The Kelowna Chamber of Commerce has launched its “40 Under Forty” for 2020. The chamber is now calling for nominations.
This is the Kelowna chamber’s sixth year of searching for the city’s high achievers and bringing their stories to the public.
BDO Canada LLP will make up the independent panel of judges.
There will be a wrap-up celebration for recipients once the program has concluded.
Kate’s entire legal career has been spent at Doak Shirreff Lawyers LLP (“DS”). While she attended law school in Edmonton, AB, she was born and raised in the Okanagan and knew she would return home to practice here. Kate began as an articled student at DS in 2009, in 2018 she joined the partnership and somewhere in between she had two incredible children, who are now five and eight. When Kate first started at DS she was practicing primarily in litigation focused practice areas, when the chance to practice in estate and incapacity planning and estate administration came up, she jumped at the opportunity. This area brought together the two aspects of law that she enjoys most – interacting with clients and drafting documents. The subject matter can be really heavy, but Kate is passionate about making sure that people have their estate and incapacity planning in place so that their loved ones’ grief is not worsened by situations that could have been avoided had their affairs been in order. Kate is also passionate about educating individuals on issues related to Wills and incapacity planning, to achieve this, she enjoys partnering with other professionals to deliver seminars on the topic.
When she is not delivering seminars, Kate enjoys her position on her firm’s in-house marking committee and has been a member of the board of Directors for the Kelowna Estate Planning Society since 2017.
Kate is a past member of the board of Directors for the MS Society of Canada, Okanagan Chapter and has been involved with the not-for-profit organization Mamas for Mamas since it was a small grassroots organization back in 2014. Kate is extremely proud of the national charitable organization they have become in such a short period of time. Kate also provides pro-bono legal services to Mamas for Mamas on an ongoing basis, both as a not for profit organization and to the Mamas in our community who reach out through Mamas for Mamas and are in need of legal advice or services. Mamas for Mamas is doing incredible work in their fight against poverty, in our community and beyond, and she is grateful to be even a little part of their huge success. Doak Shirreff strongly supports local community initiatives and fundraising, for the firm’s 50th Anniversary they ran a 50 Good Deeds campaign, where they gave back to the community in 50 different ways over the course of 2018. Kate also volunteers her time as both a volunteer and a participant in numerous community events, including the MS Walk, Sugarplum Ball, Cycle for Strong Kids, and various Mamas for Mamas fundraising events.
Kate has a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in psychology and a minor in Sociology from UBC Okanagan and a Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB) from the University of Alberta.
Kate loves being a mom. While it might sound cliché, being a mom to two wonderful kids is her greatest achievement, she doesn’t know that there is any greater honour than being called “Mom”.
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