Karen Abugaber – Transat

Her employer may bill itself as the premier provider of leisure travel, but that doesn’t mean it’s always blue skies for Transat. So much can happen at the approximately 60 destinations in the 25 countries the Canadian-based airline serves. That has Karen Abugaber working behind the scenes to mitigate risks beyond anybody’s control.

Karen Abugaber | Transat | Senior Director of Legal Affairs

For example, summer marks the start of hurricane season in the tropics, but that’s a favored travel spot year-round. Lest a cyclone form and gather momentum around a low-pressure system, she works with partners to ensure that the facilities are safe and duly supplied where Transat’s customers are lodging. Should the circumstances require a repatriation of clients, Transat deploys its best efforts to ensure its clients are brought home safely. While she’s prepared for anything, she doesn’t foresee anything too much out of the ordinary this summer. However, a few years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in unpleasantries aplenty on the travel front, including a couple of months-long shutdowns and class-action lawsuits. But, as Abugaber reminds us, dealing with such issues is all part of in-house law, and onward, everyone must push.

“Having navigated some rough waters during COVID made us a much more effective organization,” she tells Vanguard in June from Transat’s Montreal headquarters, where she’s soon to celebrate her 11th anniversary on the legal staff, the last two-and-a-half years as its senior director who reports to the Chief Legal and Government Relations Officer and Corporate Secretary Bernard Bussières. “When times are tough, you just have to work a little harder, and you can get through it.”

Abugaber has dealt with far more serious crises than inconvenienced tourists at luxury locales, crises that she says fortified her resolve for whatever might arise and kept matters in perspective.

Global outlook learned early

A daughter of immigrants, Abugaber earned her undergraduate credentials at Carleton University in 1996 and her law degrees four years later at the University of Ottawa (LL.L. and LL.B.). Thereafter, she articled at the Quebec Court of Appeal and clerked for almost two years. She was called to the Quebec Bar in 2002.

A worldly type, she describes an eye-opening experience in the first half of 2005 while serving with the Special Court for Sierra Leone, an entity comprised of national leaders and United Nations personnel trying to hold accountable those who committed atrocities during the brutal civil war that ended three years earlier.

In Sierre Leone, she interviewed and prepared witnesses, assisted prosecutors during testimonies and evaluated pre-trial evidence. The experience made her extra grateful to live in a peaceful society she wished was predominant everywhere.

“It was so humbling to see how people survive immense adversity,” she says. “There were people with limbs cut off. Others were forced to shoot and bury their children. When you hear people describing all that they went through, you realize just how horrible war can be.”

Preferring not to elaborate too much, there have been times when Transat’s customers have chosen to travel to politically unstable places, and that necessitates contingency plans should an insurgency threaten. Here, too, Transat has a government relations team that works with foreign authorities to evacuate tourists. Knock wood, she says, but that hasn’t happened recently.

Litigator at heart

After those six eventful months in Sierra Leone, Abugaber returned to Canada and worked as a litigation associate in private practice in Montreal. Ever since, litigation has become her career path. She helped analyze cases, draft proceedings, and lead trials.

Business was always among her interests. She participated in an exploratory mission to the United Arab Emirates, which furthered her desire to do something on the global scene. Over a decade into her career, Abugaber says she needed to do something different in light of her love for travel; Transat seemed the ideal fit.

It’s turned out that way. Abugaber joined the company as legal counsel back in December 2013 and three promotions later, she is now responsible for all litigation. Abugaber proudly proclaims that while most litigation is avoided through risk management, there always remains the option for a reasonable settlement, typically done with assistance from outside counsel who are well-versed in this industry and provide skillful guidance.

In addition to these responsibilities, she manages various regulatory files with the Canadian Transportation Agency. These often relate to passenger rights and include ensuring that air travel is accessible to all.

As a trademark agent, she oversees the trademark and domain portfolios and diligently protects the brand.  As Transat’s list of destinations grows, she secures the necessary registrations in these jurisdictions.

There’s much to be proud of here, Abugaber says, mentioning how Transat has been named the World’s Best Leisure Airline for the sixth time by the most qualified judges—the passengers themselves—bestowing the honor at the annual Skytrax World Airlines Awards. She quickly adds that this operation is socially responsible as the Transat fleet comprises some of the most energy-efficient planes.

“It’s been a lot of ups and downs and opportunities to learn and have a lot of fun,” she says. “Everyone here contributes in their own way.”

Her way includes mentoring younger members of the 11-lawyer team, administrative staff, and paralegals, always emphasizing the need to stay composed under pressure, what with global travel, sometimes at the mercy of unforeseeable circumstances.

COVID-19 was one of them, but the worst of it is apparently history. Abugaber can say Transat acquitted itself during the pandemic and will surely expand in the coming years, partly due to a joint venture with Porter Airlines. She’ll continue taking a proactive approach against whatever variables threaten to upset someone’s dream vacation.

Vacation options abound, with deals to locales throughout the hemispheres and on both sides of the pond. Abugaber describes Transat as an employer that provides a family atmosphere. It’s certainly been one for her after 10+ years.

And there’s something about in-house law in general that appeals to her. It’s immersing in projects from conception to completion and gauging the impact of one’s counsel. The projects can be fast and furious at Transat, and the variables can make it all the more exciting for this mother of a 10-year-old daughter who’s pondering a teaching career that mom deems “most noble.”

But whatever her daughter does, Abugaber will offer the same advice rendered to her Transat colleagues: “Embrace change and cultivate resilience.”