Prior to her appointment, Justice Steele was a Partner and Chair of the Pensions & Benefits practice group at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt in Toronto, with experience in all aspects of pensions law, including plan design, administration, governance, restructuring and insolvency, and complex transactional work. Recognized as a leading lawyer in the area, Justice Steele was previous Chair of the Pensions and Benefits Law Executive for the Ontario Bar Association and the Steering Committee for the International Pension & Employee Benefits Lawyers Association. She was also actively involved in legal education as a guest lecturer at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, Osgoode Hall Law School, Western Law, and the University of Calgary, and has written and spoken extensively on a wide array of pension matters.

Justice Steele was called to the bar in Ontario in 1997. She received her LL.B. in 1995 from Western Law, where was the President of the Law Society, and a recipient of the Denys C. Holland and Dean Ivan Rand awards. She also has an honours B.Comm. from Queen’s University.