Nerissa J. Y. Yan 嚴佳韻

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT NERISSA J. Y. YAN 嚴佳韻

Nathan Muirhead and I opened our law firm, Yan Muirhead LLP on September 1, 2021. I represent both corporate and individual clients on a broad range of civil and commercial litigation matters with a focus on complex disputes including contractual disputes, shareholders’ disputes, creditor-debtor’s remedies, real estate and strata disputes, fraud and defamation. I also represent clients before the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, the Employment Standards Branch, as well as on regulatory and professional disciplinary matters before administrative and professional regulatory bodies. In the past few years, I have developed a niche practice of enforcing (or the defence of the enforcement of) foreign judgments and arbitral awards in British Columbia. I am a native Mandarin speaker born and raised in Shanghai, China. I moved to Canada alone at the age of 18. While fully bilingual in English and Mandarin Chinese, I also speak conversational Japanese. I am one of the few native Mandarin-speaking litigators in town and over time I have become a well sought-after Mandarin speaking litigator by both clients and other lawyers. I take pride in the ability to serve my clients with high quality legal work while meeting their language and cultural needs. As a young lawyer, I have already established a large client base serving both domestic and international clients alike. I am an active community supporter and contributor. I regularly take part in promoting access to justice and diversity in the legal profession in Canada. I am a volunteer lawyer for the Access Pro Bono legal clinic. I also contribute to the UBC Asian Legal Studies online blog. During my spare time, I have appeared as a guest panelist at local Chinese community programs and events providing insight and information to new immigrants from China with respect to the Canadian legal system. I have appeared as counsel at all levels of courts in British Columbia.