We are proud to announce Chilwin Cheng has been nominated for the 2022 Canadian Lawyer Magazine Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers list.

We’d appreciate your vote to endorse Chilwin for the final list. You can find the link to the survey here. The survey also allows you to leave comments about the candidates, which is very helpful to the editorial board in making their final selection. Voting closes Friday, May 13, 2022.

Chilwin has been nominated in the Changemakers category (Question 5), recognizing lawyers who are leaders, innovators, or catalysts for positive change in the profession in areas such as diversity, law firm management and education.

Over his 25-year career, Chilwin has served as a prosecutor for the Crown, Market Regulation Services, and the BC Securities Commission. He is the founder of Ascendion Law, a boutique commercial litigation and regulatory and white-collar criminal defense firm. While growing his personal practice and firm, Chilwin has been an active presence in the greater legal community. He has been nominated as a 2022 Changemaker for his contributions in the areas of innovation, diversity, and positive change. Most recently:

• Chair of the Business Practice and Innovation Committee of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA), BC Branch. As chair, Chilwin leads the CBA’s exploration of how technology, demographics, and policy affect the legal profession. The Committee is discussing how the profession should respond to artificial intelligence, virtual practice, non-lawyer ownership, and professional governance.
• Chair of the 2022 Data Analytics for Lawyers Canadian Legal Education Conference, the first of its kind in BC. The conference will bring together experts from knowledge management, software startups, and law to present the latest thinking and practice on quantitative, statistical, and empirical approaches to legal analysis. He routinely teaches the use of these quantitative techniques to other law firms in CPD seminars and conferences hosted by CLEBC and the CBABC.
• Producer and host of a series of podcasts with the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers-BC (FACL), interviewing senior Asian litigators and shining a light on both their tremendous individual achievements and the importance of bringing more diverse voices to the bar. He is active with FACL as a panellist at its 2020 conference and as a mentor in its program for law students and young lawyers.
• Co-presenter at a Canadian Bar Association seminar on “Managing the Hybrid Workforce” in 2021. In that seminar, he shared Ascendion’s model for successful hybrid work. Ahead of its time, the firm encouraged remote working arrangements for employees well before the pandemic forced the issue. Chilwin believes flexible work arrangements, family leave, fair compensation and mentorship are essential to attracting and retaining a more diverse workforce.

We are thrilled to see Chilwin nominated for this award. The award reflects Ascendion Law's intent to be a force for positive and constructive change in our profession while we fight for our clients.  We thank you for your support.

Again, you can vote for Chilwin in the Changemaker category here.