Carsten Jensen KC, FCIArb (he/him/his)

Carsten Jensen is a founding partner of JSS Barristers and a former Managing Partner of the firm. His practice focuses exclusively on dispute resolution, with an emphasis on corporate & commercial litigation, including commercial class actions, oil & gas disputes, shareholder disputes, multi-party litigation and arbitrations.

Carsten has represented governments, airlines, major and independent energy sector firms, pipelines and utilities, and individuals. He acts for the Alberta Lawyers Indemnity Association in defence of professional negligence claims and on insurance coverage issues.

Carsten is a member of the Canadian and Calgary Bar Associations. Carsten is also a Fellow of the London, UK-based Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb) and a Member of its Professional Conduct Committee (the PCC), which is concerned with the regulation of the professional conduct of Institute members and discipline matters.

In 1998, Carsten commenced a two-year leave of absence during which time he acted as senior legal officer and eventually team leader at the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) in Geneva, Switzerland. The UNCC was established to process and resolve compensation claims arising from Iraq's invasion and occupation of Kuwait. During Carsten's first year with the UNCC, he worked on the Kuwait Oil Company claim for oil losses resulting from the Kuwait oil well fires. Carsten was responsible for overseeing the quantification of the amount of oil lost, with the assistance of reservoir engineering experts. This claim is possibly the largest single oil & gas loss ever resolved.

Subsequently, Carsten was responsible for overseeing development of a consistent method for resolving the thousands of individual business loss claims filed with the UNCC as a result of the war. The methodology which Carsten and his team developed was adopted by the UNCC panel responsible for these claims and has since been applied to thousands of similar claims. Carsten returned to JSS Barristers in the fall of 2000 to resume his civil litigation practice.

Awards and Recognitions

Carsten has a Martindale-Hubbell "AV Preeminent" peer review rating in both legal ability and ethical standards - the highest possible rating. Carsten has been recognized repeatedly in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory as a leading practitioner in Corporate Commercial Litigation, Class Actions and Medical Negligence. In addition, Carsten is recognized and listed in "Best Lawyers in Canada" and Benchmark. Chambers Global lists Carsten as a Distinguished Practitioner in commercial litigation.

Over the course of his practice, Carsten has been recognized by countless award directories. Recently, he was named Litigation Star by Benchmark Litigation (2012-2022). In 2021, Legal 500 named him Leading Individual in Dispute Resolution: Alberta.

He has been ranked by Chambers & Partners, as Band 2 Litigation: General Commercial (AB) (2015-2020) and Band 4 Nationwide - Dispute Resolution: Class Action (Plaintiff) (2021-2022).

Best Lawyers has recognized him in the following areas: Corporate and Commercial Litigation, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Class Action Litigation, Personal Injury Litigation, International Arbitration, and as Lawyer of the Year Calgary in Class Action Litigation (2021), Personal Injury (2019), and Class Actions (2018). 

The ”Awards and Recognitions” tab, to the left, provides a listing of some of Carsten's peer and industry reviews and awards.

Commercial Arbitration and Tribunal Work

Carsten is highly experienced in arbitration matters, both as party counsel and as arbitrator.

Carsten has served as arbitrator in many commercial disputes as sole Arbitrator, as a Panel Member, and as Chair. He has experience with ad hoc and institutional arbitral proceedings, including ADRIC, VanIAC and ICC matters, in a range of commercial disputes. Those include international commercial transactions, construction and engineering faults, failures and delays, energy, environmental claims and commercial real estate.

Carsten was recently lead counsel in a pipeline dispute which proceeded through arbitration, with a claim value of $360 million. He also served as lead party counsel on an environmental damage ad hoc arbitration with a claim value in excess of $800 million. He is counsel in other commercial arbitration matters, and he has frequently been called upon to advise clients on arbitration clauses and arbitration agreements.

Between 2006 and 2014, Carsten was a Bencher of the Law Society. In that capacity he has served as an adjudicator on disciplinary panels in over 25 matters, at least 10 of which he served as the Chair and followed by a written decision principally authored by Carsten. His written decisions are available by searching the CanLII database.

Carsten has served on numerous other Law Society panels dealing with assurance fund claims, credentials and education matters and interim suspension applications. In those types of proceedings, he has served as both a panel member and as the Chair, and in a variety of such cases, has provided written reasons.

Carsten served two years as the Chair of Conduct at the Law Society, meaning that he was responsible for the overall disciplinary process, and for resolving interim motions regarding evidentiary disputes and scheduling matters. Similarly, some of those matters involved the preparation of written decisions.

