Katherine Cooligan

Katherine is a certified specialist as a family law lawyer. In addition to her law practice, she holds senior leadership roles in Canada’s largest national law firm, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. She is the Regional Managing Partner of BLG’s Ottawa office, and also sits on the firm’s National Management Committee.

As she has become more senior in her career, Katherine’s focus turned towards topics of leadership and specifically, women in leadership. Katherine is a passionate champion for women, encouraging and supporting them to be successful and to fly high within their own chosen professions. Katherine is a frequent speaker at Women in Leadership conferences, including an empowering TEDx Talk on “Tackling Fear and Unleashing the Full Potential of Women in Leadership”. She has also created and chaired annual programs on Women in Leadership in Ottawa, which have become “the place” to be for local business leaders from all backgrounds. In 2018, she was elected to the International Women's Forum. She is the recipient of the Women’s Business Network’s Businesswoman of the Year 2019 Award, in the professional category, the “Good Bear Award” from the CHEO Foundation for her long-standing support of CHEO, and most recently the Order of Ottawa for her proven and outstanding commitment to the City of Ottawa.

As an involved member of the Ottawa community, she is a former member of the Board of the CHEO Foundation, is a member of the Ottawa Board of Trade’s Capital Build Task Force, and is the Chair of Women for Mental Health at The Royal, as well as a member of the Leaders for Mental Health Breakfast Committee.

Katherine is also the proud mother of three university age children.