Sean Kelly

Partner and Labour & Employment Practice Group Leader

• Queen’s Marque
  600-1741 Lower Water Street
  Halifax, N.S.
  B3J 0J2
• Phone: +1.902.444.1742
• Mobile: +1.902.471.5359
• Fax: +1.902.420.1417
• skelly@stewartmckelvey.com
• LinkedIn Profile

Language(s) spoken: English

Bar Admission(s): Nova Scotia, 2011; Ontario, 2023

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Legal Assistant(s): Hayden Marchand

Providing legal services through a professional corporation.

Sean is an experienced trial lawyer with a practice focused on employment litigation and representing professional regulators. He has appeared before all levels of Courts and Administrative Tribunals in Nova Scotia as well as the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Divisional Court and also defends employers facing occupational health and safety investigations and charges, negotiates collective agreements, litigates grievance arbitrations and is routinely engaged to provide employment and labour counsel in corporate transactions. His clients include a wide range of employers from national and multinational companies to small-medium sized enterprises across a wide array of industries. Sean also has an active sports litigation practice, having represented national and provincial sport organizations, as well as both athletes and coaches at discipline hearings, investigations and mediations.

Sean is the Labour & Employment Practice Group Leader, and also holds a certificate in mental health law from Osgoode Hall Law School. He brings a practical approach to resolving discipline and performance management issues, regularly conducts workplace investigations (often involving harassment and discrimination allegations) and is routinely engaged to negotiate and draft executive employment agreements and act in restrictive covenant litigation (non-compete and non-solicitation obligations).

He has significant governance experience both as a board member and as legal counsel, particularly in the area of crisis management, and frequently engages with industry associations and clients to facilitate education through seminars, presentations and has appeared in the media as a commentator on workplace legal issues.

Highlights of Sean’s recent representative and trial work include:

• Defending a national retailer in a wrongful dismissal jury trial involving egregious respectful workplace policy violations by a manager resulting in a mistrial and costs awards exceeding $100,000 against opposing counsel and the dismissed employee.
• Successfully defending a national sport organization in a complex litigation involving serious reputational implications resulting in a significant costs award.
• Successfully representing a regional media company before the Court of Appeal in a leading Nova Scotia case on constructive dismissal and mitigation.