Anita Szigeti

Anita Szigeti is the founding lawyer of Anita Szigeti Advocates, a Toronto firm focusing on mental health and the law. She is currently co-director of the Mental Health Law course within the Health Law LLM at Osgoode Professional Development where she obtained a Certificate in Tribunal Adjudication in 2018. Co-author of four (and a half) text books on mental health law across Canada, she is a recognized expert in the area of mental disorder in both civil and criminal law contexts. She has been retained as an expert witness in mental health justice matters. Anita has been a leader in the field for 30 years at the Ontario bar. She has been representing clients in Nunavut since 2014 as a member of the Nunavut Law Society. Anita was the Chair of the Mental Health Legal Committee (MHLC) for a decade and the founding first Chair of Legal Aid Ontario's Mental Health Law & Policy Advisory Group. For six years, Anita served as an elected Toronto Director of the Criminal Lawyers' Association (CLA) and the Association's Chair of its Mental Disorder Portfolio. She served as the Women’s Director through COVID in 2020-2021. Anita is President of the Law And Mental Disorder Association (LAMDA), an umbrella advocacy organization of 200 lawyers practising mental health law. She is the Secretary of Women in Canadian Criminal Defence (WiCCD).

Anita’s litigation career spans thousands of tribunal level cases, hundreds of cases argued in appellate Courts including more than a dozen in the Supreme Court of Canada. Anita has also been involved in too many death inquiries focusing on police use of force in interactions with persons in crisis and just as many high profile Inquests concerning other mental health related deaths. In 2016, she joined the prestigious Trial Advocacy faculty at the University of Toronto law school. Teaching advocacy is a long time passion for Anita who has also taught the substantive law of mental disorder throughout her career to Crowns, Coroners, adjudicators, psychiatrists, defence lawyers, clients, their families and anyone else who asked. She has particular expertise in training tribunal, board and agency adjudicators on how to address mental health matters culturally competently. When she's not mentoring new generations of (mostly women) lawyers or at a Jays' game with her family, Anita is found in a (now virtual, sadly) courtroom almost every day. She's happiest litigating on behalf of vulnerable people, giving a voice to those who otherwise may not be heard at all. She lives for those rare days when she wins a case, shocking her most of all.