The Top 25 Most Influential 2020 winner
Vancouver
Lawyer, Murphy Battista LLP
Angela Bespflug is a well-respected class action lawyer who has assisted in winning settlements amounting to $800 million in total. Bespflug was lead counsel in Tiller v. Canada, 2020 FC 321, a national class action on behalf of about 41,000 women alleging that they had experienced discrimination, harassment or sexual assault while working or volunteering with the RCMP in non-member roles. The settlement reached in this case, which spanned 45 years, was $100 million, estimated. This case is also significant for its implications on the use of class actions to address systemic sexual misconduct and for its value to sexual misconduct victims who do not have the resources required for individual litigation. Bespflug also acted as class counsel in the Sixties Scoop class action, the Indigenous Boarding Homes class action and the Indigenous Hospitals class action. For her involvement in these high-profile and historically important class proceedings, she has been recognized by the Federal Court as a leading practitioner in the area of class actions.
