Lara Koerner-Yeo

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.