Progressive Barristers

About Progressive Barristers

Progressive Barristers Professional Corporation is a Toronto firm built around employment and labour law, human rights law, and workplace investigations, with additional work in landlord and tenant matters and appeals. It was founded by Shibil Siddiqi, who holds an LL.B. from the University of Warwick in the UK and an LL.M. in International Human Rights Law from the University of Toronto. Before starting the firm, Siddiqi practiced at a Toronto legal clinic serving marginalized communities, worked in human rights law at an independent government agency, and helped establish a legal aid clinic in Kabul, Afghanistan with the International Development Law Organization.

The firm appears before Ontario's courts, including the Divisional Court and the Court of Appeal for Ontario, as well as the Supreme Court of Canada, and before the Landlord and Tenant Board. It represents both employees and employers, unionized and non-unionized, in matters that range from terminations and severance to harassment and discrimination complaints, and it conducts workplace investigations on behalf of organizations. Siddiqi also serves on the Law Society of Ontario's Equity Advisory Group and has held fellowships with the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation and the Centre for the Critical Study of Power and Politics at Trent University.