and crushing 1000-piece puzzles.

Kate Winiarz – Ottawa

Kate Winiarz is fueled by punk rock and community. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Ottawa’s Common law program in 2025, earning the Catherine Helen MacLean Prize in Labour Law, the Alison Dewar Memorial Award for Labour Law, and the Centre for Law, Technology, and Society’s 2024 Impact Award.

But more than that, law is Kate’s third career – having worked as an onboard service agent for passenger rail, a flight attendant, filmmaker, and a smattering of other arts-based and service roles over two decades. As a proud member of many unions throughout her lifetime, she was drawn specifically to union-side labour law. Her community involvement has seen her work with groups like the Sex Workers of Winnipeg Action Coalition, the Sexuality Education Resource Centre of Manitoba, Winnipeg Film Group, and more. She also founded two of her own digital media companies, centred on 2SLGBTQ+ skill-building, mentorship, and storytelling. That very community involvement and activism, especially in the areas of sex worker rights and 2SLGBTQ+ rights, has seen her appear as an expert on parliamentary committees and at administrative bodies like the Canada Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission.

Kate has a strong pull to the digital aspects and intersections of work and human rights. Focusing on sound and privacy-protecting digital policy and lawmaking, she advocates for privacy-protecting interpretations of Canada’s existing and future laws.

She has published research and opinions with Policy Options, GUTS Magazine, the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s Right2YourFace Coalition, OpenMedia, and more.

Among her favourite things are: Rabblerousing, gardening, cycling, kayaking, and cheese.