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Ira is counsel and a member of the firm’s Health Law and Cybersecurity, Privacy & Data Protection groups.

Ira advises clients on a range of data sharing and information privacy and security issues. Her expertise extends to the entire life cycle of privacy incidents:

  • prevention (education, best practices, policies, consents, audits);
  • investigation;
  • legal analysis;
  • reporting;
  • remediation; and
  • regulatory investigation.

She has experience with various privacy laws, including PIPEDA, PHIPA, MFIPPA, FIPPA, and US legislation such as HIPAA. She handles ransomware incidents and other cybersecurity breaches, data-sharing agreements, access to information requests and data-related due diligence on corporate transactions.

She also helps clients navigate complex U.S.-Canada cross-border regulatory issues and counsels foreign companies on their Canadian privacy compliance obligations. Having worked in an in-house privacy role, she provides practical and business-savvy advice.

Ira’s clients include businesses across a number of industries, including medical technology, retail and banking, in both the US and Canada. She also advises hospitals, municipalities, independent schools, school boards, retirement homes, Ontario Health Teams, community-based health care providers, colleges, universities and non-profits.

Ira also defends hospitals and other healthcare organizations in medical malpractice litigation as counsel to the Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC). She has argued various matters before tribunals and the courts, including the Ontario Court of Appeal.

Prior to joining BLG, she was the corporate privacy officer for a large health system and acted as counsel in a large global law firm.

Experience

  • Advising hospitals, community-based health care providers, and school boards on the shift to virtual service provision in the context of COVID-19.
  • Counseling a U.S.-based medtech company with Canadian customers on its privacy obligations under applicable Canadian laws.
  • Advising a large financial services organization on the investigation and legal analysis of a potential privacy breach.
  • Counseling a retail company on a range of data use and privacy issues, including digital consent, data portability, app-based services and targeted advertising.
  • Advising a U.S. medtech company on the privacy considerations arising from introducing to the Canadian market a "smart" device that collects, uses and transmits health information.
  • Submitting third-party representations to the federal privacy and access to information regulator on behalf of a client whose business information was sought to be disclosed through an access to information request.
  • Advising a US private equity firm on privacy-related due diligence in the context of a proposed investment in a Canadian company.
  • Making written submissions to the Information & Privacy Commissioner of Ontario on behalf of a hospital facing an access to information request and subsequent regulatory complaint.
  • Assisting a group of hospitals and their service provider with the management of a possible cybersecurity attack, including the cyberforensic investigation, communications with internal and external stakeholders, and notification to the regulator and potentially affected individuals.
  • Counseling a municipality on the investigation and management of a potential cybersecurity breach.
  • Advising schools, colleges and universities on access to information requests; privacy policies, notices and consent forms; and day-to-day issues involving handling and sharing personal information.
  • Counseling hospitals and research institutes on privacy and data-handling issues arising in the context of clinical research.

Beyond our Walls

Professional Involvement

  • Medico-Legal Society of Toronto
  • The Advocates' Society
  • Canadian Bar Association (Ontario)
  • California Society for Healthcare Attorneys
  • American Health Lawyers Association

Bar Admission & Education

  • California, 2015
  • New York, 2013
  • Ontario, 2001
  • MPP, Harvard University, 1999
  • LLB, University of Toronto, 1997
  • BA (Dist.), Stanford University, 1994