Gavin Gardinerˆ

Contact Details

Gavin Gardiner

Assistant: Tyra Shupe

As a lawyer at Woodward and Company’s Whitehorse office, Gavin provides general counsel services to a number of First Nations. His core areas of practice are modern treaty implementation, employment law, and restorative justice.

For nearly a decade prior to studying law, Gavin assumed a variety of roles within a self-governing First Nation including legislation/policy analyst, implementation and negotiation official, and executive director. He began at Woodward and Company as a summer student in 2015 before clerking at the British Columbia Court of Appeal.
Gavin holds a cum laude law degree from the University of Ottawa, a certificate in mediation and negotiation from the Justice Institute of British Columbia, and a Bachelor of Arts (double honours) in English and political studies from the University of Saskatchewan.

Gavin was a Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation Global Policy Fellow; a role that saw him investigate the efforts of several Indigenous communities across the world as they revitalized Indigenous laws to shift from conventional Western models of governance to traditional, culturally relevant models of governance.

ˆDenotes a Professional Corporation

Membership & Professional Affiliations

  • Member, Law Society of Yukon (2017)
  • Member, Law Society of Ontario
  • Member, Law Society of Northwest Territories

Practice Areas

  • Consultation and Accommodation
  • Employment and Human Rights
  • Indigenous Legal Orders and Law

Yukon Law Foundation Scholarship, 2013-2016

Martin Mason Prize in Constitutional Law, University of Ottawa, 2015

Deputy Chair, Yukon Human Rights Commission

Past President, Canadian Bar Association – Yukon Branch

Marriage Commissioner, Yukon Territory