Colleen has 26 years of experience with a focus on Aboriginal law and employment, labour and human rights.
Colleen is called to the bar in Alberta and the Northwest Territories. However, as some of her clients are deemed federal employers, she practices all across Canada. She has appeared numerous times on behalf of clients before the following courts and tribunals: The Alberta Court of King’s Bench and Alberta Court of Appeal, The Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories, The Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal, Canada Labour Code Adjudications, Federal and Provincial Privacy Tribunals, The Alberta Human Rights Tribunal and The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.
Her experience include: employment agreements, non-competition agreements, injunction applications, Canada Labour Code adjudications, personnel policies, drug and alcohol policies, sexual harassment policies, election codes, membership codes, wrongful dismissal actions, human rights complaints, election disputes, general commercial litigation, privacy policies, judicial reviews, demand letters, trespass by-laws, banishment by-laws, by-laws, negotiations and business immigration. Additionally, Colleen has extensive experience in forensic litigation, workplace harassment investigations and TLE negotiations on behalf of Indigenous Peoples.
Colleen was appointed King’s Counsel in the Province of Alberta in 2020.
- Colleen is counsel to numerous First Nations and their entities in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Yukon and the Northwest Territories. She provides these clients with advice on Aboriginal governance, consultation matters, election disputes, employment, human rights and defamation matters and forensic litigation
- Chair, North Labour Law Section, Canadian Bar Association (four years)
- Past Board of Directors, YMCA
- Childcare Committee Member, Glenora Club
- Past Board of Directors, Workshop West
- Presenter, “How First Nations Can Avoid Housing Fraud!!” National AFOA Conference and AFOA BC Chapter
- “How to Avoid an Unjust Dismissal Complaint Under the Canada Labour Code”
- “Why It Is Important to Have a Current Personnel Policy, Employment Contracts and a Human Rights Policy”
- “The Ins and Outs of Employment Contracts and Independent Contractor Agreements”
- “How to Avoid Litigation?”
- “Why Is It Important to Have an Updated Election Code and What Should be in it?”
- Named a Leading Practitioner, Aboriginal Law, Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory
- Appointed King’s Counsel (Alberta, 2020)