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KUDOS! Alumna Sheila MacPherson (LLB '87) has been elected 2017–2018 president of Federation of Law Societies of Canada

Posted by Jane Doucet on November 28, 2017 in News

The Federation of Law Societies of Canada is pleased to announce that Sheila MacPherson (LLB ’87) of Yellowknife has been elected president for 2017–2018. MacPherson is a partner with the firm of Lawson Lundell LLP and responsible for the management of its Yellowknife office. She is a civil litigator with 30 years of litigation experience and works extensively in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. She also serves as the Law Clerk to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories.

MacPherson joined the Federation Council as the nominee of the Law Society of the Northwest Territories in 2011. She was previously active in the Law Society, having served as its president in 1997 and 2011. A graduate of Dalhousie Law School in 1987, she was admitted to the Law Society of the Northwest Territories in 1988 and to the Law Society of Nunavut in 1999.

“I am honoured to lead the Federation” says MacPherson. “I look forward to advancing our strategic plan, including our efforts to update national rules to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as responding to the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as they relate to the legal profession.”

The Federation is the national co-ordinating body of Canada’s 14 law societies, which are mandated by provincial and territorial statutes to regulate the country’s 117,000 lawyers, Quebec’s 4,500 notaries, and Ontario’s nearly 8,000 licensed paralegals in the public interest. The Federation speaks out on issues critical to safeguarding the public’s right to an independent legal profession, the protection of solicitor-client privilege, and other issues relating to the administration of justice and the rule of law.