Meet the Team
Director of initio Clinic
Alayna R. Kolodziechuk
Photo credit Selena Phillips-Boyle
Alayna is a lawyer and Dalhousie alum with 10 years’ experience advising businesses and not-for-profits in the creative and tech industries. Most recently, she practiced at an entertainment and media law boutique in Toronto, ON where she oversaw the firm’s corporate practice and represented a range of clients including artists and creators, record labels and film production companies, software developers and industry advocacy groups.
Alayna provides advice to organizations across different stages of growth and development on their structuring as well as intellectual property and privacy/technology matters.
Articled Clerk
Léo Bourgeois
Photo credit Adam Deunk
At initio, Léo assists on legal matters related to corporate and commercial law with a focus on start-ups, technology, privacy, and social impact. Léo takes the time to connect with his clients in order to truly understand their business. He thinks like an entrepreneur in providing clients with a range of legal service to fit their unique needs.
Léo is passionate about supporting all forms of business that address social issues and promote community development. He also assists non-profit organizations, charities, social enterprises, and social purpose businesses on a variety of legal and strategic matters, such as legal structuring, corporate governance, drafting and negotiating various agreements and effective risk management.
He is actively expanding his expertise in the rapidly evolving field of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) to address the emerging regulatory and governance challenges that businesses face as they integrate AI technologies. During his final year of law school, Léo authored a directed research paper on the integration of generative AI into legal education. He is publishing his research as a resource for law schools and legal regulators and provides training to organizations on integrating AI within legal environments.
Léo is passionate about community development and improving access to legal information through volunteer work. He served as Chair of the Law Students Section of the Canadian Bar Association - Nova Scotia Branch in 2023-24 and will assume the role of Vice-Chair of the Charities and Not-for-Profit Section for 2024-25. Léo also sat on the Schulich School of Law’s Appointments Committee for two years, where he was involved in tenure-track hiring, emphasizing equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Our Articled Clerk Alumni
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Justin Broomfield - 2023/2024
Justin is excited to further develop his expertise in technology, privacy, and intellectual property by providing high-quality legal services to initio clients.
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Haley Maclean - 2022/2023
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Edward Wu - 2021/2022
Current Students
Summer Research Assistants
Miya Gohill
Daniel Reid
Clinic Alumni - Senior Law Students
Winter 2024
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Nick Geringer
With a growing passion for finance and technology, Nick is eager to be assisting start-ups across the Maritimes on their business, intellectual property, and privacy law matters.
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Alex Hyndman
Alex brings a robust background in technology and business, with work experience spanning from software development to the Charlottetown Chamber of Commerce.
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Agha Saadaf
Agha is excited for practical experience working with businesses and not-for-profits in technology-based social enterprise, artificial intelligence, creative industry, and privacy.
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Chelsea Sprout
Chelsea has a keen interest in solving social problems using technology and is passionate about supporting local entrepreneurs.
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Priya Szymanski
Priya is building a practice that focuses on advertising and regulatory law related to food and beverage, cosmetics, natural health products, and pharmaceuticals.
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Eugene Wong
Eugene’s background helps clients get to the root cause of the issues they face, and allows him to support clients in achieving success.
Fall 2023
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Léo Bourgeois
Léo is building a corporate/commercial and charity/not-for-profit law practice related to start-ups, technology, intellectual property privacy, and social impact.
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Dominik Dabrowski
With an entrepreneurial mindset, Dominik is building a corporate-commercial practice, helping Canadian companies realize value and mitigate risk.
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Eslam (Essie) Mehina
Essie is keen to support science and technology innovators through her passion of intellectual property law. She provides insightful sector-specific legal analysis for clients in STEM and beyond.
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Meghan Recker
Meghan enjoys working with fellow artists on legal issues regarding contracts, negotiation, and intellectual property.
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Karina Scoggins
Karina’s unique perspective on healthcare issues drive her passion for intellectual property law and technological innovation within the healthcare sector.
Winter 2023
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Ronny Bao
Ronny works to offer excellent services to clients and understands that trust and accountability are essential to building and maintaining relationships.
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Justin Broomfield
Justin is working towards completing the Law & Technology Specialization and has developed a keen interest in technology, privacy, and intellectual property.
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Evelyn Hein
Evelyn is excited about supporting local entrepreneurs and innovators with their emerging businesses.
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Tommy Panther
Tommy is excited about developing his practice in corporate and commercial law, business law, intellectual property, privacy, and sports and entertainment law.
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Sierra Peterson
Sierra is passionate about intellectual property law and technological innovation in healthcare and beyond.
Winter 2021
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Mimi Gjelaj
Mimi holds a Bachelor of Science and Masters of Science (Analytical Chemistry). She will be representing Dalhousie in the 2022 Harold G. Fox Intellectual Property Moot.
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Andrew Young
Andrew has developed a keen interest in emerging and disruptive technologies. Andrew summered and will be returning to article with Bennett Jones LLP.
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Angelo Merani
Angelo has a keen interested in social impact law after serving as Stakeholder Relations Coordinator and VP Finance with various not-for-profits.
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Shanna Stanley-Hasnain
Shanna is interested in healthcare innovation after working at the Toronto General Hospital for multiple large-scale research initiatives.
Fall 2021
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Sonja Gashus
Sonja spent her summer assisting with research in intellectual property law and and is excited to apply that knowledge to help startups at initio.
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Tiffany Leung
Tiffany is excited to collaborate with local entrepreneurs to solve legal issues related to corporate/commercial law and technology law.
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Haley MacIsaac
Haley's background in business and leadership informed her interest in initio. She is particularly excited to support entrepreneurs in solving intellectual property issues.
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Rob Law
Rob has experience advising on risk and cashflow management processes. He serves on the AthleteCAN Board of Directors, advocating to create a safe and inclusive sports environment.
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Hannah Mirksy
Hannah is excited to explore her interest in intellectual property and technology. She is proud to be representing Dalhousie at the 2022 Harold G. Fox Intellectual Property Moot.
