Background
Mélanie de Wit is an associate in the Toronto office. She earned her law degree at the University of Toronto (JD 2006) and completed her Masters in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University (MPH 2011), focusing on risk management and patient safety. Prior to this, she completed a bilingual (French/English) Honours Bachelor degree in Psychology at Laurentian University. Mélanie has been called to the bar in Ontario (2007) and in the Northwest Territories (2010). She provides advice and represents hospitals and health care providers in areas including risk management, corporate governance, physician privileging, contracts, patient safety initiatives, mental health and medical negligence, and regularly appears on behalf of clients before tribunals and at all levels of Ontario courts.
Areas of Practice
ˇ Health Law, Class Action Litigation, Administrative Law
Professional and Community Activities
ˇ Member, American Society of Healthcare Risk Management
ˇ Member, Advocates Society
ˇ Member, Canadian Bar Association
ˇ Member, Ontario Bar Association, Health Law Section
ˇ Member, Toronto Medico-Legal Society
ˇ Member, hospital Clinical Ethics Committee
Selected Publications/Presentations
ˇ Instructor, Informed Consent Tutorial, University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, 2009-2012
ˇ The Shared Harm Reduction Mandate of Risk Management, Quality & Patient Safety: Synergy Through Organizational Structure, 2011
ˇ Speaker, Ontario Hospital Association Medical Devices Conference, 2010
ˇ Speaker, Ontario Hospital Association Risk Management Conference, 2010
ˇ Instructor, Principles and Applications of Health Law (2 day certification), 2010
ˇ B. Glaspell & M. de Wit, Can Pierringer Partially Settle Canadian Class Actions?, QBA Conference on Class Actions, 2008
ˇ S. Perkins & M. de Wit, The African private sector steps in to fill the drug gap, The Lancet, Volume 370, Issue 9589, Pages 722 - 723, 2007
ˇ Presentations to staff, administrators and boards at various hospitals on issues of risk management, 2007 to present