Bio
Valerie Hughes is a senior fellow at CIGI, senior counsel with Bennett Jones LLP and adjunct assistant professor in the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University. She spent 22 years with the Government of Canada in various positions, including assistant deputy minister, Law Branch, at Finance Canada; director and general counsel of the Trade Law Bureau in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (now Global Affairs Canada); and senior counsel in the International Law Section at Justice Canada.
Valerie represented Canada before World Trade Organization (WTO) panels and the WTO Appellate Body, as well as before a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) investor-state tribunal. She was also part of Canada’s legal team in the Gulf of Maine case before the International Court of Justice. Valerie also worked in the WTO in Geneva and is the only person to have served both as director of the WTO Legal Affairs Division (2010–2016) and director of the WTO Appellate Body Secretariat (2001–2005). Valerie served as a WTO panellist in two disputes and is on the NAFTA Chapter 19 roster, as well as the roster of panel chairs for the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. Valerie has written extensively about WTO dispute settlement.