Toronto Family Lawyer Joanna Radbord

Joanna Radbord, LSM

Partner

Joanna Radbord is a partner at McCarthy Hansen & Company LLP. Her practice focuses on family law and constitutional litigation. Joanna was awarded the Law Society Medal for exceptional career achievements and contributions to her community in the areas of LGBTQ2+ rights, family law, constitutional and human rights. She has also received the Lexpert Zenith Award: Celebrating Women in Law and the Canadian Bar Association Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Conference Hero Award.

Joanna has a long history of transformational advocacy, including spousal status for same-sex couples (M v H), equal marriage (Halpern), trans parenting (Forrester), birth registration (Rutherford), three parent recognition (AA v BB) and defining parentage (Grand). Joanna was counsel to an Indigenous mother seeking equal access to Ontario’s child and spousal support protections (Beaver v Hill). She is currently writing and litigating on the issue of privacy, security and equality for survivors of intimate partner violence.

Joanna has frequently acted as intervener counsel, including at the Supreme Court of Canada, representing The Advocates’ Society, the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund, Family Alliance Ontario and the Sherbourne Health Centre. She has significant experience in family law reform efforts, including spearheading the reconceptualization of parentage across Ontario law through the All Families are Equal Act, and helping to amend the Family Law Act to ensure the availability of child support to all dependent adult children, without regard to their parents’ marital status.

Joanna is a frequent writer and speaker on family law and constitutional issues, and a former Adjunct Professor and McMurtry Fellow at Osgoode Hall Law School. She is co-editor of the monthly newsletter, the Ontario Family Law Reporter, and edited the book LGBTQ2+ Law: Practice Issues and Analysis (Emond Publishing), which won the 2020 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing.

Zenith Award 2017