Jo-Ann Kolmes is a partner at the union-side firm Chivers Carpenter in Edmonton, Alberta, where she works primarily in research and litigation/arbitration support. Ms. Kolmes has worked on judicial review applications, appeals, civil litigation, arbitrations and human rights hearings. She was a member of the legal team that represented Vriend and Alberta’s gay and lesbian community in the Charter challenge to Alberta’s human rights legislation, which excluded sexual orientation as a prohibited ground of discrimination. She is currently serving on an Alberta Law Reform Institute committee reviewing the judicial review rules in the Alberta Rules of Court, and on the executive of the Administrative Law section (Northern Alberta) of the Canadian Bar Association. Ms. Kolmes is also on the executive of the Canadian Association of Labour Lawyers/Association canadienne des avocats du mouvement syndical.