Iris Ngo

Iris Ngo is an articling student in Smart & Biggar’s Ottawa office. She recently received her J.D. from Queen’s University. Achievements during Iris’ legal studies include course prizes for public law, contract law, trademark law, cannabis law, immigration and refugee law, taxation and inclusion on the Dean’s Honours List. During her legal studies, Iris also won the Dean’s Bronze Scholar, awarded to those with the third highest average in the third year.

Iris served as President of the Queen’s Intellectual Property Law Club, a tutor for the Queen’s Law Tutor Program, and a mentor for the Queen’s Asian Law Students’ Association and Queen’s Business Law Clinic. In 2020 she was selected to represent Queen’s at the finals of the Hicks Morley Moot.

Prior to law school, Iris earned a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and Master of Science in Biochemistry, both from the University of Calgary. She was the recipient of the Faculty of Science Gold Medal (2018) and graduated with First Class Honours and was awarded the Society of Chemical Industry Merit Award (2018). Before this, Iris also received The Louise McKinney Scholarship (2015, 2016) and The Louise Dean Memorial Award (2015) based on outstanding academic merit and a strong commitment to volunteer service.

During her postgraduate studies, Iris received the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master’s Program Award (2019) as well as the Faculty of Graduate Studies Master’s Research Scholarship (2019).

In completing her master’s thesis, Iris developed an understanding of the early steps of drug research and development, allowing her to understand the perspective of clients who may be engaging in similar activities. Iris developed strong skills in metabolic and protein engineering as well as metabolite purification and identification, enabling her to understand the technical needs of clients.

Before articling at Smart & Biggar, Iris was a summer law student in the Ottawa office in 2021.