TEL: 416.986.6265
ABOUT BLACK FEATHER LAW
What can we do for you?
Black Feather Law PC operates as a sole practice and will collaborate with other law firms, researchers, economists, and consultants in order to establish a team of advisors that can effectively achieve a client’s goals.
Jessica Labranche, the Principal at Black Feather Law, is an experienced litigator known for marshaling complex, multi-party litigation files. She is of European and Anishinaabe decent, a non-status citizen of Michipicoten First Nation, and grew up and resides in her traditional territory in Northern Ontario. She brings with her more than two decades of experience working and studying in the fields of Canadian law and policy and their impact on Indigenous peoples in Canada.
Jessica provides legal advice and representation on:
-
community-based and regional governance;
-
the management of lands and resources;
-
consultation and accommodation processes;
-
specific claims and land entitlement processes; and
-
the exercise and preservation of Aboriginal and treaty rights, including the provincial and federal Crowns’ treaty obligations pursuant to pre-confederation, post-confederation, and modern treaties using litigation, negotiation, and mediation to resolve disputes.
Experienced
Jessica has worked with Indigenous governments, organizations, and individuals in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, the Northwest Territories, and the Yukon. She has appeared before courts at all levels, including the Supreme Court of Canada and the Federal Court of Appeal.
Supreme Court of Canada Appearances:
Chippewas of the Thames First Nation v. Enbridge Pipelines Inc., 2017 SCC 41
(on behalf of the intervener Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation)
Grassy Narrows First Nation v. Ontario (Natural Resources), 2014 SCC 48
(on behalf of the intervener Grand Council of Treaty 3)
WHY US
Jessica is called to the bar in Ontario and a member of the Indigenous Bar Association. She received her Bachelor of Civil Law and Bachelor of Common Law from McGill University and studied a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at Concordia University.
Knowledge That Can Serve Your Needs
Prior to launching her own practice, Jessica worked with law firms in Toronto and Montreal whose focus was supporting Indigenous clients as they advanced their Aboriginal and treaty rights. She acquired expertise in navigating expert evidence on: Indigenous land and water use in Ontario since 1615 and Anishinaabe & Cree legal traditions as it relates to resource use in their traditional territories; Canadian law and policy relating to Indigenous peoples throughout the last 250 years; treaty protocols and the history of treaty making in Ontario since the Royal Proclamation of 1763; historic land surveying techniques; trust account records and management of trust funds since 1783; and economic models for compensating historic losses.
Jessica also been involved in post-confederation and modern treaty implementation processes.