Lee Schmidt

Lee Schmidt is the ILS Associate Director. She is the student advisor for prospective and current Indigenous students. She coordinates the Specialization in Indigenous Legal Studies. She works across units, including student services, admissions, development, career services and others to support Indigenous students, and to implement, promote and enhance Indigenous-focused offerings at Allard. She co-facilitates Allard’s Indigenous Cultural Competency Certificate with Professor Barkaskas, co-leads the ILS Academic Leadership Certificate with Professor Harris, and is the administrative lead for the ILS Summer Intensive in Torts with Professor Uteck. Alongside Mandell Pinder LLP lawyers and the ILS Academic Director, Lee also coaches Allard’s Kawaskimhon National Aboriginal Moot Team. Lee’s ancestry is Cree and Métis and Dutch. 

Lee is an Allard law alumna, graduating in 2002, and called in British Columbia in 2003. Until 2016, she worked in private practice full time at a Vancouver boutique firm with Peter Grant, specializing in Aboriginal law and exclusively assisting Indigenous Nations, governments and individuals. Modern treaty negotiations, multi-party consultation processes, land use plans and Aboriginal rights and title claims were her primary practice areas. From 2008-2016, she dedicated her practice to representing survivors of Indian Residential Schools in representative actions and the national class action settlement IAP Process. Presently, she maintains a part-time practice and is a member of the Law Society of British Columbia. She was an appointed member of the Law Society’s Equity & Diversity Committee for one year. She is also a member of the Indigenous Bar Association, serving on the board for two terms: 2003-2005 and 2012-2014, and was their Representative to the Federal Court Liaison Committee for two years. She was faculty at the Banff Centre for their Indigenous Leadership and Management offerings from 2008 – 2011, co-facilitating courses for Indigenous leadership from across Canada, including First Nations Strategic Planning, Establishing Effective Aboriginal Relationships, and a custom leadership course for the Waterlution organization. In addition to her law degree, she holds a Diploma in Public Sector Management from the University of Victoria and a Native Adult Instructor Diploma (PIDP) from Okanagan University College. Lee was born and raised in Coast Salish and Sto:lo Territory (Vancouver and Mission). Lee’s ancestry is Cree and Métis and Dutch. Her late father, Louis Schmidt, was from the northern Cree community of Sandy Bay, Saskatchewan and the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation, of which Lee is a member. Her late grandmother, Maggie Morin was Cree, daughter of Louis Morin and Veronique Tawipisim Michel. Her late grandfather, Joseph Schmidt was Métis from St. Louis, Saskatchewan. She is also of Dutch ancestry from Scheveningen in Den Haag, Holland, Netherlands, from her late mother, Lisa.