Melissa Roth

Melissa Roth is a partner in Gowling WLG's Waterloo Region office, practising in the Employment, Labour & Equalities Group.

Melissa provides strategic and proactive advice to clients across different industries, such as manufacturing, NFP, retail and service industry, technology, automotive, home building, municipalities and hospitals.

In her practice, Melissa regularly advises and represents private and public sector employers on a wide range of issues, including:

• Human rights
• Wrongful dismissals
• Employment contracts
• Independent contractor issues and agreements
• Grievance arbitrations
• Collective agreement negotiations
• Policy development
• Workplace investigations
• Occupational health and safety

While Melissa's practice encompasses many areas of labour and employment law, she also brings a wealth of experience appearing before administrative tribunals, arbitrators, courts and mediators. In particular, she has numerous appearances representing her clients before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario regarding claims of discrimination, accommodation and harassment.

She also acts as a trusted business advisor, leveraging her experience as a human resources, labour and employment lawyer to help advise clients on the unique challenges of managing employees and maintaining a productive workplace. Always prepared to answer her clients' day-to-day enquiries, Melissa provides advice to her clients in both English and Spanish, which assists her in working effectively with all levels of management in various multi-national corporations.

As a member of numerous employer groups and professional organizations, she frequently appears as a guest speaker to share her extensive knowledge base and encourage employers to be strategic and proactive in their approach to human resources, labour and employment issues.

Melissa's hard work and dedication to her clients earned her national recognition as one of the Best Lawyers in Canada for Labour and Employment Law since 2023.

When not in the office, Melissa can be found enjoying the outdoors with her family, be it cycling, hiking, canoeing, camping or snowboarding.