Legal advice that’s embedded in your business

Aliya founded Verist Legal to give companies senior legal judgment without adding to headcount.

As fractional in-house counsel, Aliya works with companies that have no in-house lawyer, with in-house teams that need employment depth, and with US companies who have Canadian employment obligations. She also advises executives on compensation and equity, restrictive covenants, and severance negotiations.

She has deep expertise in employment and labour and breadth across commercial contracts and privacy. She enjoys helping businesses navigate their legal obligations surrounding complex workforces, including multi-province, multi-entity, and Canada-US operations.

She has nearly a decade of experience, starting with Canada's largest plaintiff-side employment firm, where she learned why employers end up in lawsuits, what matters to employees, and why claims settle. In BigLaw, she defended the kind of lawsuits she used to bring, advising some of the world's largest companies on issues from entity creation and onboarding through mass terminations, executive compensation, and the employment aspects of M&A. In-house at a large publicly traded company she led policy design, new market entry, and workforce compliance across Canada and the US. She then built the legal function inside a multi-entity Canadian company with a 30,000+ workforce.

Her insights have been featured on CBC, the National, and HRD Canada. She was co-host of Global News' Employment Law Show and a contributor to CLEBC's Annual Review of Law and Practice, Employment Law Chapter. She is also a regular speaker for the Chartered Professionals of Human Resources BC and Yukon.