MLT AIKINS LLP | MLTAIKINS.COM
Drew Lafond
Partner • (he/him)
Drew provides advice to businesses on corporate structure, finance, governance and gaming licensing. He also has extensive experience advising Indigenous clients on governance and jurisdictional issues.
Education & Qualifications
- Saskatchewan Bar (2019)
- Alberta Bar (2011)
- JD (Victoria, 2009)
- BA with honours (Saskatchewan, 2006)
Languages
- English
More about me
Drew advises clients on matters related to economic development, gaming, housing, commercial leasing, corporate governance, structure and finance.
Drew also assists Indigenous clients with asserting and exercising jurisdiction over core areas of governance, including land management, taxation, gaming and agriculture in Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Yukon.
Drew was raised in Treaty 6 territory on the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation reserve and is also of Secwepemc descent from the Simpcw First Nation in British Columbia.
He has also served as president of the Indigenous Bar Association since 2019.
- Member, Board of Directors, Canadian Red Cross
- Member, Law Society of Saskatchewan (Saskatchewan, present)
- President, Indigenous Bar Association (2019-present)
- Director, Indigenous Bar Association (2009-2019)
- President, Indigenous Law Students’ Association (Victoria, 2007-2008)
- Kawaskimhon National Aboriginal Moot (2008)
- UBC Indigenous Legal Clinic (2009)
- Recognized in the 2025 edition of the Best Lawyers in Canada (Aboriginal Law/Indigenous Practice)
- Recognized in the 2025 edition (and since 2019) of the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory (Indigenous)
- Recognized in the Lexpert Special Edition: Agribusiness and Cannabis 2020
- Recognized in the 2018 edition of Lexpert Rising Stars
- Canadian Millennium Bursary (2007-2009)
- Chief Michael A. Underwood Memorial Scholarship
- James Gosnell AFN Heroes of Our Time Award
- Keith B. Jobson Award
- The Honourable Thomas A. Dohm Shield
- Presenter “First Nations’ Jurisdiction over Cannabis,” Assembly of First Nations National First Nations (AFN) Cannabis Summit (Vancouver, September 2019)
- Course Instructor, “Indigenous Business Law” (Calgary, 2019)
- Guest Lecturer, “Indigenous Businesses and Economic Development” (Alberta)
- Guest Lecturer, “Indigenous Jurisdiction on Reserve” (Calgary)
- “UN Human Rights Committee Rules Indian Act is Discriminatory in McIvor Case,” ABlawg.ca (Calgary, January 2019)
- “Barring Claims Against Discriminatory Legislation: Canada v Canada,” ABlawg.ca (Calgary, June 2018)
- “The Need for an Implementation Policy for the Numbered Treaties,” conference hosted by the University of Alberta, Augustana Campus, The Way Forward: Envisioning Treaty Rights in Modern Resource Management (February 2016)
- Presented on behalf of the Indigenous Bar Association to the Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples regarding Bill S-3, an act to eliminate sex-based inequities in the Indian Act (May 2017)
