Photo of Reem Zaia

Reem Zaia Associate

Speaks:  English, French, Arabic

Year of Call: 2016 - Ontario

Primary phone: +1 613-786-0232

Fax: +1 613-563-9869

Email: reem.zaia@gowlingwlg.com

Download vCard

Primary office:  Ottawa

Practice areas:

Connect via LinkedIn

Reem Zaia

Reem Zaia is an associate lawyer practising in the Advocacy Department of Gowling WLG's Ottawa office. Her litigation experience includes professional liability, constitutional, criminal and administrative law matters. Reem also advises on privacy and government relations files and maintains an active academic and advisory practice in national security law.  

Reem has experience defending accused persons in the regulatory sphere and the criminal justice system. She has served as counsel and co-counsel at all levels of court in Ontario, including the Court of Appeal, the Superior Court of Justice, and the Ontario Court of Justice, as well as matters before the Supreme Court of Canada.

Reem obtained her law degree from the University of Ottawa. During law school, she served as a law clerk to judges of the Ontario Court of Justice. She was also recognized as Canada's Best Overall Advocate in the Sopinka Cup Tournament by the Advocates' Society and the American College of Trial Lawyers. While completing her Master's degree, she practiced constitutional and administrative law at the appellate level. Reem is also a graduate of the University of Toronto, where she received her LL.M. as the Nathan Strauss Q.C. Fellow in Constitutional Law and published a thesis on the information-sharing provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015.

Reem is a part-time professor of criminal law at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. She often lectures on criminal law and national security matters. She is the author of several articles on constitutional, criminal and national security law.

Prior to joining Gowling WLG, Reem practiced criminal and regulatory law at a prominent boutique litigation firm in Toronto. She also completed her articles at the Crown Attorney's Office in Windsor.

Before joining the legal profession, Reem worked on Parliament Hill for two Members of Parliament, including the former Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons.

Practice areas

Career & Recognition

Filter timeline:

  • 2017

    • Education
       2017
      University of Toronto, LLM (Nathan Strauss Q.C. Fellowship in Canadian Constitutional Law, University of Toronto Faculty of Law)

  • 2016

    • Qualifications (Year of Call/Admission, etc.)
       2016
      Year of Call, Ontario
    • Community
       2016
      Sopinka Cup Executive Committee (Member since 2016)

  • 2015

    • Education
       2015
      University of Ottawa, JD

  • 2011

    • Education
       2011
      University of Ottawa, B.Soc. (Hons.)

Memberships

  • Fellow, Philippe Kirsch Institute
  • Advocates' Society
  • Criminal Lawyers' Association
  • Golden Key International Honour Society
  • County of Carleton Law Association
  • Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security, and Society (TSAS) - Non-academic affiliate

Thesis

Of Unreasonable Searches and Seizures: A Blueprint for a Constitutional Challenge to the Security of Canada Information Sharing Act. University of Toronto, Graduate Repository of Theses

Articles

Forensic Psychiatry and the Extremist: A Review of Recent Violence Risk Assessment Tools for Offenders Convicted of Terrorism Offences. Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society (No. 18-04) Working Paper Series

Guilty by a Nose: The Queen v Riesberry and the Criminalization of Horse Doping in Canada, 2018 28(1) Marquette Sports L Rev

Access to State Secrets in Terrorism Prosecutions: A Case Comment on R v Alizadeh and the Structures of Third Party Disclosure, (2017) 75 U.T. Fac. L. Rev. 129

Mental Health Experts in Terrorism Cases: Reclaiming the Status of Rehabilitation as a Sentencing Principle, 2017 64(4) Criminal Law Quarterly 548

Awakening Section 8 in Wakeling: Legal Implications on Wiretap Intercepts, Intelligence Sharing and Beyond, 2017 50(1) UBC Law Review 197

On Pardons and Miscarriages of Justice: Extracting and Dissecting Institutional Bias from the Conviction Review Framework in Canada, 2016 49(2) UBC Law Review 835

The Queen v. Demetrious Walker: A Cautionary Tale About Guilty Pleas and Sentencing in Absentia, 2015 19 Canadian Criminal Law Review 253

  • Co-published with Brian Manarin, Assistant Crown Attorney, Windsor, ON

The Evaluation of Expert Testimony in Dangerous Offenders Applications: A Judge's Guide to Psychological and Psychiatric Evidence Born out of Clinical and Actuarial Assessments

  • Co-published with Brian Manarin, Assistant Crown Attorney, Windsor, ON
  • 2014 Canadian Association of Provincial Judges E-Newsletter

Presentations

Workshop on Criminal Justice Approaches to Preventing, Detecting and Responding to Homegrown Terrorism

  • Presenting Canada's approach to prevention and detection in Valetta, Malta on April 25 and 26, 2018
  • Hosted by the Global Counterterrorism Forum and the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law at the University of Malta

Annual Criminology Society Conference: Crime-Security Nexus (York University)

  • Presented LL.M. thesis on the Security of Canada Sharing Information Act before the student body and scholars (January 2018)

Reforming Criminal Justice and National Security Symposium (University of Toronto Law School)

  • Presented scholarship on sentencing for terrorism before professors and members of the bar (May 2017)

Insights & Resources

View all insights Insights & Resources
Articles
19 May 2020 Fraud, corruption and money laundering in a pandemic – why compliance and risk based approaches should remain top-of-mind
Articles
06 April 2020 Tales of a unified corporate registry: Canada's effort to counter and reduce the misuse of corporate vehicles
photo of canadian parliament building in ottawa Articles
06 April 2020 Canada drops ranks in Transparency International's listing