Carsten continues to serve on the Law Society's roster of adjudicators and accepts occasional appointments to serve as a panel member on Law Society hearings. In addition, he serves as a member of the Appeal Committee of the Canadian Centre for Professional Legal Education (CPLED), dealing with academic appeals arising from the bar admission process.

Carsten has completed adjudication training related to credibility findings, jurisdiction, and decision writing, and has been appointed to Chair arbitral tribunals. Carsten is recognized by Benchmark as a Litigation Star in arbitration, and he is a member of the Western Canada Commercial Arbitration Society.

Carsten is presently available for institutional and ad hoc arbitral appointments as sole arbitrator, as panel member or as Chair.

Community

Carsten’s continuous involvement in the community is notable.

Carsten is a board member and past Chair of Windmill Microlending - a national charity providing low-interest loans to newcomers to Canada, to assist them in obtaining Canadian accreditation for foreign credentials. Windmill converts potential into prosperity by helping to integrate immigrants and refugees into the economy.

Carsten is a former Bencher (Director) of the Law Society of Alberta, which is the governing body for lawyers in Alberta; he also served as President of the Law Society for a one-year term commencing in February 2013. He was previously Chair of Finance, Chair of Credentials and Education, and for two years, Chair of Conduct. Carsten previously served on the Advisory Board of ALIEX, which was the reciprocal insurer providing coverage to Alberta lawyers.

In 2018, Carsten was appointed by the Law Society of Alberta to be its representative to the Federation of Law Societies of Canada. In that role, he serves as Chair of the Federation’s Standing Committee on the Model Code of Conduct, which sets the model code of ethics for lawyers in Canada.

Carsten serves as a member of the Canadian Bar Association National Class Actions Task Force, which was established to address the procedural challenges posed by multi-jurisdictional class proceedings.

Publications

"The Interpretation of Exclusion Clauses in Insurance Contracts - Post Ledcor" 
JSSBarristers.ca, June 14, 2022
Author

"The Maple Leaf Foods Decision (or "The Judgement to Sink the Sub)"

The Annual Review of Civil Litigation 2021, The Honourable Mr. Justice Todd L. Archibald, ed. - 2021
Co-Author (with Laura Warner, Kaila Eadie & Daniel Mills)

"Rabobank International v. Stout & Company: Auditors' Negligence Claims Remain Challenging Post-Livent"

The Advocates' Quarterly, Vol. 51, 2020
Co-Author (with Laura Warner & Kaila Eadie)

"The Livent Decision - Two Years On (or Livent and the Amazing Technicolor of Torts)"

The Annual Review of Civil Litigation 2019, the Honourable Mr. Justice Todd L. Archibald, ed. - 2019
Co-Author (with Laura Warner)

"Revisiting the Arbitration Agreement After a Dispute Arises - the Role of Arbitration Counsel"

ADR Perspectives, a publication of the ADR Institute of Canada - 2014
Author

"Energy in Canada - Litigation in an Emerging Energy Superpower"

Benchmark Canada - 2013
Author

Speaking Engagements

Co-Chair
“Competence and Diversity”, “Law and Generative AI””, “Neurotechnology and the Practice of Law”, and “The Duty to Report – How Far Does This Ethical Obligation Extend?”, CBA-FLSC Legal Ethics Symposium, 2024

Co-Chair
“Lawyering in Times of Chaos and Controversy”, “Legal Ethics and Family Law: Do Unique Challenges Require New Approaches?” and “A Wake Up Call: What is the path forward for improving lawyer mental health?”, CBA-FLSC Legal Ethics Symposium, 2023

Co-Chair
"Lawyer Competence - Reconciliation and Working with Indigenous Peoples; the Financial Arrangements Between Lawyers and Clients; and the Law Societies as Regulator - Developments in Self Regulation", CBA-FLSC Legal Ethics Symposium, 2022

Presenter 
"Class Actions in Alberta - Recent Cases", Western Canada Class Actions Conference 2018, Vancouver

Presenter
"Class Actions in Alberta - Recent Cases", Western Canada Class Actions Conference 2016, Vancouver

Presenter
"The Framework for Domestic Commercial Arbitration in Alberta", Central Alberta Bar Association, Red Deer – 2015

Presenter
"Class Actions in Alberta: An Overview of Recent Developments", Western Canada Class Actions Conference, Vancouver – 2015 

Presenter
"Running Your First Trial - Steps Prior to Trial", presented at a LESA seminar in Calgary and Edmonton – 2015