Vancouver, May 16, 2018 – Karen L. Snowshoe has been elected Bencher in the May 14, 2018, byelection for Vancouver County. Born and raised in Vancouver, Snowshoe is a member of the Tetlit-Gwich’in Nation in Fort McPherson, NT, and the first Indigenous woman to be elected a Bencher for the Law Society. Her term begins immediately and ends on December 31, 2019.
Since 2004, she has worked in diverse practice areas, including Indigenous issues, administrative law, arbitration and mediation. She attended the University of British Columbia, completed her law degree in 2002, and was called to the Bar of British Columbia in 2004.
Her work is currently focused on providing adjudication services across Canada. Her past clients include the Indian Residential School Adjudication Secretariat, the Northwest Territories Human Rights Adjudication Panel and the Workers’ Compensation Tribunal of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
An experienced adjudicator, Snowshoe has held over 250 hearings across Canada and written 150 decisions and 20 appeal decisions. She is a member of two federal land claim arbitration panels, and recently served as senior counsel with the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Snowshoe also maintains membership in numerous professional organizations dedicated to the administration of justice.
In her election statement, Snowshoe expressed her commitment to “fairness, reconciliation and healing” in advancing the Law Society’s work in relation to truth and reconciliation, as well as to “increasing and promoting diversity at all levels of the legal profession.”
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For further information contact:
David Jordan
Communications Officer
604.443.5708
djordan@lsbc.org