Lara Koerner-Yeo
Associate
She/Her/Hers- lkoerneryeo@jfklaw.ca
- P 647-805-5675
- Legal Administrative Assistant Natila Kabir 647-925-5351 nkabir@jfklaw.ca
- Suite 1100, 65 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON M5H 2M5
Lara is an associate at the Toronto JFK Office. Lara works with Indigenous clients to advance the recognition and implementation of their Indigenous laws and the exercise of their inherent, Aboriginal and Treaty rights within Canada’s legal system.
Lara’s practice encompasses Indigenous laws and governance work, Aboriginal and Treaty rights litigation, and constitutional and public law litigation with a focus on equality rights and anti-discrimination law and policy matters.
Lara works with First Nations on lands and resource issues and is passionate about advancing Indigenous land and water stewardship, including through Guardians and Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) initiatives. Lara has a background in international human rights law with a particular focus on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Lara’s international human rights work has focused on advocating for domestic law and policy reform that provides for the recognition and protection of the rights set out in these international instruments in Canada.
Lara has appeared before every level of court in Ontario, the Federal Court of Appeal, and administrative tribunals. She represents clients in and outside the court room, including in engagement processes, negotiations, mediations, judicial reviews, interventions, and appeals.
Lara received her Juris Doctor from the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law in 2017, graduating with the Dean’s Leadership Award and a Certificate in Aboriginal Legal Studies. She is an alumnus of the David Asper Centre’s Constitutional Advocacy Clinic and Osgoode Hall Law School’s Intensive Program in Aboriginal Lands, Resources and Governments. Lara completed a Master’s in international human rights at SciencesPo’s Paris School of International Affairs in 2013.
Lara is a committed Indigenous rights and women’s human rights advocate who volunteers her time in support of Indigenous and settler feminist organizations and grassroots feminist and anti-racist organizers. She was on the Steering Committee of the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA) from 2015 to 2021 and is a Core Team member of Pima’tisowin e’mimtotaman / We Dance for Life. Lara also serves as a Board member of Terralingua. At FAFIA, Lara’s advocacy work focused on the elimination of the root causes of violence against Indigenous women and girls, including the elimination of sex discrimination in the Indian Act. Lara worked with Human Rights Watch on the role of policing in the crisis of violence, contributing to Those Who Take Us Away (2013) and Police Abuse of Indigenous Women in Saskatchewan (2017).
Prior to joining JFK, Lara worked at a boutique labour and public law firm in Toronto where her practice focused on administrative and Aboriginal law.
ADMISSIONS
Law Society of Ontario, 2018
EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, JD, 2017
SciencesPo, Paris School of International Affairs, Master’s, 2013
Wellesley College, BA, 2011
Ontario Bar Association / Canadian Bar Association
The Advocates Society
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND RESOURCES
Contributor, Collection of Documents on Gender Discrimination and the Indian Act
Contributor, Collection of Documents Relating to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada
Highlights
Publications
We are pleased to announce JFK Law’s recognition by Best Law Firms™ – Canada
As she waited for the election results to come in on October 19, BC Conservative candidate, Marina Sapozhnikov, casually