Indigenizing the Legal System, Mental Health Courts & Creating a Career in the Law
- Date
- November 11, 2024
- Time
- 12:15 PM EST - 1:30 PM EST
- Location
- TRS 1-148 Commons, 7th floor, Ted Rogers School of Management, 55 Dundas St. W., Toronto
- Open To
- TMU community (Free admission)
- Contact
- Patricia Hania, phania@torontomu.ca
The Honourable Justice Renée Cochard
Alberta Court of Justice; Deputy Justice, NWT; Law Commission of Canada
The Honourable Justice Cochard will discuss leading legal decisions, the challenges of establishing an Indigenous Court in Edmonton and working in Mental Health Courts. She will also offer insight into the lessons learned as a leading family law litigator, who transited to serving on the bench as a criminal law judge.
Free Admission
About Justice Renée Cochard
Justice Renée Cochard is a supernumerary criminal justice of the Alberta Court of Justice (appointed to the Edmonton Criminal Division in October 2015), and is a Deputy Justice for NWT, and has recently been appointed to the Law Commission of Canada. While on the bench overseeing criminal proceedings, Justice Cochard was instrumental in developing and opening Edmonton’s Mental Health Court and the Edmonton Indigenous Court. Prior to the judicial appointment, Justice Cochard was a leading litigator for 36 years in Alberta’s family law bar working on complex family matters that included commercial legal questions. During this legal career, she trained as a mediator and arbitrator, and received the Q.C. (now K.C.) designation in 2004.
Justice Cochard’s love of learning and teaching began shortly after she graduated in 1978 with a LLB from the University of Alberta (U of A). While managing an active family law practice in her own firm, she acted as an advising lawyer to U of A’s Student Legal Services while also teaching the bar admission course to articling students. In 2003, she obtained a LL.M., and at the time of her appointment to the bench, she was a Ph.D. candidate at the University of British Columbia law. Over the years, she has taught a diversity of courses (Family Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Women, Law and Social Change, and Mental Health and the Law). In 2025, she will be teaching a course on Sentencing in Criminal Law at University of Victoria Law.
Over the years, Justice Cochard has given back to her community. Renée has been actively involved in the Canadian Mental Health Association, LEAF - Women’s Legal Education & Action Fund, and more recently she has volunteered with two housing builds for Habitat for Humanity Legal Builds in Edmonton and with the International Association of Women Judges, and in particular two projects, the Retention of Women in the legal Profession and the settlement of Afghan women judges in Canada.
Renée resides in Victoria, B.C. with her spouse Tony and her puppy named ‘Never’.