About Mercedes Perez

Mercedes has represented clients before a range of administrative tribunals and at all levels of court in Ontario, Federal Court and the Supreme Court of Canada. She practices in the fields of mental health and capacity law, Charter litigation, civil actions, coroners’ inquests, elder law, privacy matters, and complaints to the regulated health professions colleges. Mercedes represented the appellant in P.S. v. Ontario, a successful constitutional challenge to the Mental Health Act which resulted in the first significant amendments to this legislation in over a decade. She has received numerous amicus curiae appointments from the Ontario Court of Appeal in mental health and capacity appeals.

Mercedes co-instructs the Law and Psychiatry course at Osgoode Hall Law School with Kelley Bryan. As a member of the Mental Health Legal Committee, she has prepared submissions on proposed provincial and federal legislative reform bills. She has been a frequent speaker on capacity, constitutional and administrative law matters at law conferences and continuing legal education programs, including the Osgoode Certificates in Elder Law and Mental Health Law.

Mercedes received her law degree from McGill University and was called to the Ontario Bar in 2003. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto and a Master of Arts from the University of Chicago. She has held appointments as a Director of the Boards of several charitable organizations in Ontario and the United States. Before co-founding Perez Bryan Procope LLP, Mercedes worked for non-governmental organizations in the Dominican Republic and Ecuador, at EcoJustice and a boutique advocacy firm in Toronto, and also practiced as a sole practitioner.