Leah Mack

Lawyer

Email: leah@woodwardandcompany.com

Assistant: Dawn Imlach | dawn@woodwardandcompany.com

Profile

Leah's primary practice areas are band governance, on-reserve administrative and land use issues, on-reserve leasing and employment law. Leah has a particular interest in First Nations membership issues, specifically Bill C-31 and the residual effects experienced by Aboriginal women and their communities. She strongly believes in that spending time in the communities, and learning about each community, enables her to work with the law in a way that reflects each individual nation and their customs and traditions.

Leah’s education offered the opportunity for travel across Canada. She graduated from St. Francis Xavier University with a Bachelor of Business Administration (Honours), with a major in Marketing. Leah attended Osgoode Hall Law School . Leah was a member and Vice-President of the Osgoode Hall Aboriginal Students Association from 2003-2006.

Leah worked as a research assistant to Professor Kent McNeil, a leading academic in the field of Aboriginal rights. During that time, she conducted extensive research on Aboriginal rights to the foreshore and seabed as well as the fiduciary obligations for non-economic wrongs and the principles of equitable remedy. In 2006, she participated in the Aboriginal Intensive Program in Lands, Resources and the Environment, and spent a semester in New Zealand working with a Maori group, the Tainui, on their claim to the Waikato River, the longest river in New Zealand.

Leah is also a proud ‘islander’ – born and raised in Victoria, BC, with family on the west coast (Toquaht First Nation).

Professional Standing:

Member, Law Society of B.C. (2007)
Selected Presentations:
Woodward Workshops in First Nations Governance: Hosting workshops to share valuable information in a “non-legal” way, dealing with day-to-day issues that many communities face.

Other Activities:

Director: Suddenly Dance Theatre 2006- present
Director: G.A.S.A.
Co-chair: Hwlitsum Services Society Annual Golf Tournament and Titans’ Annual Golf Tournament
Book club
Softball, volleyball, running, competing in triathlons, golfing, hiking, camping, anything animal related (rescuing abandoned animals, visiting spca)