Louise Mandell | Board Member
Lawyer/Advocate of Indigenous Rights/Founder of Mandell Pinder Law Firm, Second Chancellor of Vancouver Island University
Louise Mandell is a founding partner of Mandell Pinder, a law firm specializing in Aboriginal and treaty rights law since 1983, and remains connected in the esteemed capacity of Partner Emeritus to the firm. She has devoted her professional life to the advancement of Aboriginal Title and Rights, Treaty Rights, and implementing constitutional change through the many leading cases she helped advance to the Supreme Court of Canada. Louise received a Degree in Education at UBC before graduating from Law School, and was selected by UBC Faculty of Law as one of the two outstanding alumni from each decade. She was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1997 and was awarded the Georges Goyer Q.C. Memorial Award in 2001 for exceptional contribution to the development of Aboriginal and Treaty Rights jurisprudence across the country. In 2013, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs recognized and honoured her by creating The Louise Mandell Legal Research Collection. In 2012, she received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Simon Fraser University. In 2014, she was appointed as the second Chancellor of Vancouver Island University and gratefully served in that capacity for 6 years. Louise welcomes the opportunity to serve on the Board, in support of the self- determination of nine exceptional First Nations who are investing in their youth, as a path to social and economic prosperity.
