Meet Our Students
William Audet
Université de Sherbrooke
William Audet is an articling student at Bereskin & Parr LLP and a member of the Trademarks and Copyright & Digital Media practice groups. His practice focuses on trademark clearance and prosecution as well as copyright law.
William graduated from the LL.B. program at the Université de Sherbrooke where he also completed a Juris Doctor with a specialization in transnational law. Over the weekends, William is also completing his Master of Laws thesis which focuses on copyright protection of artificial intelligence systems and works generated by them.
During his academic career, William has held several positions as a research and teaching assistant in intellectual property law and was also involved as a volunteer with a number of organizations.
William has authored and co-authored several intellectual property articles. In 2020, he co-authored an intellectual property textbook titled Précis de propriété Intellectuelle.
Iris Cheung
University of Ottawa
Iris Cheung is an articling student with Bereskin & Parr LLP. Her practice focuses on life sciences, patent prosecution, medical devices, and cannabis.
Iris graduated from the Juris Doctor program at the University of Ottawa. She holds a Bachelor of Sciences and a Doctor of Philosophy, both from the University of British Colombia. She conducted a graduate research on genome stability at the University of British Columbia, a postdoctoral research on genome stability at Princeton University and a postdoctoral research on epigenetics at the University of Massachusetts. Iris has co-authored many papers and book chapters on life sciences.
Iris has years of industry experience as a service provider providing genomic services and drug manufacture services to biopharmaceutical companies.
Prior to being an articling student, Iris was a summer student with the firm. She is fluent in English and Cantonese.
Prudence Etkin
McGill University
Prudence Etkin is an articling student with Bereskin & Parr LLP. Her practice focuses on trademark prosecution.
Prudence graduated from the Bachelor of Civil Law/Juris Doctor program at McGill University. She holds a Master of Arts in Religious Studies from Memorial University and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Religion and Culture from the University of Winnipeg.
Prior to joining Bereskin & Parr, Prudence was a summer student at a boutique estates litigation where she assisted lawyers with all matters related to estate litigation, including legal research, drafting memoranda, and assisting with firm publications on various estate issues. During her studies, Prudence volunteered with a number of legal startups. In her final year of law school, she completed a clerkship at the Montreal Municipal Court.
Prudence is fluent in French and English.
Christopher Kowal
University of Toronto
Christopher Kowal is an articling student with Bereskin & Parr LLP. His practice focuses on electrical & computer technology and patent prosecution.
Christopher graduated from the Juris Doctor program at the University of Toronto and holds Bachelor of Engineering at McGill University. As a previous undergraduate research assistant at Alternative Fuels Lab, he led research projects to determine the effect of particle size on burning velocity of aluminum and oxidizer mixtures. He also designed and manufactured solid metal fuel dispersion system.
Christopher is a recipient of the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards, the William Macdonald Scholarship and the Joseph S. Stauffer Scholarship.
Prior to being an articling student, Christopher was a summer student with the firm.
Paige Newman
University of Western Ontario
Paige Newman is an articling student with Bereskin & Parr LLP. Her practice focuses on patent prosecution and general IP matters.
Paige graduated from the Juris Doctor program at the University of Western Ontario and holds a Bachelor of Engineering Science in Civil Engineering from the same university. Prior to joining Bereskin & Parr, Paige worked as Legal Summer Student for an international meat exporter where she conducted research and prepared research memoranda, allowing for the Legal team to improve the construction contract request processing system. She also gained experience in the drafting and preparation of construction contracts and service agreements for out of company contractors.
Prior to being an articling student, Paige was a summer student with the firm.
Sunil Rao
University of Toronto
Sunil Rao is an articling student with Bereskin & Parr LLP. His practice focuses on electrical & computer technology, artificial intelligence, cleantech, financial technology and nanotechnology.
Sunil graduated from the Juris Doctor program at the University of Toronto. He holds a Master of Science and a Doctor of Philosophy degree, both in Electrical Engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. He completed a Bachelor of Engineering at the K. J. Somaiya College of Engineering in India.
As part of his graduate research, Sunil studied chemical vapor deposition of different thin film semiconductor materials including silicon carbide, cadmium telluride, cadmium sulfide, germanium and zinc telluride. For his doctoral dissertation, his research focused on metalorganic vapor phase epitaxial growth of (211)B cadmium telluride on silicon substrates. Sunil has co-authored many journal papers on semiconductor materials and processing.
Prior to being an articling student, Sunil was a summer student with the firm. He is fluent in English, Hindi, Marathi and Konkani.
Yuen Lai Shek
Osgoode Hall Law School
Yuen Lai Shek is an articling student with Bereskin & Parr LLP. His practice focuses on litigation in all areas of intellectual property, including patents, trademarks and copyright.
Yuen graduated from the Juris Doctor program at the Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Sciences in pharmaceutical chemistry and mathematics from the University of Toronto. For his doctoral dissertation, his research focused on the solvation and conformational stability of proteins and DNA. Yuen has many years of experience working in the pharmaceutical sciences and chemical sector, more specifically regarding protein and DNA stability and folding, interactions of nucleic acids and proteins, drug delivery, drug-receptor binding, spectroscopy, calorimetry and ultrasonic velocimetry.
While attending law school, Yuen volunteered in Pro Bono Students Canada’s Family Law Project and Wills Project. He was also a member of the Wilson Moot team that won third place in the competition.
Prior to being an articling student, Yuen was a summer student with the firm. He is fluent in English, French, Mandarin and Cantonese.
