Board of Directors

Board Chair: April 2019 – present

Charles Harnick is a mediator, arbitrator and investigator with ADR Chambers. He is also a principal at Counsel Public Affairs and the Senior Adjudicative Officer of the General Insurance Ombudservice.
Charles served as Attorney General of Ontario from 1995 to 1999 and Minister Responsible for Native Nations Affairs. He is responsible for the creation of Legal Aid Ontario and the Ontario Mandatory Mediation Program. He was an elected member of the Ontario Legislature from 1990 to 1999. Charles was instrumental as a mediator in bringing the major legal organizations in Ontario together with paralegal organizations, culminating in legislation that has made the Law Society of Ontario the regulator of paralegal activities.
Charles was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 1992 and in 2005 he was awarded the Law Society Medal.

June 2019 – June 2021

David Wexler is Vice President, Human Resources with The Vector Institute. He is an Associate Senior Consultant at LHH Knightsbridge. Mr. Wexler’s community involvement includes serving as a board member for Cancer Care Ontario and Vaughan Community HealthCare Corporation.

December 2020 – December 2022

Jennifer Gold is a partner of Wood Gold LLP and practices family law, mediation and wills.

She graduated from York University with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in English and Psychology and holds an LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School. She was called to the bar in 2002. Ms. Gold serves as President of the Board of Directors of the Women’s Law Association of Ontario and is a member of the Peel Law Association. She formerly served on the board of directors for North York Women’s Shelter.

Ms. Gold is a mentor to other lawyers in the family law bar, and an advocate for diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. In 2017, she was the recipient of the Lexpert Zenith Awards celebrating the advancement of women in the legal profession.

March 2020 – March 2023

Judy Mintz was the founding Executive Director of Dundas Community Services in Hamilton. She has served as a member of the Government of Canada’s National Council of Welfare, a part time commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, and a public member of the Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.

Community involvement included participating as a Member of the Board of Directors, United Way, Burlington & Greater Hamilton; Public Representative, Courts of Justice, Community Resource Committee; President, Association of Community Centers in Ontario; Chair of the Community Advisory Committee, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University.

June 2019 – June 2021

A lawyer and former insurance industry executive, Malcolm Heins was appointed CEO of the Law Society of Upper Canada in 2001 and retired in early 2012.

After his retirement, Mr. Heins joined the Counsel Public Affairs team, resigning in 2015 when he was appointed by the Ontario Minister of Finance to chair the Special Committee to Consider Financial Advisory and Financial Policy Alternatives.

Mr. Heins also served as an interim CEO of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada and as LAWPRO’s first President and CEO. Prior to that, Mr. Heins was the President and CEO of Gan Canada (formerly Simcoe Erie Group). Before joining Gan Canada in 1981, he practised insurance and commercial litigation in Toronto.

Mr. Heins currently provides consulting services and is a corporate director. He is also Vice‑Chair of LAWPRO and chairs its Executive and Risk Committee, as well as director of the Ontario Municipal Insurance Exchange and a member of the Ontario Securities Commission’s Investor Advisory Panel.

President and CEO

David has served as Legal Aid Ontario’s president and CEO since 2016 and prior to that was vice president of Strategic Planning and Compliance. He has extensive experience working within the Ministry of the Attorney General (MAG), previously serving as director of Business and Fiscal Planning branch, Corporate Services Management division and manager of program support, Family Justice division. Prior to that he worked as a senior analyst in the Social and Justice branch at the Management Board Secretariat. David studied at St. Jerome’s University and completed an MBA at Schulich School of Business, York University.