Elizabeth M Brown

Practice Areas

Pension, Benefits and Executive Compensation

Career

Elizabeth Brown is an experienced pension and benefits lawyer with Toronto-based firm, Brown Mills Klinck Prezioso LLP. She advises public and private sector employers on a wide range of regulatory governance, compliance and administration matters relating to pension and employee benefits plans. Elizabeth appears as counsel on pension litigation disputes and has extensive experience advising on large corporate transactions, including insolvencies, mergers and acquisitions, and reorganizations. She provides ongoing advice to provincially and federally-regulated plan sponsors and administrators on jointly sponsored pension plans, defined benefit and defined contribution plans, and savings and profit sharing plans.

Professional Memberships

• Steering Committee for Northwind’s Annual Pension Fund Invitational Forum | Member (2022, 2023)

• Institute of Corporate Directors | Member

• International Pension and Employee Benefits Lawyers Association (IPEBLA) | Member

• Ontario Bar Association | Member, Pension and Benefits Law Section

• American Bar Association | Member, CBA Liaison Member | Continuing Legal Education Division | Joint Committee on Employee Benefits (2016 – 2018)

• Canadian Bar Association | Executive Member, Pension and Benefits Law Section | Past Chair (2018-2019)

• Marshall Stakeholder Reference Group | Appointed by the Ontario Minister of Finance | Employer Counsel Representative (2016-2017)

Publications

Recognized in:

• The Best Lawyers in Canada™ (2014-2025)

• The Legal 500 Canada (2015-2025)

• Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory (2007-2024)

• Lexology Index: Labour, Employment & Benefits (2024)

• Lexology Index: Thought Leaders - Labour, Employment & Benefits (2024)

• Lexology Index: Thought Leaders - Global Elite (2023)

• Lexology Index: Canada (2012-2023)

• The Best Lawyers in Canada - "Lawyer of the Year" (2022)

• Ontario Bar Association Award of Excellence in Pension and Benefits Law (2017)

Experience

Representative Work:

• Acts as pension counsel to the joint sponsor board of a jointly sponsored pension plan located in Western Canada, including advising on amendments and governance related matters.

• Advises an Ontario based public sector employer on the transfer out of its defined contribution pension plan arrangement to two separate jointly sponsored pension plans.

• Acted as pension counsel to a federally regulated private sector employer in binding arbitration regarding union demand for improvements to large defined benefit pension plan.

• Advises the employer sponsor of a newly established, Ontario based jointly sponsored pension plan and the associated governance and regulatory aspects of the consolidation of multiple single employer pension plans.

• Appointed by the Province of Nova Scotia as one of three pension experts serving on a panel to assess and make recommendations on improving the funding of the Nova Scotia Teachers’ Pension Plan.

• Advised an Ontario broader public sector employer and its investment manager in the transfer and consolidation of its pension plan assets within a new created jointly sponsored pension plan.

• Acted as pension counsel to a broader public sector employer in pension dispute related to the employer sponsored defined benefit pension plan.

• Advised the employer sponsor of a public sector jointly sponsored pension plan on the creation of a new benefit option under the plan for the not-for-profit sector.

• Represented a foreign parent corporation in defending two proposed Newfoundland and Labrador class actions seeking damages in relation to pension and benefits claims related to insolvent Canadian subsidiaries.

• Advised several employers in their negotiations for the conversion of their existing defined benefit and hybrid registered pension plans to a newly created $10 billion multi-employer jointly sponsored pension plan, involving multiple unions and other interested stakeholders.

• Acted as pension counsel to large defined benefit pension plan administrators in applications before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.

• Acted as lead pension and benefits counsel to a large steel manufacturer in Companies Creditors’ Arrangement Act proceedings.

Education