Biography
Elsa is a criminal defence lawyer and has worked on cases defending those accused of the most serious criminal offences, including sexual assault and luring, possession for the purpose of trafficking, and second-degree murder. Her focus is on providing solutions and securing results for those whom she represents. She has appeared at all levels of court, including the Provincial Court of British Columbia, the Supreme Court of British Columbia, The British Columbia Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court of Canada. She practices law on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, Vancouver, British Columbia. She is Kiwi-Canadian.
She completed her MA in International Law and Security in 2005 in the United Kingdom and her LLM at Columbia, New York City in 2020. She was selected to work on the High-Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom, the joint UK/Canadian Task Force led by Amal Clooney. Her work has focused extensively on the rule of law and the intersection of power, legitimacy, and responsibility in international law. She serves as the Events Officer for the IBA War Crimes committee, and as the EDI Officer for the Human Rights Committee. She is currently involved with a broader IBA capacity building initiative in Ukraine regarding the adjudication of alleged war crimes, reviewing decisions with a view for identifying issues concerning compliance with international best standards.
Before she embarked on her legal career, a passion for international relations detoured her down a path in international law and security and experience at institutions including NORAD, NATO and Whitehall. It was while working at the United Nations in Rwanda, (managing a disarmament and reintegration program for militia soldiers from the office where Romeo Dallaire attempted to stop the genocide), that she came to understand both the importance of cultural humility and the power of law as a tool for meaningful change.
Elsa suffered setbacks early in her career after a car accident but returned to practice while managing chronic pain. She has guest lectured at the Peter A. Allard School of Law (UBC) and speaks on panels, most recently GLC: Womxn in Law Series-ITLs, diversity and inclusion. She serves as a Board member at the Trial Lawyers of British Columbia, co-chair of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee and sits on the Criminal Committee. She has served as a judge at the International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition (ICCMCC), the largest competition on international criminal law, at The Hague.