As I was naming the firm, I chose the word “Advocacy” first because it describes the common thread running through my decades-long and diverse career in law, governance, writing, teaching, and public life. I chose “Artemis” because I wanted the name of a strong woman—one that reflected strength, independence, protectiveness, and resolve, and that felt true to my sense of self and to the practice I am building. While work for and with Indigenous Peoples has long been central to my work and remains an important part of my practice, I wanted to ensure that the name I chose did not appropriate an Indigenous word or name. At the same time, I wanted it to evoke the protection of lands, waters, rights, relationships, and the living world. Artemis, as a Greek goddess of nature and hunting, also spoke to my own values and to my history of advocating for ecological conservation.

I am a strong advocate. I am deeply committed to my clients and stand up firmly for their rights and interests. I am comfortable in difficult rooms and grounded in challenging situations, and I do not shy away from tension and conflict when my clients’ interests, fairness, or important principles are at stake. I bring dedication, loyalty, force, and care to the work of protecting and advancing my clients’ interests.

I also serve as a strategic advocate for clients engaged in multi-party issues and collaborative projects. Much of my work has involved facilitating complex projects, sensitive private meetings, and public or community engagement processes involving multiple parties, including rights holders, stakeholders, and decision makers. I am adept at seeing how people, institutions, and roles fit together, where gaps need to be filled, and how to move projects and priorities forward with discipline, judgment, and collective effort.

This mixed practice reflects the way I have always worked: across fields, institutions, and issues, rather than within a single narrow lane. From my multi-disciplinary undergraduate and graduate education onward, I have been drawn to work that requires breadth as well as depth. That same orientation is reflected in my legal practice, where I work with a clear sense of how legal and practical, and systemic and personal, dimensions intersect. My legal career has reflected that same range in my work in general service law firms and in firms serving Indigenous Peoples. In both contexts, I worked on a wide range of matters and areas of law. That range is reflected somewhat differently in my work for individuals, organizations, and Indigenous governing authorities.

For individual clients, I provide practical legal support and strong advocacy across a range of personal, professional, and business-related matters. This includes employment and human rights issues, civil disputes, contracts and agreements, creative rights, wills and estate planning and administration, family law matters, and matters involving Indigenous lands, membership, and related rights or governance issues for First Nations individuals. Sometimes clients come to me because something has gone badly wrong. At other times, they are looking for careful advice, drafting, or negotiation to advance and protect their interests proactively, make a promising opportunity real, or to carry out due diligence. In each of these circumstances, I help individuals understand where they stand, make informed decisions, and move forward with their rights and interests protected.

For organizations, I provide legal support that is attentive both to formal legal obligations and to how organizations function in practice. I assist with organizational formation and structuring, governance, agreements and organizational relationships, privacy and information governance, employment and human rights, and other legal needs that arise as organizations pursue their objectives, manage relationships, and meet their obligations. I understand organizations from the inside through many years of board service, including in numerous leadership roles, as well as through building and running my own businesses and extensive experience in governance work. I help organizations build and maintain legal and governance foundations that are sound, workable, and aligned with their objectives.

I have worked for and with Indigenous Peoples for well over a decade, and that work remains at the heart of my practice. Before I became a lawyer, I spent many years working in governance, intergovernmental relations, negotiation, and strategic planning with Indigenous Nations and organizations. This experience inspired me to go to law school to gain additional tools to fight for Indigenous Peoples’ rights and for social justice. I was honoured to be part of the first cohort of the University of Victoria’s Juris Doctor and Juris Indigenarum Doctor program, a dual degree in Canadian common law and Indigenous legal orders, and later to teach in that program.

After law school, and after working in a couple of general service firms, I also worked in a couple of Aboriginal law firms. In these firms, my work included Indigenous legal orders and Aboriginal law; governance and nation rebuilding; negotiation and drafting of agreements; and work involving Indigenous lands, rights, and authority in regulatory and institutional processes. I remain deeply committed to truth and reconciliation, decolonization, and building a just and abundant shared future on Turtle Island. I also carry that commitment into my other forms of advocacy, including my book project, academic publications, and teaching.